Education for Registered Nurses Completing Preoperative Anesthesia Interviews: A Quality Improvement Project.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Quality Improvement
• Anesthesia

Background:

• Preoperative anesthesia interviews (PAIs) are crucial for patient assessment.
• Incomplete PAIs can lead to day of surgery (DOS) cancellations.
• Enhancing RN knowledge and confidence in conducting PAIs is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement job-related education for RNs performing PAIs.
• To improve the completeness of documented PAIs.
• To reduce the incidence of DOS cancellations.

Main Methods:

• A pre/post implementation design with retrospective chart review was utilized.
• An educational module on PAIs was developed and completed by RNs.
• Data on RN knowledge, confidence, PAI completeness, and DOS cancellations were collected.

Main Results:

• Several components of PAI documentation showed statistically significant improvement.
• RN knowledge and confidence did not significantly increase.
• A slight, though not statistically significant, decrease in DOS cancellations was observed (1.3% to 1.2%).

Conclusions:

• RNs demonstrated improved PAI completeness after the educational module.
• Anesthetic considerations in PAIs contribute to patient optimization.
• Early patient assessment in pre-admission testing clinics can decrease preventable DOS cancellations.