[Day case surgery nursing development]

Day case surgery in the North Karelia Central Hospital has been centred to LYHKI-unit which was opened in the autumn of 1994. The work and development is guided by a perioperative nursing model in which the patient's experiences and functions of nursing take place in three successive preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative phases. The more extensively the nurse participates in the pre and postoperative phases, the more skilled she is. The objective of development is a planned preadmission assessment between the patient and the nurse before the operation day. It is already realized for several patients, and documentation is improved by bringing into use a new case history form which is created according to the new perioperative nursing model. The nurses have committed themselves to implementation of the perioperative nursing. Developmental and educational activity is good in the unit. Plentiful positive feedback from the patients, encouraging support from the administration and continuous cooperation in developmental work have had an effect on the nurses' improved motivation for work. In the future the resources will be especially focused to the quality of care and to meet the societal challenges for day surgery.