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Perioperative Care? Aren’t we doing that already?

Short introduction to perioperative care and our role as enhanced care practitioners

As Ellie has just told us, perioperative care begins from the moment a patient contemplates having surgery, up until this is effectively delivered. It must support the patient through their entire surgical journey, until hospital discharge and sometimes, beyond. Importantly, such a pathway involves a whole team of multidisciplinary professionals; including community healthcare workers, operating theatre staff, ward-based nursing teams, and many allied healthcare professionals and administrative staff along the way.

Perioperative care has been practiced since surgery became a viable treatment option. However, throughout time, there has been a huge increase in the options open to patients to improve their outcomes, but an acknowledged variation both between hospitals and within hospitals of how ‘well’ this care has been delivered.

More recently, perioperative best practice has become better defined, and is becoming a subspecialty of increasing importance. The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) defines perioperative care as:

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It was way back in 2015 that the RCoA introduced the concept of perioperative care and to get the message out there. They put together this engaging short film – it says it all really!

Click on the link below to watch this 5-minute clip of Doug on his journey.

This is an additional video, hosted on YouTube.

Perioperative Medicine – Pathway to Surgical Care. (Video source)

Originally, the term used was ‘perioperative medicine’, to denote all patient interventions which were not surgical. More recently, the Royal College of Anaesthetists has led a collaboration between many of the Royal Colleges, including Nursing, Physicians, Surgeons, GPs, Paediatrics and Child Health, the Faculty of Public Health, plus patients and other health bodies. Today we tend to substitute the term ‘perioperative medicine’ with the term ‘perioperative care’, highlighting the MDT approach to this activity. Perioperative care must therefore be seen as part of the continuum of care, playing a vital role in our patient’s recovery.

As you develop your professional expertise in this area, it will be important for you to find valuable educational resources that you frequently refer to and signpost these to others. During the course we will try to do this at every opportunity – and here comes the first one below!

CPOC Logo

Today, the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) at the Royal College of Anaesthetists aims to promote and enable delivery of the highest quality care and is a recognised source of important information.

Do you have an interest in perioperative care? There are lots of opportunities for you to get involved. CPOC aims to build a collaboration between patients, families, clinicians and health professionals along the surgical pathway. Click here to read more about the Centre for Perioperative Care.
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Road to Recovery: Mastering Postoperative Care of the High-Risk Patient

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