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PATIENT MOVEMENT
Most patients arriving at the operating theatre are able to walk into the waiting room, outside theatre, or into theatre upon Anesthetists direction, after their admission has been completed. The anesthetic nurse will accompany the patient into the theatre room.
Commonly as a theatre orderly you may see patient in waiting area upon their arrival to the operating suite. This may make you a 'familiar face' for the patient.
Your interaction with the patient, the way you greet and transport them to the theatres may have a major influence on their anxiety and pre-operative stress levels. For that patient their operation is a major life event.
Ways in which this apprehension can be reduced include explaining procedures that are likely to occur, talking to them in a calm and relaxed manner, reassuring the patient that you will look after them during their perioperative period. Part of your role within the operating theatre team is to ensure care delivered to the patient is of the highest standard.
Patients experience a loss of control at this time, so must feel that those caring for them will maintain their safety and dignity. Every patient has the right to receive individualised care. Using their correct name when referring to them rather that the operation they are having is important.
The bay should be a quiet area where the patient can feel secure, free of the 'business' of the operating suite. Staff conversations in the near-by vicinity should be considered as this is an anxious time for the patient and voices often appear amplified.
As our patients are 'Day cases", they generally walk into theatre, but if they were on a theatre trolley, the patient is then transferred to the operating table always maintaining patient safety by ensuring the bed sides are elevated, the brakes are on, and there is a person on either side of the bed to prevent any risk of the patient falling. The operating table must be at a height that always the patient to get onto it comfortably. Post-operatively the patient is then transferred to the Post Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU). At this time minimal noise and motion is preferable to assist the patient in a comfortable, uneventful recovery.