Is the preop visit a nursing function?

Should technicians conduct pre and postoperative visits? This question con- sistently comes up during AORN's educa- tional seminars on preoperative visits. At a recent seminar, the following dialogue took place.

"Our technicians have just as much in- terest in patient care as we have," asserted one nurse. "One technician speaks Span- ish, and we often take her with us on pre- operative visits."

"If technicians do preoperative visits," said another, "then we don't need nurses."

"But our technicians are taught to be patient-oriented," argued another nurse. "They have done a good job and would feel left out and hurt if they were not in- cluded in the preoperative visits."

A young man who explained that he had been a technician before he earned his RN, stated emphatically: "The technician's train- ing does not prepare him to do preopera- tive visits."

"Nurses," he continued, "are our own worst enemies. We push off our nursing

duties. In 15 years, there won't be any nurses because we will have given away everything but the housekeeping."

It was apparent that neither side was convincing the other. And AORN i s aware that in many OR suites, technicians are in- terested in visiting patients before surgery.

AORN strongly believes that pre and postoperative visits are a nursing function, not a technician's task. The main objective of the preoperative visit is to make a nursing assessment to provide efficient and effective patient care in the OR.

Moreover, technicians do not have the education or experience necessary for counseling surgical patients. Many ORTs have only a high school education. Al- though there are educational programs for ORTs, many do not comply with the essentials adopted by the American Medi- cal Association's Council on Education. In many hospitals, ORTs receive only on-the- job training. How many ORTs can explain physiology and anatomy to patients, or help a patient cope with unexpressed

AORN Journal, February 1974, Vol 19, N o 2 375

fears? In addition, technicians often lack the ability to assess their limitations and strengths in the interview situation.

Although it i s not necessary to be a trained psychologist to conduct preop- erative visits, it does require some training in interviewing techniques and a good sense of interpersonal relations. It also re- quires self-examination-a willingness to look at one's own feelings and reactions. The OR nurse's education and training pre- pare her to take these steps.

Preoperative visits are an appropriate way for the OR nurse to expand her role using her nursing knowledge and skills. The technician does not replace the OR nurse in the operating room. His role should complement the nurse's and free her to do nursing. Yet, many nurses are reluctant to give up the routine tasks that could be done by others-the sterilizing of instru- ments, stocking the shelves, the inventory control, and the housekeeping tasks. OR nurses sometimes use these tasks to hide from contact with the patient.

In this month's Speak out, Mary Nolan, RN, reports that a group of OR nurses in Los Angeles were unable to describe their job so that it could be distinguished from the technician's job. Preoperative visits should be an essential part of the OR nurse's job and an important way in which it i s distinct from the technician's. Don't leave this nursing function to others.

AORN encourages OR nurses to conduct preoperative visits. To help nurses in- terested in starting programs, this Journal includes some of the material presented in the AORN educational seminars on pre- operative visits. Other articles present dif- ferent viewpoints and describe specific programs at different hospitals. Also, this issue coincides with the premiere at Con- gress of the AORN film on preoperative visits.

It i s time for the OR nurse to unmask and meet her patients face-to-face.

Hinor S Schrader Editor

Aid fo sighfless About 500 private and government agencies are devoted to helping the blind. Annual federal, state, and local expenditure of public funds for aid to the blind totals $100 million.

Among the more familiar agencies working for the blind are:

0 American Foundation for Blind

0 National Council to Combat Blindness

0 National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, which was founded in 1908 and i s the oldest voluntary health agency nationally engaged in prevention of blindness

0 Research to Prevent Blindness

0 US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: National Institute of Neuro- logical Diseases and Blindness; Rehabilitation Services Administration; Social Security Administration; Children's Bureau of the Social and Rehabilitation Service; and Office of Education

0 Veterans Administration programs

Library of Congress: Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which provides reading materials; magnetic tape, records, or braille.

376 AORN Journal, February 1974, Vol 19, N o 2