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Preoperative Fasting: Knowledge and Perceptions
Author(s) -
Baril Patrice,
Portman Harriet
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
aorn journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1878-0369
pISSN - 0001-2092
DOI - 10.1016/j.aorn.2007.09.003
Subject(s) - preoperative fasting , medicine , patient care , perception , family medicine , intensive care medicine , nursing , anesthesia , psychology , perioperative , neuroscience
PREOPERATIVE PATIENT FASTING is an essential element of the patient preparation process, but patients may be fasting for excessive lengths of time. INVESTIGATORS AT ONE FACILITY used semi‐structured interviews to explore the knowledge and beliefs of patients, nurses, and anesthesia care providers regarding the practice of preoperative patient fasting. FINDINGS INDICATE that some patients had excessive fasting times, and practitioners had erroneous perceptions about patient knowledge regarding the rationale for fasting and compliance with instructions. Clinicians expressed concern about the effects of excessive fasting but were reluctant to relax the policy.