Chopter

Psychologicol Support of the Surgicol Potient

postopera,tive considerations so that fewer unanticipated events will be experienced. An opportunity may be given the patient to express anxieties br ask questions.

Surgical procedures are classified as major or minor. These distinctions do not take into consid.eration the degree. of anxiety the patient may experience regarding his or her s]rrggry-. The operating room pe"soniel allay a patient's fears by conduiting themselves -a| in a kind, reassuring, and confident *unrr"*. rj Well before the patient enters the operating room suite, at the time the surgery is schedulei, the pitient's physician and surgeon will have initiated the process providing psychological support for the surgical patient. The derneanor ofthe hospital (or surgicJnter) id_ mitting office personnel may also help to ieassure the patient. The reception of the patieni to the floor (or holding areas of the surgicenters) likewise must serve to reassure the patient. In some institutions the first patient contact by the op_ erating room-staffmight occur the day before surgery or, in the case of same day admissions, slveral hourJbefore the procedure. An orientation (teaching) session may be either directly by operating personnel or by "S"r".d "ooil closed-circuit television or video-&ssette that describes to some extent the surgical preliminaries and immediate