To Örebro University

Introduction: The preoperative assessment is essential when evaluating the patients risk factors before anesthesia is administrated. The goal of the evaluation is to minimize the risk of perioperative complications by individualizing the anesthesia method and/or perform a preoperative optimization of the patient.

Purpose: To examine Swedish nurse anesthetists (NA) perception of education and preoperative risk assessment on patients before anesthesia.

Method: A national web survey with questions addressing preoperative risk assessment and risk factors for anesthesia was sent to NA in Sweden.

Results: 469/1480 answers were analyzed. The most common respondent was between 30 to 50 years and had more than seven years of experience as a NA. The responders had experience from different types of anesthesia wards and are spread all over the country. 4/5 of the respondents consider that they had not gained any education around risk assessment since their degree as nurse anesthetists. Nearly half of the respondents don’t know or don’t think it exists written guidelines regarding preoperative risk assessment and optimization on the anesthesia ward they are employed at. Approximately 3/4 of the NA in this study experience that they meet patients every week who’s not sufficiently optimized for anesthesia.

Conclusion: A proportion of patients with complex comorbidity are increasingly seen by NA. Therefore, collaboration between anesthesiologists, NA and the patient to optimize the perioperative course is essential to improve the quality of perioperative care. This will lead to increased patient safety during anesthesia and further involvement of the patient during the perioperative care.