A NURSE-LED PREADMISSION CLINIC FOR ELECTIVE ENT SURGERY - THE FIRST 8 MONTHS

A nurse-led preadmission clinic was set up in the Department of Otolar yngology of The Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, for patients underg oing elective ENT surgery. The progress of the clinic has been monitor ed during its first 8 months of service. A two-part study was undertak en: (a) A prospective study of the process from the time an admission appointment was sent until completion of surgery and, (b) a retrospect ive review of the case notes to study the quality of clerking and note keeping and the pattern of requests for investigations made by the nu rses. In all, 514 patients were invited to attend the preadmission cli nic before operation. Of these patients, 454 attended the clinic for p readmission clerking, 440 (96.9%) of whom underwent their operation wi thout complication. All clerking notes were well kept, but a number of unnecessary investigations were requested. It is concluded that a nur se-led preadmission clinic is effective in the management of elective ENT operating lists. It assists in improving the quality of an SHO's t raining by reducing time spent on service commitments, thereby increas ing the potential training time. More guidance to nurses on the use of preoperative investigations is needed.