Lillemor Lindwall

Continuity created by nurses in the perioperative dialogue – a literature review

This literature review analyses eight research reports dealing with perioperative dialogues conducted between patients and nurses. The aim of this study was to summarise studies concerned with the perioperative dialogue as an organisation model for bringing safe operative practices and caring into perioperative nursing, by creating continuity for both patients and nurses in perioperative praxis and its research. How do patients and perioperative nurses experience the perioperative dialogue as a model? Perioperative nursing should be perceived as a caring profession emphasising that the focus is on perioperative caring. The perioperative dialogue has a humanistic and caring perspective and presents an ideal model on which to base perioperative nursing. There is general acceptance of the value of the perioperative dialogue for both patients and nurses as means of alleviating suffering and creating a safety nursing, with continuity in the process provided by nursing staff. This study suggests further research and that a means of measuring caring in the perioperative dialogue should be more developed.

Older patients and the perioperative dialogue - a hermeneutical study

This study described who the older patient undergoing surgery is as part of the perioperative dialogue and in order to understand their needs. The study used a hermeneutical design. Data were 54 transcribed stories from perioperative dialogues. The findings show that older patients undergoing surgery were persons: (a) with memories of the life they had lived, (b) whose body had betrayed them, (c) who were worried and afraid before the operation, and (d) who will need help from family and friends. The older patient is a unique human being, a wholeness with a past of their own and a life they have lived: the present – a time of change and the future – a time for recovery.