title: Preanesthesia considerations for the nurse practitioner.
abstract: With increases in pediatric ambulatory surgery, primary health care providers such as nurse practitioners are being called upon to provide input about patients preoperatively or prior to other procedures requiring anesthesia. Because the anesthesia team may not meet the patient and family until the day of surgery; a thorough evaluation done by the primary care provider can supply the anesthesia team with the information required for optimal care. Such information includes a detailed history, including the patient's birth history, medical diagnoses, medications, allergies, recent laboratory test values, and the results of a recent physical examination. The purpose of this article is to provide primary care nurse practitioners with guidelines and information to consider when seeing their patient for a preprocedural visit.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Same Day Surgery/Department of Anesthesiology, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reddinger
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oft
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Geier
mesh_terms: D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D010372:Pediatrics; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*