Introduction

In the previous module 2 you have learned about Preparing anesthesia work environment and you have covered sessions understanding of anesthetic apparatus, medical gas supply, different breathing systems and equipments how to utilize and give care for equipments. In addition you have also covered operating room hazards and safety. In this module 3 you will address issues related to confirming physical status of clients who are undergoing anesthesia and surgery. This module consists of 7 study sessions. Study session I deals with overview of pre-anesthetic assessment, documentation, reporting and consultation or referral. Study sessions II through VI address focused assessment and relevant physiology of different systems including respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, central nervous and renal systems. In the final study session VII formulation of anesthesia plan and providing counseling and stress management will be discussed.

No single standard anesthetic meets the needs of all patients. Rather, an anesthetic plan should be formulated that will optimally accommodate the patient's baseline physiological state, including any medical conditions, previous operations, the planned procedure, drug sensitivities, previous anesthetic experiences, and psychological makeup. Inadequate preoperative planning and errors in patient preparation are the most common causes of anesthetic complications. To help formulate the anesthetic plan, it is important to assess patients preoperatively. Therefore, in this study session you will learn the techniques of pre-anesthetic assessment including: techniques of taking a pertinent history (including a review of medical records), performing a physical examination, and performing relevant laboratory or radiological investigations. Then based on your pre-anesthetic assessment you will learn how to classify client's health status according to ASA scale or guide line. In addition, in this session you will learn techniques of optimizing patients preoperatively (premedication, rehydration, analgesia...) and refer/ consultation as guided by patient condition. In the last sessions ways of providing information for a patient/ family and documentation patient information will be discussed. Overall, your learning's in this session will help you to acquire the skills, knowledge and right attitude to perform a pre-anesthetic health assessment, documentation, reporting and consultation or referral