Surgery

Transcript

Surgery is a diverse area, and one which can be quite unfamiliar for many pharmacy professionals. At first glance it might appear to be daunting – with confusing terminology and procedures with complex names. Even without knowing the intricate details of surgical procedures, pharmacy professionals can still make a valuable contribution to the care of surgical patients.

There are many aspects of surgery that benefit from pharmacy input. These include antibiotic prophylaxis choices, appropriate management of venous thromboembolism risk and choices of fluids, as well as making appropriate recommendations for the management of medicines around the time of surgery.

While this area may seem more relevant to pharmacy teams working in acute settings, pharmacy teams working in primary care will still speak to patients before or after surgery, and can offer valuable advice about their medicines.

Looking at the resources on this learning gateway will help you to develop your knowledge and confidence in speaking to patients who are undergoing surgery, and to make suitable recommendations to support their care.

UKCPA masterclass events

This guideline covers care for adults (aged 18 and over) having elective or emergency surgery, including dental surgery. It covers all phases of perioperative care, from the time people are booked for surgery until they are discharged afterward. The guideline includes recommendations on preparing for surgery, keeping people safe during surgery and pain relief during recovery.

This CPPE fact sheet contains links to e-learning programmes to further your understanding of wound management.

The Handbook of Perioperative Medicines UKCPA aims to provide national guidance to professionals working in this area of medicine, to ensure unified practice for the management of patients’ regular medicines in the perioperative period.

This guideline covers safe and effective use of medicines in health and social care for people taking 1 or more medicines. It aims to ensure that medicines provide the greatest possible benefit to people by encouraging medicines reconciliation, medication review, and the use of patient decision aids.

This guideline covers routine preoperative tests for people aged over 16 who are having elective surgery. It aims to reduce unnecessary testing by advising which tests to offer people before minor, intermediate and major or complex surgery, taking into account specific comorbidities (cardiovascular, renal and respiratory conditions and diabetes and obesity). It does not cover pregnant women or people having cardiothoracic procedures or neurosurgery.

This guideline covers the general principles for managing intravenous (IV) fluid therapy in hospital inpatients aged 16 and over with a range of conditions. It aims to help prescribers understand the optimal amount and composition of IV fluids to be administered and the best rate at which to give them, to improve fluid prescribing and outcomes among people in hospital. It does not cover pregnant women, and those with severe liver or renal disease, diabetes or burns.

This guideline covers preventing and treating surgical site infections in adults, young people and children who are having a surgical procedure involving a cut through the skin. It focuses on methods used before, during and after surgery to minimise the risk of infection.

This guideline covers general principles for managing intravenous (IV) fluids for children and young people under 16 years, including assessing fluid and electrolyte status and prescribing IV fluid therapy. It applies to a range of conditions and different settings. It does not include recommendations relating to specific conditions. This guideline represents a major opportunity to improve patient safety for children and young people having IV fluid therapy in hospital.

This guideline covers assessing and reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE or blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) in people aged 16 and over in hospital. It aims to help healthcare professionals identify people most at risk and describes interventions that can be used to reduce the risk of VTE.

The Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) is a cross-organisational, multidisciplinary initiative led by the Royal College of Anaesthetists to facilitate cross-organisational working on perioperative care for patient benefit.

CPOC is a partnership between patients and the public, other professional stakeholders including Medical Royal Colleges, NHS England and the equivalent bodies responsible for healthcare in the other UK devolved nations.

CPOC produces guidance and resources as an aid to support health care professionals in perioperative care eg, the Guideline for Perioperative Care for People with Diabetes Mellitus Undergoing Elective and Emergency Surgery.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) helps hospitals record incidents of surgical site infection (SSI), to help improve surgical practice and prevent further infections.

The Joint British Diabetes Societies (JBDS) for Inpatient Care group was created in 2008 to ‘deliver a set of diabetes inpatient guidelines and proposed standards of care within secondary care organisations’. It’s overall aim is to improve inpatient diabetes care through the development and use of high-quality, evidence-based guidelines, and through better inpatient care pathways. The JBDS–IP group was created and supported by Diabetes UK, Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) and the Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse (DISN) UK group, and works with NHS England, Training Research and Education for Nurses in Diabetes (TREND-UK) and with other professional organisations.