The future of surgical nursing and enhanced recovery programmes

Medical advances have led to the development of an increasing number of enhanced recovery programmes for patients undergoing surgery in the United Kingdom. Enhanced recovery is concerned with helping patients to get better sooner after an operation by following a meticulous regime of care. Such programmes encompass explicit, medically-driven protocols, although their practical application is largely undertaken by nurses. However, beyond the professional knowledge and skills required to aid such programmes, nursing knowledge has so far contributed little to this rapidly developing aspect of surgery. Nevertheless, nursing has much to offer by the future creation of centrally co-ordinated, surgical nursing units focussing on the patients’ holistic experience. This article intends to briefly describe enhanced recovery, identify aspects of nursing knowledge that can have a positive influence and outline practical changes to assist the development of such programmes thereby benefiting all patients undergoing elective surgery