Wiles, M.D. orcid.org/0000-0003-2299-0060 and Macdonald, A. (2024) The effect of a ‘sip til send’ policy on patient satisfaction: a quality improvement project. Anaesthesia Reports, 12 (1). e12271. ISSN 2637-3726
Abstract
Patients often are nil by mouth for prolonged periods pre-operatively, which is associated with adverse effects including discomfort, anxiety, thirst and nausea. As a result, several hospitals have introduced a more liberal regimen of pre-operative drinking, with patients encouraged to sip small volumes of water until transfer to the operating theatre (‘Sip til Send’). The impact of ‘Sip til Send’ on patient satisfaction is still to be determined. We hypothesised that the introduction of a ‘Sip til Send’ policy would increase patient's satisfaction with their pre-operative fluid management regimen. We conducted a staged implementation of a ‘Sip til Send’ quality improvement initiative in two campuses of a large tertiary teaching hospital. This involved a targeted education and implementation programme that was refined and delivered through ‘plan, do, study and act’ cycles. Patient satisfaction with their pre-operative fluid management was measured by rating the statement “I am happy with the management of pre-operative drinking”, against a five-point Likert scale (0, strongly disagree; 1, disagree; 2, neutral; 3, agree; and 4, strongly agree). Patient satisfaction with pre-operative fluid management was high at baseline, with pooled data for both campuses showing a median (IQR [range]) satisfaction score of 4 (3–4 [1–4]). After the implementation of ‘Sip til Send’, this improved to a median (IQR [range]) satisfaction score of 4 (4–4 [2–4]) (p < 0.001). The introduction of a ‘Sip til Send’ policy resulted in an increase in patient satisfaction. Key factors in successful implementation included the provision of a clear explanation of the underlying rationale to patients, nursing and anaesthetic staff, and establishing the policy as the default position for all elective patients.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Anaesthesia Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Anaesthetists. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Keywords: | anaesthesia; fasting; fluids; gastric emptying; peri-operative medicine |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jan 2024 13:02 |
Last Modified: | 09 Jan 2024 13:02 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/anr3.12271 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:207335 |