Preoperative enviroment
The Little Prince (6 years old), comes to the anaesthesiology outpatient clinic for pre-operative examination accompanied by his parents. The Little Prince has a bilateral inguinal hernia and surgical repair was indicated. The Little Prince is gently crying in the waiting room because he is scared. How should the conversation with the doctor look like?
We invite Mommy, Daddy and The Little Prince to the consulting room. First, we'll introduce the parents to the planned form of anaesthesia including analgesia. We'll give the parents time to ask questions. Once The Little Prince has adapted to the environment of the consulting room and sees that the parents trust the doctor, we will try to explain everything in a playful way.
We will only invite The Little Prince to the consulting room because he is old enough to understand everything and her parents will not be with him all the time during his hospital stay. We reassure The Little Prince that there is nothing to worry about and that we will just talk about what is going to happen with the lump in his groin.
We only invite the mother to the consulting room because she will provide us with the most accurate data about the patient. It is pointless to invite the whole family to the office- inviting just the mother would reduce the anxiety of our patient and avoid unnecessary stress.