possible, reevaluate
your staff's attitudes
and preconceptions
about these patients.
Surgery is scary
under even the most
ideal circumstances.
For patients with
high BMIs, not only
are the circum-
stances often far
from ideal, but there are also usually other anxieties at work.
For starters, there's the tangible fears patients have based on a life
filled with embarrassing incidents. "A lot of patients are afraid of not
fitting on OR beds, of falling off the table or of the table breaking," says
Ms. Pate.
She also says obese patients worry about whether their caregivers
will make snide comments about them when they're under anesthesia,
because they've been dealing with unkind looks and jeers from
strangers their whole lives.
"I think for a lot of people, even some within the medical community,
obesity is still seen as a character flaw, a decision to not do the things
you should be doing [to lead a healthy lifestyle]," says Ms. Pate.
Education can help eliminate the prejudices, subconscious or
expressed, some surgical professionals still have against overweight
patients. After Ms. Pate was discouraged from getting up on her own fol-
lowing surgery, her facility conducted educational sessions to reset inter-
nal expectations of what high-BMI patients are capable of doing — and
what they should be expected to do — after surgery.
Even changing outdated terminology — saying a patient with obesity
3 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9
• HUMAN TOUCH Simply holding patients' hands before they drift off to sleep can go a
long way toward reducing their anxiety.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
