Evidence for Enhanced Recovery Programmes in Orthopaedics

Healthcare professionals are currently working under difficult circumstances on a daily basis within a healthcare system fraught with budget cuts, increasing patient safety concerns and performance-related reviews. These... [ view full abstract ]

Healthcare professionals are currently working under difficult circumstances on a daily basis within a healthcare system fraught with budget cuts, increasing patient safety concerns and performance-related reviews. These demanding challenges require healthcare professionals to be competent, accountable, dynamic and responsive so that the care they deliver is of a high standard and meets the needs of their specific patient groups. Ensuring a consistently safe interface for patients with the healthcare service that will yield the best possible outcome in a cost and time efficient manner is imperative. Indeed nurses are duty bound by their professional code of conduct to ensure that the care they deliver is up to date and based upon the best available evidence and can be called upon to demonstrate their competence in this regard. It is incumbent upon healthcare professionals to continually seek out strategies or approaches to care in their area of practice that have been shown to enhance patient outcomes and expedite the patient’s return to their normal life, where appropriate. One such example is Enhanced Recovery Programmes (ERP), which have demonstrated very positive gains in the field of orthopaedics. The literature strongly suggests that they are significantly superior to non-enhanced recovery focussed care. ERPs are a multi-disciplinary approach that hinge on a number of key factors which ultimately determine their success or otherwise. Orthopaedics is an area where enhancing recovery and returning function and independence are central to its core function. It is crucial therefore that healthcare professionals’ in this specialist area of practice draw on the best available evidence to underpin care delivery to ensure patient outcomes are maximised. This presentation will discuss the origins, evolution and evidence base of ERP with specific focus on their adaptation in and potential for enhancing the patient journey within the field of orthopaedic surgery/nursing.