Anesthesia Checklist | Anesthesiology | ASA Publications

Free

Education | February 2012

Anesthesia Checklist

Audrey Shafer, M.D.

Author Affiliations & Notes

Article Information

Anesthesiology 2 2012, Vol.116, 477-478. doi:10.1097/ALN.0b013e3182354338

Anesthesia Checklist

Prepare:

□ machines and supplies as an extension of you a connection, so you can hear your unconscious patient talk to you in ways profound and vital

Confirm:

□ the patient's identity that web of relationships, experiences earned or yearned spun with a thousand threads, some frayed, some hidden whose innermost knot is mystery

Acknowledge:

□ the patient's fear tethered like a beast in a nearly sealed cavern ready to rouse, frenzied and wild, especially at the call: open your eyes!
□ the patient's gift, wrapped in wariness by the family yet inside nestles trust, shy at being given to you, a stranger

Ensure:

□ the surgeon, looking at you, eyes above masks, sees you and sees the nurse

Consider:

□ the patient's wellbeing translated into the pulse of ocean waves reassuring in its relentlessness
□ what to do if the ocean stops

Verify:

□ your readiness to stick, suck, squeeze, switch, screw, twist, tie, probe, poke, push, plunge, lift, click, wipe, glide, corral, inflate, deflate, placate, titrate, direct, triple check and above all, listen

Render:

□ yourself as a wingspread bird set to soar on thermals adjusting to the tiniest puffs even in the middle of the bright blue sky