Opioid Free Anesthesia

Author

Sarah MedinaFollow

Date of Award

Fall 12-19-2020

Document Type

DNP Project

Project Team Faculty Member

Mary Zerlan

Keywords

Opioid Free Anesthesia, OFA, Benefits of OFA, General Anesthesia without Opioids, Narcotic Free Anesthesia

Abstract

Patients undergoing surgery are often given opioids intraoperatively. Administration of opioids is associated with untoward side effects that include nausea, respiratory depression, constipation, ileus, hyperalgesia, prolonged length of stay, and the potential for dependence (Garimella & Cellini, 2013). Emerging research on the topic of opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) is available and indicates several benefits of OFA, including reduction in postoperative pain, reduction in postoperative nausea and vomiting, reduction in postoperative shivering, and improved oxygen saturation levels (Mulier et al., 2018). This quality improvement project aimed to advance anesthesia providers' understanding of OFA by creating an OFA guideline and providing a learning session to educate providers on its use. A pre-and-post intervention survey was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning session. The results show a statistically significant increase in knowledge scores across time from pre-intervention (M = 28.8, SD = 25.6) to post-intervention (M = 96.5, SD = 4.9), t(16) = -11.44, p < 0.001. Given the statistical significance in the results, it can be concluded that a learning session is a successful way to improve anesthesia provider knowledge and comfort with OFA. A future project to evaluate the effectiveness of the OFA interventions is recommended.

Recommended Citation

Medina, Sarah, "Opioid Free Anesthesia" (2020). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 129.
https://spark.siue.edu/dnpprojects/129

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