Perioperative care of the pregnant patient undergoing non-obstetric surgery.

There are a number of challenges associated with the pregnant patient undergoing non-obstetric surgery. Careful assessment and planning, taking into account the physiological and anatomical changes, will allow for optimal perioperative management.

Intensive care discharges: improving the quality of clinical handover through changes to discharge documentation.

Patients who have stepped down from intensive care tread a precarious clinical course, and the handover of care between clinical teams at this point should be treated as a high risk event. Poor handover can leave patients vulnerable to suboptimal care and preventable harm. Properly structured written discharge summaries have been shown to improve information transfer and quality of care.