Preoperative Spanish-language anesthesia instructional video
Purpose #
To reduce preoperative anxiety and improve knowledge and satisfaction for Spanish-speaking patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) by delivering standardized anesthesia education in the patient's native language, supplementing (not replacing) the interpreter-assisted preanesthesia interview on the day of surgery.
"We hypothesized that Spanish-speaking patients randomized to viewing a Spanish instructional video shown just before the preanesthesia interview on the day of surgery would have reduced anxiety, increased knowledge of general anesthesia procedures, and improved patient satisfaction as compared with Spanish-speaking patients who did not view the video." (West, 2014, p. 326)
Mechanism #
A 4-minute educational video, narrated in Spanish by an anesthesiologist, walks the patient step-by-step through the sequence of perioperative events — induction area, interviews and surgical-site marking, consent, IV placement and possible discomfort, the operating theater and monitors, and the recovery room — with jargon minimized and Latino-appearing actors filmed in an actual MGH operating room. By presenting exactly the intended information in the native language with concrete visual demonstration, it bridges the language gap the interpreter alone cannot fully close and lets patients arrive at the interview oriented, so their interaction with the interpreter becomes more focused. It was shown on an iPad just before the preanesthesia interview.
"Before the preanesthesia interview, Group V saw a 4-minute educational video explaining in Spanish the procedures that accompanied a general anesthetic (Table 1). The video, an original production by a medical student with professional filmmaking experience, was shown to patients using an iPad (Apple, Cupertino, CA, USA)." (West, 2014, p. 327) "The video was filmed in an actual OR at the Massachusetts General Hospital and it employed actors that looked to be of Latino origin. Use of jargon was minimized." (West, 2014, p. 327)
Example(s) of usage #
In the West (2014) pilot, 20 Spanish-speaking surgical patients at MGH were randomized to view the video (Group V) or not (Group NV) just before their preanesthesia interview; the video group showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety and greater increases in satisfaction than the no-video group. The authors observed that after watching the video, patients' interaction with the interpreter was more directed and they felt comfortable asking pointed questions about anesthesia.
"In our study, we noticed that, after patients watched the video, the interaction with the interpreter was more directed as patients felt comfortable asking pointed questions about anesthesia." (West, 2014, p. 328)
Other Notes #
The authors frame the video as a cost-effective, readily available supplement — deliverable via iPads, smart phones, computers, or DVD players — to extend interpreter services, and suggest extending the format to other procedures and languages. (Note: the plugin's relation grammar does not yet define EVD/CLM→ART edges, so links to this artifact are wikilinks for now.)