#128 – The Power of Non-Pharmacologic Anxiolysis with Jonathan Harrington & Justin Rodriguez

My guests today are Jonathan Harrington & Justin Rodriguez, 3rd-year doctoral students from two different nurse anesthesia programs. Jonathan is attending the program accredited through the Integrated Anesthesia Associates of Hartford and Justin is attending the Yale New Haven Hospital program… both of which are affiliated with Central Connecticut State University.

They join me to talk about non-pharmacological interventions for anxiety in the preoperative setting. It’s a pretty interesting conversation and if you’re about to write this off as “yeah, but I have midazolam or dexmedetomidine or my dashing good looks and affable personality working for me”… hang in there. While your beautiful face and affable personality are technically non-pharmacological interventions and likely put many people at ease just by you showing up in the room, Jonathan and Justin walk us through actual techniques, grounded in the scientific literature with clinically significant effects, that you can readily deploy on your next shift.

Jonathan & Justin want to acknowledge their professors, Dr Stephanie Stewart and Dr Samantha Barbessi for their role in supporting and editing their doctoral scholarly project and what they’ve prepared to share on the podcast today.

As a quick primer on this show – I’m thrilled these guys have come to share what they’ve found in the literature with us. When I started my practice, every patient I met got 2mg of versed pretty much as soon as I could give it to them. I thought that’s how every anesthetic was supposed to start. That was followed by a heavy dose of intraoperative opioids for pain management. Over the last decade of my practice, my perspective has shifted dramatically on both of these fronts. I rarely pull midazolam for patients now but not because I don’t care about preoperative anxiety – I probably care more about it now than ever. I also care about how the rest of my patient’s day is going to go and how their post operative recovery will go.

Jonathan and Justin walk us through a handful of techniques we can readily deploy as anesthesia providers and anchor the power of these non-pharmacologic anxiolysis techniques in the literature so you can make an informed decision about how to change your practice.

And with that, let’s get to the show…

Here’s a link to the YouTube video referenced in the show:

References

Agüero-Millan B, Abajas-Bustillo R, Ortego-Maté C. Efficacy of nonpharmacologic interventions in preoperative anxiety: