Anaesthesia
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Nurses assess patients pre-operatively using screening questionnaires and locally-developed protocols. Our objectives were to determine which questions might identify patients who should be seen by an anaesthetist before the day of surgery. ⋯ There was equivocal agreement on questions that report a myocardial infarction over one year ago, cerebrovascular accident, non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and thyroid disease. Nurses should use these criteria during pre-operative assessment to decide the timing of evaluation by an anaesthetist.