Nursing & AHPs

Welcome to the Nursing and Allied Health Professional Group.

Working with an ERAS program is a multidisciplinary challenge to improve the standard of care. It requires extensive knowledge of the research evidence and care principles, as well as the organisational changes required to make ERAS programs function in clinical practice.

The purpose of this Nursing and Allied Health Professional Group is to have an International “bank of knowledge” for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals interested in ERAS, and to create a network for inspiration and knowledge sharing.

Knowledge sharing will take place at this website, where there will be:

  • Examples of patient information
  • A list of publications with articles for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals
  • Inspiration for organisational changes
  • A list of names and contact details of the members of the ERAS Nursing group

Care Plans

Establishment of care-plans and pathways is a method to standardize surgical care and to plan nursing care with daily goals.

These care plans result in a nursing care more structured and focused than working with conventional care. Care plans are a working tool for nurses and describe in detail what to do, what the observations are, nursing duties and goals for oral intake, hours out of bed, and planned day of discharge and nutrition. Furthermore, the care plan provides documentation of nursing care and helps to eliminate undesirable variations in postoperative care. In this section, you will find below examples of selected care plans.

An example of a nursing care map after elective colonic resection on the first postoperative day (24-48 hours postoperatively). Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen

Nursing care program – Colonic resection Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen

Enhanced Recovery Programme St Mark’s Hospital

Do we miss a good example of a care plan?

Please contact us with any other examples that you would like us to publish in this section.

Patient Guides

The booklets are developed by the McGill University Health Centre Surgery Recovery Program and modified by the ERAS Society Nursing group to fit the ERAS Society guidelines of 2012/2013. We would like to recognize and thank the MUHC Patient Education Office for permission to use the booklets.

It is possible to make local additions / changes in the booklet to fit in names, addresses, telephone numbers etc and to add your own logo, but it will not be allowed to make changes that differ from ERAS guidelines.

For copyright reasons, any changes must be done by the MUHC Patient Education Office and the expenses have to be paid by the local hospital ordering the change.

If you want to make additions / changes to the existing booklet, please send an email to The ERAS Society Office Manager Kristina Wikander (kristina.wikander@erassociety.org) and she will establish contact with MUHC.

A Guide to Bowel Surgery
Bowel Surgery Guide English
Bowel Surgery Guide French
Bowel Surgery Guide Swedish
Instructions for patients going for bowel surgery

These comprehensive instructions from McGill University Health Centre cover pre-op visit, 1 day before surgery, day of surgery and days 1-3 after surgery.
English instructions for patients going for bowel surgery
French instructions for patients going for bowel surgery
Explaining the Enhanced Recovery Programme

This booklet is to help you understand the St Mark’s Hospital Enhanced Recovery Programme and how you will play an active part in your recovery. Aspects of this care can vary from what you might expect. This programme is different to traditional care and can improve your recovery considerably. The booklet describes the steps in your journey of care through St. Mark’s until you are ready to go home, which is usually three to five days after your operation.
St Mark’s Hospital Enhanced Recovery Programme
What is Enhanced Recovery after Surgery?

A comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts of ERAS. Enhanced Recovery after Surgery or E.R.A.S. is a programme that helps you recover better after your operation. It aims to keep things as ‘normal’ as possible before your operation and get back to your normal self again as soon as possible after your surgery. There are several important ways that we do this that may differ from any previous operations you may have had.

What is ERAS?
Enhanced Recovery after Surgery patient diary

This diary will help chart your progress and will give you the opportunity to comment on how you are feeling during your stay in hospital. We would be grateful if you would take some time to complete this diary every day, as it will help you to reflect on how you are doing. It also gives us important feedback to improve your experience and enhance your recovery. We will be looking specifically at things such as: Moving around / pain and nausea / eating and drinking / How are you feeling?

Patient Diary
Information to patients and relatives

Hvidovre Hospital, Denmark

Expert Reviews

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ERAS and the impact of sarcopenia on outcomes

ERAS and the impact of sarcopenia on outcomes Pędziwiatr M, Pisarska M, Major P, Grochowska A, Matłok M, Przęczek K, Stefura T, Budzyński A, Kłęk S. Laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery…

May 19th

Contacts

Nurses Section Chair

Ms Angie Balfour (UK)

Angie Balfour has been involved in ERAS® for over 15 years as the lead ERAS Nurse and Senior Research Nurse in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is also the chair of…

Allied Health Professional Representative

Professor Tom Wainwright (UK)

Tom Wainwright is Professor in Orthopaedics at Bournemouth University, and a Research Physiotherapist at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.   He is a physiotherapist, clinical academic, and quality…

Henriette Smid-Nanninga

Henriëtte Smid-Nanninga has more than 21 years of experience as a nurse in the surgical department. She works in the Martini Hospital in Groningen. Since 2016 she has been…

Chairwoman of the ERAS Implementation Program

Valérie Addor (Switzerland)

Valérie Addor works at the Department for Visceral Surgery at the University Hospital CHUV in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has been involved in ERAS® since 2011. As an ERAS dedicated…