Advanced nursing skills development in maintaining perioperative patient normotermia – scoping review

Introduction: Monitoring temperature, maintaining normothermia, preventing and treating perioperative hypothermia are currently considered standard of care. The existence of protocols aimed at monitoring, evaluating, preventing, and controlling hypothermia in the intraoperative phase is necessary. This association avoids complications, guarantees the safety and comfort of the surgical patient, leading to the quality of the entire surgical process. Objetive: Map nursing interventions to maintain normothermia in the perioperative period. Methods: Scoping Review based on the principles recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Research was carried out in the following databases: SCOPUS, Web of Science and EBSCOhost Web of the Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto and the databases consulted were CINAHL Complete, MedcLatina and MEDLINE Complete. To search for gray literature, the Portuguese Open Access Scientific Repository – RCAAP was used. Studies published with free online access, in full text, in Portuguese, Spanish or English, with a time limit between 2013 and 2023, were included. Results: To achieve perioperative normothermia, nurses must adopt patient warming methods. Studies point to the use of thermal blankets, heated blankets and forced air, and monitoring the patient's temperature in a regular and structured way. Conclusion: Maintaining perioperative normothermia can be achieved through the adoption of patient warming and is essential to ensure safety, improve the outcome of the surgical procedure, and ensure patient comfort and satisfaction with the surgical experience.