of fears and anxieties' of surgery patients By Nicole Williams Smith Going under a surgeon's knife is a scary prospect for many.

But the nurses who help patients recover from various medical procedures are opening the operating room doors in a bid to dispel the myths and fear surrounding surgery.

The PeriAnesthesia Nurses Programme will host an Open House this Saturday to educate the community.

"We believe in community education,'' said programme director Loretta Santucci.

"Every year we have a week to celebrate the nurses who take care of the patients after surgery,'' explained Cindy Webb. "This year we decided to have an Open House.'' Under the banner, `Our Patients are our Passion', nurses and other staff in the 100-strong programme will volunteer their time on their day off to show the community how much they care about those they aid.

"We want people to know how and why we have earned a good reputation,'' said registered nurse Diana Simons. "We are trying to encourage the patients to communicate with us.

"We have held this in the past and we had over 100 people turn up. Parents who had children facing upcoming surgeries brought them in and found it very helpful in preparing their child for the surgery.'' "We are doing this for the patients,'' Ms Webb added. "We want to help them understand what we do and why we do it.

"The event will take place in the Surgical Out Patients Ward on the second floor. Outpatients is only open Monday to Friday, so we can remove some of the bed to make some space.

"Saturday is not a normal surgery day and hopefully there won't be too many emergencies so that we can set aside one operating room for people to look at.'' The 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Open House will be more than just a case of `show and tell' -- the nurses want it to be a real hands-on experience.

"We are going to have blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol monitoring in addition to the tours of the operating rooms,'' explained Ms Webb. "There will be a station where visitors can test how well they can wash their hands.

After they wash them, they place them under a special light so they can see how clean they really are.'' And organisers said that Saturday's Open House will have plenty of special activities for children.

"We are going to have a painting competition for the kids,'' said RN Rob Aldridge. "We will also have a dress-up corner where they can try on masks and gowns.

"We will have games for them to play and there will be a teddy bear clinic where they can bring their teddy bears for a check-up or have `surgery' performed on them to fix them up.'' Mr. Aldridge said he hoped the activities would help ease some of the apprehension youngsters feel about the hospital and surgery.

"We hope this will alleviate a lot of fears and anxieties.'' Ms Simons added: "We have had a service in place since 1994 where patients can come in and see and talk to the staff the evening before a surgery. They can ask questions and put their minds at ease.

"Unfortunately, not many people know about this and it makes a difference in how people respond to surgery.''