Over an eight-week period, 176 surgical patients in a general hospital participated in a comparative study of the effect of preoperative visits by operating room nurses on effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of nursing care in the operating room; preoperative and postoperative level of anxiety; mode of emergence from anesthesia; number of analgesic agents administered in the recovery room and in the first 48 postoperative hours; number of postoperative physiological problems; and length of hospitalization. The study supported four conclusions regarding the preoperative visits by operating room nurses: 1) The visit was an efficacious means of increasing the effectiveness of nursing care in the operating and recovery rooms. 2) The visit which attempted to influence the emotional response of the patient was an ineffective approach to altering his adaptive responses during the postoperative period. 3) Patients who experienced minor surgical trauma experienced less anxiety postoperatively if they had been visited preoperalively by the operating room nurse, but other benefits of the visit were not altered by the degree of surgical trauma. 4) Benefits to the patient derived from the visit were not influenced by the age of the patient.