After the surgeon introduces the patient to the concept and plan for fast-track surgery and accelerated recovery, nurses are responsible for reinforcing specific expectations. The preoperative evaluation is an excellent opportunity to assess the patient’s and family’s comprehension of the planned surgery and postoperative course and fill in any gaps in knowledge. This is the time to reinforce, in terms the patient can readily understand, the explicit steps of the clinical path that will be followed and to review the rationale for each. For example, patients must be told roughly how many hours they will be expected to ambulate on a given postoperative day. Rationales for these expectations are that early and aggressive postoperative mobilization can prevent pulmonary morbidity, adverse thromboembolic events, and overall muscle wasting.7, 8 and 16 Patients are told what they will eat and drink every day and that research has shown that early feeding can enhance bowel function and reduce postoperative muscle loss and fatigue