Introduction: Telenursing encompasses Nursing Consultation, Interconsultation, Consulting, Monitoring, Health Education and Reception of Spontaneous Demand mediated by Information and Communication Technology. Objective: To perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of telenursing in the immediate preoperative period of adult patients undergoing elective surgeries in a university hospital of the SUS. Materials and method: Cost-effectiveness analysis nested in a clinical trial or empirical economic analysis of the piggyback evaluation type. Divided into 2 phases: a) Experimental research - randomized clinical trial to be carried out in a university hospital located in Rio de Janeiro and part of the SUS, with two parallel groups - intervention and control - with 1:1 allocation. The inclusion criteria will be adult patients, of both sexes, in the immediate preoperative period who are admitted on the day of elective surgery from their home. Patients who are hospitalized, patients in ophthalmology and obstetrics specialties, and those who will undergo examinations in the surgical center will be excluded. The sample size calculation was performed with a 95% confidence level and a sample loss of 5%, totaling 352 patients. The sampling will be random. Randomization and allocation concealment will be performed by the independent researcher. Patients in the GI will receive telenursing on the day before surgery with an anamnesis script for telenursing by the main researcher. On the day of surgery, all patients on the surgical map who came from their residence will be directed to the nursing assessment room where the auxiliary researcher will apply the in-person anamnesis script. The data will be processed by two independent researchers in an electronic spreadsheet and will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The research will respect all legal and ethical frameworks necessary for its implementation; b) Prospective analysis of complete economic evaluation - in the piggyback evaluation modality - of the cost-effectiveness type. The effectiveness of telenursing will be verified by the outcome of surgical cancellation. A decision tree model will be used with a view to analyzing the SUS user at the local level (microcosting). The time horizon will be two days. The cost-effectiveness threshold will be 1 GDP per capita and the data analysis will include deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity. Expected results: It is expected to prove that telenursing can be a safe and efficient method for guiding patients before surgery, generating greater patient satisfaction, increasing access to information about health care for users through remote communication with nurses, reducing the waiting list by reducing surgical cancellations and possible incorporation of telenursing as a consolidated practice in the university hospital studied.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient recruitment will be conducted using the hospital's general surgical center surgical map. The participating population will consist of:
• All patients 18 years of age or older, of both sexes, in the immediate preoperative period;
• Admitted on the day of elective surgery;
• Coming from their home.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inpatients;
• Ophthalmology, obstetrics, and pediatrics specialties;
• Exams performed in the surgical center, such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, video hysteroscopy, and others.

All data that support the results of this research are anonymized.

After publication, no end date

A proposal describing the planned analyses will be made available through publication in a data repository.