Introduction:

The process of improvement for professionals dedicated to surgical specialties and preoperative care of patients is vital and constitutes a way to manage the updating of knowledge and skills. These favor the increase in the quality of performance, a fact aimed at avoiding surgical suspensions, which often have overlapping limitations and inadequacies of medical personnel.

Objective:

To identify the theoretical foundations supporting professional improvement and performance of general surgeons in view of improving the quality of preoperative care.

Methods:

Analysis-synthesis, the historical-logical method, systematization, the hermeneutic-dialectic method, scientific observation and documentary analysis were used.

Development:

In the literature, there are dissimilar articles about the improvement of professional performance. These propose professional improvement strategies leading to the undeniable improvement in the quality of care provided to patients; the interrelation and interconnection between improvement and professional performance to manage the updating of knowledge and skills in preoperative care constitutes the fundamental link.

Conclusion:

The present work allowed identifying and commenting about the theoretical foundations necessary for the process of professional improvement and aimed at the improvement of professional performance of general surgeons in preoperative care, demonstrating a direct relationship between both categories.