Post -operative Nursing Care

Post -operative Nursing Care

The care you get after surgery is referred to as post-operative nursing care. This might involve treating wounds and managing discomfort. Depending on the procedure you have, you may need a specific kind of postoperative care. After surgery, post-operative care starts, lasts for the duration of your hospital stay, and may even continue after you are released.

Assessment:

Essential post-operative observations made by a nurse in a post-operative unit are as followed:

• Airway patency
• Respiratory status
• Cardiovascular status
• Temperature
• Hemorrhage/ drainage volumes/ vomiting/ fluid balance
• Mental state
• Sweating pallor
• Pain and discomfort

General Assessment:

• Location, condition, and output from drain and catheter
• Muscle strength
• Bowel sounds
• Surgical incision
• Condition of suture line
• Pain location

Rationale for post-operative observation and intervention

• Airway

Nursing staff should continuously check that the patient airway is patient, ensuring that there is no obvious obstruction and for the presence of:

• Foreign objects
• Vomit
• Poorly positioned artificial airways
• Blocked artificial airway
• Anaphylactic responses
  Respiration:

In order to be able to see any changes to this pattern, nurses need be familiar with the typical respiratory rhythm. The following signs and symptoms are indicative of inadequate ventilation:

• shallow or sluggish breathing
• An loud wheeze indicating respiratory stridor
• Anxiety
• On chest auscultation, there are rales.

Chest Movements:

Breathing should be rhythmic and easy, and chest movement should be symmetrical. Eupnoea is a regular rhythm, and a postoperative patient's satisfying breathing pattern is 12 to 20 breaths per minute.

Pulse Oximetry

It is commonly used to monitor a patient's pulse and oxygen saturation often with good effects.

Post -operative Nursing Interventions

• Receiving the post-op patient

  • A vacant bed is made while the patient is in the operating and recovery room.
  • To protect bottom lines, absorbent pads are positioned over the draw sheet.
  • When the patient returns, supplies and equipment like a pole holding the IV fluids bottle and a blood pressure monitor should be in position.
  • The recovery room nurse should let the unit nurse know if additional supplies, like as suction or oxygen equipment, would be required.

Post -operative patient care begins with the unit nurse assisting recovery room personnel in transferring the patient to the bed in his room personnel in transferring the patient to the bed in his room.

• Place the patient in the posture prescribed by the doctors for position and safety. After receiving spinal anaesthetic, the patient might need to spend several hours lying flat.
• Vital signs: record vital signs and make note of any changes from data collected in the recovery room and post-operatively, as well as any indication of complications.
• Determine the patient's state of awareness by observing how they react to stimuli and how well they can move their limbs.
• Examine the kind and quantity of the solution, the tubing, and the infusion site while using intravenous fluids.
• Wound: Look for any leakage under the patient's bandage. Write down the color and quantity, if any. Inform the supervisors straight once if there is a lot of bleeding or discharge that is a bright red color.
• Feel the patient's skin color for warmth and color.

Postoperative patient care according to body systems:

Respiratory System:

• Turn the patient as ordered.
• Ambulate the patient as ordered
• If permitted, place the Patient in semi fowler's position, with support for the neck and shoulders, to aid lung expansion.
• Reinforcement the deep breathing and exercises
• Coughing

Cardiovascular System:

• Patient should be induced as directed.
• For the initial tries, offer physical assistance.
• Before ambulation, have the patient dangle his or her legs at the bedside.
• Keep an eye on the patient's blood pressure.
• Tell the patient to stretch their legs while they are in bed to prevent thrombophlebitis.

Urinary Systems:

• Report this occurrence to the supervisors if a patient does not have a catheter and has not defecated within eight hours after returning to the nursing unit.
• Check the patient's bladder for distention by feeling it, then gauge how they react.
• aid the patient in voiding. Help the patient use the restroom or offer privacy.
• Measuring and documenting urine output
• Inform the supervisors if the patient complains of urinating or if there is blood or other unusual material in the urine.

Gastrointestinal System:

• If the patient complains of stomach distension, let the supervisor know.
• Ask the patient whether he or of yhas had any gas since leaving the operating room.
• Check your bowels for sounds. Inform the supervisour findings and record them in the nursing notes.
• Ensure seclusion so that the patient feels at ease passing gas NPO
• Cardiac arrhythmias: Due to sympathetic nervous system activation from pain, hypoxia, or bladder distention, hypertension is frequently experienced in the early post-operative period.
• Shock and bleeding are two significant surgical complications that can be fatal but are not well understood. It may appear slowly or suddenly at any point during the immediate post-operative period or even up to a few days following surgery.
• The most frequent emergency in the recovery room is respiratory trouble. It can be brought on by laryngospasms, vomit aspiration, or medication-induced decreased breathing.
• Other problems following surgery:
• Atelectasis, which affects a section of the lungs and impairs gas exchange, is the inadequate expansion or collapse of alveoli with retained mucus.
• The form of shock that postoperative patients experience most frequently is hypovolemic shock. Hypovolemic shock is characterized by hypotension, cold and clammy skin, deep, fast breathing, and other symptoms.
• Excessive blood loss, either inside or externally, is referred to as hemorrhage. Hypovolemic shock may be brought on by bleeding.
• The swelling of a vein brought on by thrombus development is known as thrombophlebitis.
• Complicated injuries
• Infected surgical wounds are examined and palpated for look, drainage, and discomfort to check for potential complications.
• Dehiscence is the separating of the borders of an incision without the organs protruding.

Evisceration is the separation of wound edges with the protrusion of the organs through the incision.