Post-operative Nursing: Rationale, Care Priority, and Potential Complications

Post-operative nursing
care priority
Rationale
1. It is important to assess
the post-operative patient
and ensure whether the
patient encounters pain
including its intensity and
severity over a scale of 0 to
10. In addition the location
of the pain has to be noted,
Furthermore, pain can also
be identified via non-verbal
clues such as mourning.
Pain management is essential as the post-
operative patient must be experiencing
pain due to surgery. Despite the
administration of analgesics, Erica might
be encountering pain after the operation,
in particular once she recovers from
anaesthesia. This step would be crucial
to manage pain via implementing the
possible interventions and further
analgesics thereby reqassuring the
patient.
2.
It is mandatory to ensure
the patient’s vital
parameters such as
temperature, blood
pressure, pulse and heart
rate, oxygen level and her
conscious state.
Monitoring Erica’s conditions, is
necessary to understand if the patient is
steady considering the fact that her
condition may be liable to deteriorate
post-operation. The parameters would
support in the assessment of the patient’s
conditions and thereby necessitating the
best possible treatment and management
in any worst scenarios such as
hypothermia as a result of altering the

body’s thermoregulation system during
operation.
3.
Assessment of the patient’s
condition post-anaesthesia
and rehydration.
There have been cases where patients
were not able tolerate the efficacy of
anaesthesia. Henceforth, It is essential to
monitor whether Erica wakes up post-
anaethesia, in other words, whether her
body was able tocope up with
anaesthetics. This is important as the
physiological processes in a patient’s
body may significantly change upon
administration of anaesthesia.
Furthermore it may have a considerable
impact on her body organs, especially the
heart and lungs. After recovery from
anaesthesia the patient may experience
nausea and vomiting due to the effects of
anaesthesia. It is vital to assess such signs
provide medications and a management
plan to ensure the patient recovers at the
earliest. Most importantly, it is important
to manage the blood loss during surgery
as it might lead to imbalance in fluids,
electrolytes and haemoglobin.
Consequently, it is essential to administer

iron infusion and rehydration with
electrolytes and fluid through intravenous
dosage. This will significantly prevent
the loss of electrolytes, thereby any
kidney associated issues, Since the
patient has a poor apetite post-operation,
it is mandatory to administer fluids. In
addition, complaints of dry mouth is a
clear indication of rehydration which has
to be managed via excessive fluid intake.
4.
Monitoring the site of
surgery to ensure the
sutures remain intact and
the wound remains covered.
In case the wound at the site of surgery is
not covered enough, it might lead to post-
operative infections caused by bacteria.
In addition, secondary infections might
also prevail resulting in delay in the
healing of the wound. Monitoring the site
of surgery is essential to make any plans
for prescribing antibiotics to prevent or
treat bacterial infections. Furthermore,
assessing for any bleeding is essential as
it might lead to systemic infections and
further complications such as imbalance
in fluids.
5. Monitoring the nasal
passage or airway is
Erica might have difficulty in breathing
once she recovers from anaesthesia.