Surgical Experience Paper

Seantel Robinson-Brye

The Surgical Experience
The preoperative phase begins when the decision for surgery is made and ends when the patient is transferred to the operating room table. The preoperative evaluation and teaching typically takes place several days before surgery in an outpatient setting. Today, most perioperative patients are admitted to the hospital the morning of their surgical procedure. However, there are times when the preoperative phase will begin on the medical-surgical units or in the emergency department. The first step of the preoperative phases begins with a patient and chart assessment on all patients scheduled for an operative and/or invasive procedure prior to transportation to the Surgical Suites. This ensures
Throughout the surgical experience the nurse functions as the patient’s chief advocate. The nurse’s care and concern extend from the time the patient is prepared for and instructed about the forthcoming surgical procedure to the immediate preoperative period and into the operative phase and recovery from anesthesia. The patient needs the security of knowing that someone is providing protection during the procedure and while he is anesthetized because surgery is usually a stressful
shock, blood loss, acute myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism or septicemia, low urine output: inadequate fluid replacement intra-operatively and postoperatively. Early: acute confusion: exclude dehydration and sepsis, nausea and vomiting: analgesia or anesthetic-related; paralytic ileus, fever, secondary hemorrhage: often as a result of infection, pneumonia, wound or anastomosis dehiscence, DVT, acute urinary retention, Urinary tract infection (UTI), postoperative wound infection, bowel obstruction due to fibrous adhesions, paralytic Ileus. Late: bowel obstruction due to fibrous adhesions, incisional hernia, persistent sinus, and recurrence of reason for surgery - eg,