Post Operative Nursing Care

Post Operative Nursing Care

Introduction

The nursing care given to the patient after surgery is known as post-operative nursing care. There are various goals of postoperative care that includes the monitoring and management of vital signs. Maintenance of airway, breathing, circulation, and disability also included in postoperative care. Nurses should be well aware of patient's bio-data, medical and surgical history, and post operative orders to provide ideal health care. Assessment of pain and other medication is also very important for the nurses to deliver quality health care. Mrs. Tannenbaum was a 78 years old woman and scheduled for the surgery of right total hip arthroplasty. She was suffering from right femoral neck hip fracture while playing golf. The history of the patient revealed that she was suffering from osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Her height is 158 cm, whereas her weight is 44 kg. The body mass index of Mrs. Taneenbaum is 17.63. She is going to be discharged in coming 5 days. Her physicians stated that she should continue her follow up with fracture clinic in 2 weeks, and book an appointment with the surgeon for 6 weeks. The paper will confer the nursing strategies and interventions in post operative nursing care.

Discussion

The patient scheduled for right total hip arthroplasty, so there are higher chances of acute or chronic pain. Pain can be occurred due to various reasons. Fluid accumulation or post operative inflammation will aggregate the intensity of pain. Joint destruction may be also associated with the increased intensity of pain. Increased motility will also predispose the patient towards increased pain. Another nursing diagnosis is the impaired physical mobility. Impaired physical mobility directly associated with deformities of the skeleton and bones, discomforts, muscle strength, and pain. Unusual movement in the targeted area or intense physical exercise will lead the patient towards mobility disorder. Wound infection may also be considered as another nursing diagnosis. The presence of staples on the incision may be associated with wound. Immune system of the body will detect these staples as the foreign bodies. Inappropriate wound management and contamination will increase the risk of wound infection (Moon, 2011).

Factors

There are various factors that can be found in the Mrs. Tannenbaum. Acute or chronic pain and tenderness is the most common factors, which predispose the patient towards several complications. Pain will be felt in the knee joint, and the patient will feel extreme tenderness at the time of increased physical exercise and movement. There is also a chance of joint stiffness in the patient as she was prominent to osteoarthritis. Hard lumps, which also known as bone spurs, may also be found in Mrs. Tannenbaum. Patient is also prominent to the smoking. She is taking about 14 cigarettes in a day. There is a great chance of the airway and lungs complications during the recovery phase. Her calculated BMI lies in the range of underweight, so there is also a chance of weakness and long duration during the recovery phase. Mrs. Tannenbaum has no children, so lack of ...