post op

Perpetual Student · Dec 11, 2011

No. Positioning will vary depending upon the surgery and the patient's unique needs. Many patients can appropriately be supine with their heads elevated.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Dec 11, 2011

What kind of surgery? Makes a big difference.

mrnewman · Dec 11, 2011

thank you two and that dose make sense and help me. :)

LobotRN, BSN, RN · Dec 11, 2011

mrnewman...remember that when you see the word "all" in any question, really really go back and read the question. It is incredibly rare for something to be true all All ALL the time in nursing. There are, of course, a few exceptions. For example, should all patients be screened for nutritional need/status in the acute care setting? Pretty much yes, I gotta know how we will address metabolic demands in the acute care setting. Should all patients receive oral nutrition in the acute care setting? Sure I wanna feed them, but nope, some need to be NPO prior to procedures or secondary to dysphagia and aspiration risk. If I read the second scenario too quickly and the first time didn't catch "oral" and "all" then I might have answered "yes" because everyone needs nutrition of some sort (oral, TPN, NG, etc) in the acute care setting. I found that if I thought about the patient and visualized them in the scenario, and then tried to think of situations that support the claim of the question or negate it, I could usually reason my way through a question and provide a rationale.

That said, try to reason your way through your question and provide some initial thoughts on how you would answer...you'll find the responses here to be better when the work you've put into the question shows to people reading your original post.

DutchRN09 · Dec 12, 2011

Do not answer yes to a question with "all" in it. Its never right. And don't answer yes to questions with Never in it either...or always, or any absolute term like that.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2011

hello, I need help for my final.
"should we keep all pt side-lying when them go back to normal unit from surgery? thanks a lot

NO. It depends on the surgery. I work in neurology/neurosurgery. With spinal surgeries, many patients need to be flat/prone, sometimes for DAYS. There is no rationale for keeping a post-op patient side-lying without knowing anything other than that they are post-op.

As others have said, any question with "ALL" in it, you need to read very carefully. There are certain things you do with ALL patients (Do all patients need medication reconciliation upon admission? Yes.) but there are very few things that apply to ALL patients, or even all patients with the same diagnosis. (Do all patients with seizures need to have their side rails padded? No.)