Often heard in the healthcare setting, the phrase “NPO after midnight” is familiar to most any nurse that has had a patient preparing to undergo a surgical or invasive procedure. An abbreviation of the Latin “nil per os,” meaning nothing by mouth, the phrase is usually part of a practitioner’s order set designed to protect the patient from complications of aspiration while under the effects of anesthesia. However, as most any nurse with these experiences also knows, these orders are not without a cost to the patient. A patient waking up on the morning of surgery arises to the their body calling out for breakfast and something to drink, but going without due to fasting orders in place. Add this to existing anxiety about undergoing the procedure …show more content…
This lead to wide variability in how such orders were implemented. The authors of this study gathered data from sixty nurses and thirty surgeons in a surgical clinic regarding how long patients from various age groups were kept fasting from various types of food (clear liquids, particulate liquids, solid foods, and fatty/greasy solid foods). The study found that less than half of the participants in the study (43.8%) kept patients strictly NPO after midnight pre-operatively. Another 34.2% discontinued all oral intake eight hours before surgery, with the same percentage choosing to stop liquid intake four to eight hours prior. Clearly, the lack of an institutionalized protocol for pre-operative fasting creates greater risk for patient harm. Improving patient outcomes in the peri-operative period when it comes to fasting can definitely be improved in terms of patient satisfaction, but should never be at the expense of safety, which starts with agreement, consensus and standardization. It might have been interesting to have the authors of this study note incidences of aspiration during surgery among the patients of this entity, given the variance of
When a person's faith is also an alternative for their culture and morals, it proves challenging to take that sense of security in that faith away from them. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish student living in Sighet, Transylvania during the war of 1942, uses his studies in Talmud and the Kabbalah as not only a religious practice but a lifestyle. Elie and his fellow civilians are warned, however, by his Kabbalah teacher who says that during the war, German aggressors are aggregately imprisoning, deporting, and annihilating millions of Jews. When Elie and his family are victim of this aggression, Elie realizes how crucial his faith in God is if he is to survive the Holocaust. He vows after being separated from his mother and sisters that he will protect he and his father from death, even though as death nears, Elie gradually becomes closer to losing his faith. In the end, to Elie's devastation, Elie makes it out of the Holocaust alone after his father dies from the intense seclusion to malnutrition and deprivation. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience--first by believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
This essay will discuss the risks for patients during the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative stages of the perioperative journey and how both patients and healthcare professionals involved in the perioperative stages can work together to prevent perioperative hypothermia.
In the critical care population, patients on ventilator support require nutritional supplementation. To support the metabolic processes, healthcare providers address the initiation of feedings within the plan of care (Khalid, Doshi, & DiGiovine, 2010). For therapeutic nutritional support, providers compare the risks and benefits of enteral and parenteral feedings. Following intubation, one goal is to initiate feedings within 24 to 48 hours, to provide optimal patient outcomes, and decrease the risk of ventilator-acquired pneumonia (Ridley, Dietet, & Davies, 2011).
Smith, C., Sidhu, R., Lucas, L., Mehta, D., & Pinchak, A. (2007, March 13). Should patients undergoing ambulatory surgery with general anesthesia be actively warmed? Internet Journal of Anesthesiology, 12(1).
A do not resuscitate order for patients who have emergency surgery is an “independent risk factor for poor surgical outcome and postoperative mortality” (Kelley , 2014 pg 1 para 3) and the probability of returning patients to their previous level of functioning is higher for CPR performed during the peri-operative period (Kelley , 2014).
Stomberg, M., Sjöström, B., & Haljamäe, H. (2003). The Role of the Nurse Anesthetist in the Planning of Postoperative Pain Management. AANA Journal, 71(3), 197.
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Professional Aspects of Nurse Anesthesia Practice. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company, 1994. Print.
“All I had to do was to close my eyes for a second to see a whole world passing by, to dream a whole lifetime.”(83) Elie Wiesel chose a unique way to write his novel Night in order to draw attention to what was happening. Wiesel attempts to engage his readers by using diction, imagery, and organization.
When I see a patient before they go into an operation, I like to speak to them to make sure they have an understanding of what surgery will be performed and what the process will be in regards to transporting them from the pre-operative area, to the operating room, and then to the recovery area. The environment of the operating room can be a scary place for patients, it is a cold, bright room with lots of equipment in it that patients have probably never seen before. I like to explain to my patients what the room will be like and let them know I will be with them the whole time if they need anything. The main topic is usually the temperature of the room, approximately 65 degrees, so I like to make sure the patients know we will have warm blankets waiting for them. Whether the surgery being performed is diagnostic or therapeutic, I like to be sure the patient has an understanding of what is being done for their health. I am very proud of being a nurse and do my best to be sure my actions prove it. I strive to do the best for my patients since one of the many responsibilities of being a nurse is to be their advocate, which I take very seriously as my patients cannot usually speak for themselves as they are under
“When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.” This statement by Tom Hodgkinson perfectly describes the solution to the life of the average American high schooler, who wakes up early, rushes to school, and undergoes several grueling classes, only to later participate in extracurricular activities and return home to complete homework. Due to all these activities, only a vast minority of teenagers obtain the amount of sleep they need in a night; Tom Hodgkinson’s quote proposes a solution to this problem. By instituting naptime in high schools, students could simply nap to refresh themselves when the going gets tough, whether that be an excessive amount of homework, an extremely demanding test, or a sports practice that lasts long into the
Westhead, C. (2007). Perioperative Nursing Management of the Elderly Patient. Canadian Operating Room Nursing Journal, 25(3), 34-41. Retrieved from http://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/274594603?accountid=13380.
Surgical Nursing requires a special person to meet the demands of the precision this task calls for. It is a fine-tuned art that requires keen senses to have the ability to multitask with precise perfection to ensure the patient will be afforded the utmost care, comfort, safety, teamwork among staff, and confidence they should expect in a situation that does not exhibit the best of times in their life. In this paper, we will inform the reader of the meticulous role of the surgical nurse, salary range and job availability, pros and cons, and how the patient takes number one priority in order for them to receive the best care possible within the Surgical Nurse’s scope of practice.
Although students were not allowed in the recovery unit, I was able to talk to one of the recovery nurses. I learned that a nurse’s duty of care includes monitoring the patient’s vital signs and level of consciousness, and maintaining airway patency. Assessing pain and the effectiveness of pain management is also necessary. Once patients are transferred to the surgical ward, the goal is to assist in the recovery process, as well as providing referral details and education on care required when the patient returns home (Hamlin, 2010).
The definition of procrastination is: the action of delaying or postponing something. Tim Urban, who conducts a speech called Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator for TED in 2016, explains that every human is a procrastinator- some more than others. I agree with everything he says in his speech because I can connect with every piece of evidence he claims, mostly including that there is a “Panic Monster” that pops up in your brain when you are close to a deadline and haven’t gotten anything done, especially when it comes from why I’m always so stressed out about school. There are two different kinds of procrastination: deadline and non-deadline. (Urban, 2016) Everyone that I have ever met is a procrastinator
I went to the operating room on March 23, 2016 for the Wilkes Community College Nursing Class of 2017 for observation. Another student and I were assigned to this unit from 7:30am-2:00pm. When we got their we changed into the operating room scrubs, placed a bonnet on our heads and placed booties over our shoes. I got to observe three different surgeries, two laparoscopic shoulder surgeries and one ankle surgery. While cleaning the surgical room for the next surgery, I got to communicate with the nurses and surgical team they explained the flow and equipment that was used in the operating room.