Postoperative Complications
Course #30764 - $90 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Postoperative complications are a constant threat to the millions of people undergoing surgical interventions. Whether patients are managed in a hospital setting, an ambulatory care facility, or in a free-standing operating suite, the development of postoperative complications can lead to long-term disability and possibly death. Complications will be discussed utilizing an easy-to-decipher approach, beginning with detection and ending with appropriate steps to treat and/or reverse these untoward events. The underlying physiology will be presented to allow the reader to determine which patients would be at high risk for these developments. In addition, postoperative complications that are common to pediatric, geriatric, and obese patient populations will be addressed.
This course is designed for all nurses and allied professionals involved in the care of patients who undergo surgical procedures, especially those who work in the preoperative area, the operating room, or the postanesthesia unit in hospitals or free-standing surgical centers.
The purpose of this course is to provide nurses and all allied health professionals who care for postsurgical patients the knowledge necessary to recognize and manage common postoperative complications, improving patient care and outcomes.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- List the steps necessary to obtain an accurate and thorough assessment of patients before, during, and after surgery.
- Identify information that should always be obtained during the assessment of the preoperative patient.
- Review the common complications of patients undergoing abdominal, orthopedic, cardiovascular, respiratory, neurologic, obstetric/gynecologic, and genitourinary surgeries.
- Describe the development, progression, and management of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV).
- Discuss the signs,symptoms, and treatment of malignant hyperthermia.
- Review the implications of hypothermia, pain, and complications related to positioning in postsurgical patients.
- List the most common respiratory complications following surgery and how to identify and manage these complications in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU).
- Describe the cardiovascular complications that may disrupt the postoperative period and the appropriate interventions for each.
- Discuss the development and management of postoperative neurologic complications.
- Describe the process to appropriately assess and manage the patient with a volume status complication in the postoperative period.
- Outline the steps to managing postoperative ileus.
- Identify the signs andsymptoms, risk factors, and management of postsurgical renal insufficiency.
- Describe the anatomic and physiologic differences between children and adults and determine how these differences impact postoperative care and complication development.
- Identify the anatomic and physiologic differences between elderly and adult patients and the impact that these differences have on the development of postoperative complications.
- Develop a protocol to be instituted in the PACU to limit the development of postoperative complications in the morbidly obese patient.
Susan Engman Lazear, RN, MN, received her undergraduate education at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing in Washington, D.C. After completing her BSN, she served as an Army Nurse at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco for four years. She then attended the University of Washington School of Nursing and received a Master’s in Nursing, specializing in Burn, Trauma and Emergency Nursing. After receiving her MN, she started Airlift Northwest, the air ambulance service based in Seattle which serves the entire Northwest region, including Alaska. Mrs. Lazear left the air ambulance service to start her own nursing education and consulting business, Specialists in Medical Education. For the past 20 years she has been teaching emergency nursing courses throughout the country. She lives in the Seattle area. Mrs. Lazear continues to teach and publish. She is both an editor and contributing author of Critical Care Nursing, published by W.B. Saunders Company, in June of 1992. She served as an author and reviewer of the Emergency Nursing Core Curriculum 6th Edition, published by W.B. Saunders Company in 2007. She has been named to the Who’s Who in American Healthcare list annually since 1992.
Contributing faculty, Susan Engman Lazear, RN, MN, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C
Margo A. Halm, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAAN
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.