Policies that drive the nursing practice of postoperative observations

• Published in: International journal of nursing studies 2002-11, Vol.39 (8), p.831-839
• Main Authors: Zeitz, Kathryn, McCutcheon, Helen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Clinical Protocols; Decision Making; Documentation - standards; Emergency and intensive postoperative care (general aspects). Pathophysiology of surgery; Humans; Intensive care medicine; Medical sciences; Monitoring, Physiologic - nursing; Nursing Assessment - methods; Observations; Organizational Policy; Postoperative Care - methods; Postoperative nursing; Practice Guidelines as Topic - standards; Procedure documentation; Vital signs; Wound Infection - diagnosis; Wound Infection - microbiology; Wound Infection - nursing
• ISSN: 0020-7489; 1873-491X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0020-7489(02)00024-X

Postoperative nursing care traditionally has involved the utilisation of regulated, routine patient observation to monitor patient progress. This study was designed to review the policy/procedure documentation that drives this practice and to determine who contributes to policy development. In all, 75 surgical hospitals were surveyed, producing 47 procedures for content analysis. Findings suggest that there is a great diversity in procedures between organisations. The most common pattern of postoperative vital sign collection is hourly for 4 h and then 4 hourly in 27% of the regimes. On average a patient receives 10 sets of observation in the first 24 h, with neurovascular, wound and drain checks the most frequent observations collected in addition to vital signs.