NURSING DIAGNOSES AND PROPOSALS FOR NURSING INTERVENTIONS FOR PATIENTS IN THE IMMEDIATE POST-OPERATIVE PERIOD FOLLOWING ELECTIVE SURGERY

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the nursing diagnoses presented by patients in the immediate post-operative period following elective surgery, and to propose nursing interventions. It is a quantitative, exploratory and descriptive study. It involved 27 patients receiving inpatient treatment in the surgical department of a university hospital in the south of Brazil, of both sexes, who were in the immediate postoperative period, in March – April 2011; and who did not present complications or need to be re-operated on. Using Risner’s model of diagnostic reasoning, seven North American Nursing Diagnosis Association diagnoses were identified. A total of 62 nursing interventions, based in the Nursing Interventions Classification, which could lead to a reduction in harm to these specific patients, were proposed. The interventions, grounded in the diagnoses, allow the nurse to work with autonomy and to provide individualized care, based in the factors reported and in the defining characteristics identified.

Keywords

• Nursing diagnoses
• General surgery
• Post-operative care