The department I was assigned to, Postoperative Surgical Care, deals with patients who just had surgery and assures that these patients are recovering well. Their purpose to make sure no additional complications arise as a consequence from the patient’s surgery, such as infections from a dressing of a wound. The department monitors the patient’s medication and health as a whole, including their diet as surgery in the abdomen affects the type of food the patient can eat. Two diagnoses patients in this area may have are pressure ulcer and postoperative wound infection. Pressure ulcers are injuries to skin and underlying tissue that resulted from prolonged pressure on the skin. Because the patient is on bed rest to avoid any pain or rupture in any sutures, nurses will turn and reposition the patient to avoid these ulcers and allow blood circulation. Postoperative wound infection is an infection in the tissues of the incisions in the operative area. Healthcare workers do a range of things when it comes to this diagnosis depending on the type of patient, but most often they will remove the suture and allow drainage, and depending on the situation the healthcare worker will administer medication such as an …show more content…
The types of medications the nurses administer is a wide range as each patient has a different need depending on what surgery they have had. However, most often nurses, registered nurses specifically, administer pain medication, morphine, as the patients would be in intense pain as an effect of having surgery. By giving pain medication the patient is able to heal faster and easier. Vital signs will typically give an indication on how the patient is doing. Registered nurses evaluate the vitals by using a blue machine that measures the pulse and blood pressure of the patient to assure that the patient doesn’t have any complications, and instead that the patient is healing