Phases of Perioperative Nursing during surgery

The Perioperative Nursing has three different phases for any surgical procedure, which includes the three phases they are preoperative phase, the intraoperative phase, and the postoperative phase.

For every surgery these phases have separate or differentiate tasks and establish who is responsible for overseeing and delivering each stage of care. By maintaining strict rules to quality of procedures and a clear chain of command, hospital teams are able to deliver consistent, optimal care from the moment a surgery is completed to the time when a person is recovered from illness.

Preoperative Phase

It is an initial phase, starts with the decision to have surgery and an end when the patient is comes out into surgery. This phase can be very short, such as in the cases of acute trauma, or require a long period of preparation during which time a person may be need to be fast, lose weight, undergoing tests, or waiting for the receipt of an organ for transplant.

One of the goals of the preoperative phase is to control the anxiety that may arise, either as result of an emergency situation or having to wait for inordinately long periods of time. The anxiety is a common reaction experienced by patients and one that can be relieved with on-going interaction with one or more members of the medical team. Once a patient is admitted into a hospital, the person could coordinated by one or several perioperative nurses.

Intraoperative Phase

The second phase, involves while during the surgery. It starts when the patient is into the surgical bed and ends when the patient is moved to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU).

This phase, the patient will be prepared and given some form of anesthesia’s to the patients, like general anesthesia (for complete unconsciousness), local anesthesia (to prevent pain while awake), or regional anesthesia (such as with a spinal or epidural block).

As the surgery starts, the patient's vital signs (including heart rate, respiration, and blood oxygen) will be closely measured. By adding the roles of the surgeon and anesthesiologist, other team members will be assisting the physician, ensuring safety rules, and preventing infection during the course of the surgery.

Postoperative Phase

The final phase, it is the period immediately following surgery. As with the preoperative phase, the period can be short, lasting a few hours, or require months of rehabilitation and recuperation.

Once the patient is awake and ready to leave post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), the nurse will typically transfer the responsibility of care back to the perioperative nurse.

It is mainly focused on monitoring and controlling the patient's physiological health and aiding in the post-surgical recovery.