1. What are the priorities in the
PACU nurse's assessment of a patient who has just returned from the operating
room?
2. How often should a dressing be inspected? In the PACU? On the clinical unit?
3. What are indications that an endotracheal tube can be removed?
4. What is different about the neurological assessment of a patient who has had regional anesthesia?
5. What information should be reported by the PACU nurse to the floor nurse?
6. What are the priorities in the assessment made by the nurse on the clinical unit for a patient who has just been transferred from the PACU?
7. When is a patient who abdominal surgery allowed to begin eating and why?
8. What is the longest that a patient should be allowed to go without urinating. What should be done if the patient doesn't urinate?
9. What electrolytes are usually added to a post-operative patient's IV fluids? What electrolyte is lost with tissue damage? nasogastric suction? What electrolyte is usually depleted when someone develops a paralytic ileus?
10. A patient has an epidural catheter in place for pain medication after surgery? What are some of the key priorities in caring for a patient who has such a catheter?
11. What is the best method of administering pain medication following surgery? Only if the patient needs it or around the clock? Explain your answer.
12. A postoperative patient is experiencing symptoms of early hypovolemic shock. What are early changes that indicate that the patient is in trouble? What assessments can you make and what interventions can you institute before calling the physician?
13. What is the purpose of a nasogastric tube after surgery? When is it removed?
14. A patient was on digoxin prior to surgery. Should you administer it after surgery? Why or why not?
15. A patient is complaining of shortness of breath on the day after surgery. What would you assess? What would you do to provide for the immediate comfort needs of the patient?
16. A patient has an elevated temperature on the third day after surgery. What does this most likely indicate? What should you do about it?
17. What should you do in case of evisceration? When is evisceration most likely to occur and in which patients?
18. When are following temperature elevations most likely to occur?
Due to malignant hyperthermia _________________________19. What are some strategies that you can use if a patient is reluctant to use an incentive spirometer after surgery?
Due to atelectasis _________________________
Due to wound infection _________________________
20. What would you do for a patient who is having nausea and has a nasogastric tube to suction?
21. What determines how often a surgical dressing is changed?
22. What should be noted on the chart when changing a surgical dressing?
23. How often should a Jackson-Pratt drain be emptied?
24. If the Jackson-Pratt drain was emptied at 7 AM and at 9 AM it is full of air and some fluid, what should you do about it?
25. What should the patient be told about the dressing and incision care when being discharged?
26. What would you do for a patient who had abdominal surgery and reports abdominal cramping?
27. What should the patient with an abdominal surgical incision be told about bathing after discharge?
28. What should be included in the discharge instructions for surgical patients?
29. Is it permissible to send patients home from ambulatory surgery by themselves? Explain your answer.
30. What are the criteria for discharge from an ambulatory surgery center?
Postoperative Nursing Care Quiz
Copyright © 2001 Margarete Lieb Zalon