Joshua Bedell
Nursing 121Clinical
Jan Johnson, Clinical Instructor
Mott Community College
Surgical Follow Through Paper For the duration of my surgical follow through experience, I had the pleasure of following RF. RF is a 49 year old male with an admitting diagnosis of cervicalgia cervical herniation, and a scheduled surgery for an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion at C4-C5 and C6-C7. According to Sharon Lewis in “Medical Surgical Nursing”, the cause of a cervicalgia cervical herniation is “the result of natural degeneration with age or repeated stress and trauma to the spine.” (Lewis, 2011) The follow through process was observed from when the patient arrived in the pre-op holding area until the patient arrived at the PACU. The expected outcome of the surgery for the patient is for the patient to be pain free within 6-12 weeks of the surgery. The radiating left arm pain should subside and the patient should be able to return to work. Immediately from the OR, the patient is expected to leave the room with immobilization of his neck as proper immobilization maintains the neck in a neutral position so there is no damage done to the spinal column during healing. (Lewis, 2011)
During the initial pre-op assessment, the nurse reviewed the patients past surgical history, medical chart, lab test results, and physical report as well as performing a physical assessment on the patient of her own. The nurse also performed duties such as: taking vitals, starting the IV, ensuring consent forms and all necessary paper work is filled out; making sure the patient has all belongings and jewelry taken off and put in a belongings bag, keeping the patient calm and comfortable, assisting the patient to the bathroom, and perform the blood sugar check. The patient had a history of an appendectomy for a ruptured appendix in 2002, a bowel resection in 2002, and a ventral hernia repair in 2010. None of these past surgeries will affect the current
References: Ackley, B. (2011). Nursing diagnosis handbook. (9th ed., p. 170,194,399). Lewis, S. (2011). Medical surgical nursing . (Vol. 8th, p. 1553, 1628). Williams, E. (2015). Roles of a scrub nurse. Retrieved from http://www.nursesource.org/perioperative.html Wilson , B. (2014). Pearson nurses drug guide 2014. (p. 436, 1290).