Perianesthesia Nursing: Assessment, Recovery and Discharge Readiness

Course Purpose

Review postanesthetic recovery and assessment, airway and respiratory monitoring, residual neuromuscular blockade, nausea and vomiting, temperature concerns, delirium, pain, and handoff. The course examines recovery scores alongside the patient's overall condition and discharge-readiness considerations.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 4 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

Review postanesthetic recovery and assessment, airway and respiratory monitoring, residual neuromuscular blockade, nausea and vomiting, temperature concerns, delirium, pain, and handoff. The course examines recovery scores alongside the patient's overall condition and discharge-readiness considerations.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

1. Define postanesthetic recovery as the retrieved review defines it, and distinguish phase I from phase II care.
2. State the five parameters of the original Aldrete score, its scoring range, and the score reported as indicating suitability for discharge from the unit.
3. State what the retrieved review says the Aldrete score does not capture, and why the overall clinical picture is still required.
4. Distinguish the modified ambulatory criteria and the Post Anesthetic Discharge Scoring System from the original score, including the criteria later removed for lack of evidence.
5. List the respiratory, traumatic and haemodynamic categories of adverse events after extubation as the retrieved review categorises them.
6. State the reported reintubation rate after a passed spontaneous breathing trial, and the reported risk factors for post-extubation stridor.
7. Explain why pulse oximetry can overestimate oxygen saturation, and name the conditions under which a reliable signal may not be obtained.
8. List the clinical uses of capnography reported in the retrieved review, and the five reported causes of hypoxaemia.
9. State the definition of residual neuromuscular blockade used in the retrieved review, and the muscle at which recovery must be confirmed.
10. State the adverse outcomes the retrieved review associates with inadequate recovery from neuromuscular blocking drugs.
11. Describe how sugammadex works as the retrieved review describes it, and the population for which it holds regulatory approval.
12. Name the antiemetic classes and receptor targets reported in the retrieved review, and the side effect that most concerns the reviewers.
13. State the graded core temperature definitions of mild, moderate and severe hypothermia, and the drugs reported as causes of iatrogenic hypothermia.
14. State the earliest reported signs of malignant hyperthermia, its reported incidence and mortality, and why treatment takes priority over diagnosis.
15. Distinguish hyperactive from hypoactive postoperative delirium and state which is reported as more common and more often missed.
16. Relate the timing of postoperative fever to the differential diagnosis as the retrieved review relates it, and state what a standardised handoff requires.

Who this course is for:

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, registered nurses, licensed practical or vocational nurses, and other healthcare providers in any setting who want to review postanesthetic assessment, recovery phases, and discharge readiness.

Course outline

12 sections · finish in any order across devices

1. 1

   Course overview and learning objectives

2. 2

   Introduction

3. 3

   What recovery is, and what a recovery score does not tell you

4. 4

   The airway after the tube comes out

5. 5

   What the monitors show, and what they cannot show

6. 6

   Residual paralysis and its reversal

7. 7

   Nausea and vomiting after anaesthesia

8. 8

   Temperature: cold patients, shivering patients, and the one true emergency

9. 9

   The quiet confused patient, and the patient in pain

10. 10

    Lungs, early fever and the handover out of recovery

11. 11

    Nursing Considerations

12. 12

    Conclusion

This Course Satisfies

Requirement summaries come from our state requirement records. All Users of Fast CE For Less’s website and content are responsible for knowing their state’s license and renewal requirements.

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