ABSTRACT
In both military and resource limited environments critical care nurses may be required to nurse patients immediately post-operatively. Critical care nurses often receive critically ill patients immediately post-operative to the unit; however, recovering a patient who will be returned to the ward requires different skills. Post-operative care and handover form part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Surgery Checklist. In practice, many anaesthetic practitioners have limited access to education, are often overwhelmed with the surgical workload and have limited time to review patients pre- or post-operatively. All stages of the surgical pathway are equally important and good nursing care in the immediate post-operative period can prevent early complications. The WHO proposes the three most likely causes of post-operative mortality include the intravenous fluids not running, respiratory failure and post-operative hypotension. A post-operative patient should never be left unattended and should have one nurse to one patient during the immediate post-operative period.
