Program Overview

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NRSG540 - Perioperative: Comprehensive Management of the Patient in Surgery

Year

2024

Credit Points

10

Campus Offering

The unit is offered online via the ACU Online platform.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

Peri-operative specialty nursing requires a foundation understanding of scientific concepts that support the management and care for patients before, during, and after surgery or interventional procedures. This unit is designed to provide students with the knowledge, understanding, and skills to deliver a person-centered and evidence-based approach to perioperative care.

Learning Outcomes

To successfully complete this unit, students will be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes:

• LO1: Analyse developmental and pathophysiological concepts related to complex health problems in the perioperative clinical practice setting.
• LO2: Evaluate the science underpinning nursing management of complex health problems in the perioperative setting.
• LO3: Critically analyse and apply the evidence underpinning curative, rehabilitative, preventative, and/or palliative approaches to care for patients on discharge from the perioperative clinical setting.
• LO4: Evaluate best practice treatment and management options available for patients in the perioperative setting and how they influence health and wellbeing.

Content

Topics will include:

• Preoperative care and management
• Complex health conditions
• Pathophysiology related to perioperative procedures
• Developmental issues arising in relation to perioperative procedures
• Bioscience concepts underlying complex health problems
• Preoperative assessment
• Anesthetic considerations
• Invasive versus non-invasive ventilation
• Neural blocks
• Peripheral nerve blocks
• Neuraxial blocks
• Intraoperative care and management
• Anaesthesia – physiology, pharmacology, airway management, and oxygenation
• Patient positioning and pressure injuries
• Physiological changes in the intraoperative period
• Homeostasis
• Thermoregulation
• Neurovascular changes
• Integumentary considerations
• Fluid and electrolyte considerations
• Standard precautions in the operating room
• Complications in the operating room – malignant hyperthermia
• Postoperative care and management
• Airway management
• Pain management in the recovery room
• Wound and drain care in the recovery room
• The role of the recovery nurse in patient education
• Specialty nursing care for complex and/or diverse perioperative presentations
• Nursing diagnosis
• Patient safety
• Intubation
• Bronchoscopy rigid vs flexible
• Ethical dilemmas
• Pharmacology – agents used in perioperative setting
• Laparoscopic surgery
• Common perioperative procedures
• Gastrointestinal (GI)
• Hernia repair and bariatric surgery
• Gynaecological and obstetric surgery
• Otorhinolaryngologic surgery
• Ophthalmic surgery
• Plastic and reconstructive surgery
• Orthopaedic and trauma surgery
• Genitourinary surgery
• Breast, thyroid, and parathyroid surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Reconstructive procedures
• Skin, muscle, and bone
• Complex reconstructive procedures
• Traumatic injuries
• Management of complex health conditions
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Pharmacological and non-pharmacological
• Rehabilitative palliative, curative, or preventative approaches to care
• Evidence-based practice
• Nursing care in perioperative nursing
• Preoperative, operative, and postoperative
• Patient health and wellbeing in perioperative setting
• Ethical considerations in perioperative settings

Prerequisites

• NRSG524 Advanced Pathophysiology for Specialty Nursing Practice
• NRSG525 Evidence-based, Person-centred Family Care in Specialty Nursing Practice

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Rationale

Teaching and learning strategies utilized in this unit will support students in meeting the aim and achieving the learning outcomes relevant to this unit as well as to the broader course learning outcomes. This unit is offered online via the ACU Online platform and uses active learning to support students to focus on their perioperative nursing specialty practice and apply developmental and pathophysiological concepts and evidence-based practice to support the management of patients in the perioperative environment.

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

The assessment strategy used in this unit encourages the progressive development of students' scientific knowledge underpinning practices in perioperative nursing to enable them to meet the unit learning outcomes. The assessments include:

• Assessment Task 1: Quiz - Enables students to demonstrate acquired foundation scientific knowledge and concepts related to specialized peri-operative nursing through the completion of the online learning modules. (20%)
• Assessment Task 2: ePoster - Enables students to analyze the pathophysiological concepts and scientific underpinnings of common peri-operative presentations. This is a collaborative activity where students will be required to participate in a discussion forum to synthesize ideas. (40%)
• Assessment Task 3: Case Study - Enables students to apply learned scientific knowledge and demonstrate critical thinking skills, analysis, and synthesis of evidence in relation to a complex presentation in the peri-operative specialty setting. (40%)

Representative Texts and References

Recommended Text

• Greenhalgh, T., Bidwell, J., Crisp, E., Lambros, A., & Warland, J. (2020). Understanding research methods for evidence-based practice in health (Second edition. ed.). John Wiley & Sons Australia.
• Hoffmann, T., Bennett, S., & Del Mar, C. (2017). Evidence-based practice across the health professions (3rd ed.). Elsevier Australia.
• Knights, K. M., Darroch, S., Rowland, A., & Bushell, M. (2023). Pharmacology for health professionals (6th edition. ed.). Elsevier Australia.
• McCance, K. L., Huether, S. E., Brashers, V. L., & Rote, N. S. (2019). Pathophysiology: the biologic basis for disease in adults and children (Eighth edition ed.). Elsevier.
• Patton, K. T., & Thibodeau, G. A. (2019). Anatomy & physiology (Adapted International edition. ed.). Elsevier.
• Sutherland-Fraser, S., Davies, M., Gillespie, B. M., & Lockwood, B. (2021). Perioperative Nursing: An Introduction. Elsevier.
• Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. (2019). Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in practice (Third edition. ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

Other Recommended References

Recommendations for further texts will be made in the extended unit outline based on the specialty of the students enrolled in the unit.