Special Care Considerations of the Post-Anesthesia Patient in the ICU

Course overview

All surgeries come with potential risk and the patient may arrive at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) intubated. This requires special care and knowledge by the ICU care team to ensure safe extubation and positive outcomes. If the patient has any underlying cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, the risks can be even greater. This course will prepare the learner to identify the scope of respiratory failure in the post-anesthesia patient. It teaches the important aspects of the respiratory assessment and includes the evidenced-based protocols for the treatment of respiratory failure. Also included in this course are other complication considerations such as bleeding, hypovolemia and surgical site infections. The nurse will learn to identify postoperative prevention methods and infection recognition of surgical site infections in the post-anesthesia patient in the ICU. The course will also address the definition, incidence, recognition, assessment, and the proposed treatments of postoperative cognitive delirium in the post-anesthesia patient in the ICU.