[Surgery for children and adolescents. Post-operative phase].
The authors explain the third and last phase in the surgical process, the post-operative phase. The authors propose a standardized model of nursing care for children and adolescents. The third and last phase in the surgical process commences at the moment the child arrives in the recovery room and lasts until he/she is released from the hospital. This phase includes the treatment applied in the recovery room and later in a hospital ward or in the child's home. The authors use the Gordon Functional Health Patterns. Special emphasis is given to the perception-management health pattern, the nutritional-metabolic pattern, the elimination pattern, the exercise-activity pattern, and the cognitive-perception pattern. Of special importance is the vigilance during the first post-operative hours, as well as the child's parenteral nutrition or total parenteral nutrition, TPN, and the evaluation of pain according to the age of the child. The authors select the NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association) Nursing Diagnoses which appear most frequently in this post-operative phase.