The perioperative period, including admission, anesthesia, a surgical procedure, and recovery, challenges patients and makes them vulnerable. Nurses should pay attention to such issues as gender, age, past medical history, family and social history, education level, and allergies. In this case, a 30-year-old female in labor is analyzed. This perioperative patient is vulnerable due to the risk of harm and possible anesthesia-related problems (Cousley 246). The woman is single (her husband died six months ago in a car accident), and it is her second labor. Regarding such a complex social history, her decision-making capacity may be compromised, and the task of a nurse is to provide the patient with an ethical, caring culture (Valeberg et al. 53; Wada et al. 475). As the woman gives birth to her second child, she is aware of an available assortment of outside factors during a perioperative period (Cousley 253). In this case, the stressors are harried personnel, no privacy, and lack of family support.
Psychological and social vulnerability, the loss of control, and the patient’s personal temperament contribute to anesthesia choice. The woman does not have bleeding disorders and has not experienced complications related to anesthesia during her previous labor. Regional (epidural) anesthesia reduces mortality risks and problems with the central nervous system (Auron et al. 30). The patient aims at predicting her behavioral or emotional changes relying on her past experience and a high education level. A nurse needs to develop a dialogue to support the woman and share a plan of a procedure (Blomberg et al. 414). Fear of unknown, anxiety, grief, and increased responsibility as the only parent for her children are the major internal factors that make the patient vulnerable in this case.
Works Cited
Auron, Moises, et al. “Perioperative Management of Pregnant Women Undergoing Nonobstetric Surgery.” Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, vol. 88, no. 1, 2020, pp. 27-34.
Blomberg, Ann‐Catrin, et al. “Responsibility for Patient Care in Perioperative Practice.” Nursing Open, vol. 5, no. 3, 2018, pp. 414-421.
Cousley, A. “Vulnerability in Perioperative Patients: A Qualitative Study.” Journal of Perioperative Practice, vol. 25, no. 12, 2015, pp. 246-256.
Valeberg, Berit T., et al. “Nurse Anaesthetist Students’ Experiences of Patient Dignity in Perioperative Practice – A Hermeneutic Study.” Nursing Open, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, pp. 53-61.
Wada, Kyolo, et al. “Can Women in Labor Give Informed Consent to Epidural Analgesia?” Bioethics, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 475-486.