[Surgery in children and adolescents]

The authors explain in a standardized model of nursing care for children and adolescents durning pre-operative phase, the first part in the global surgical process. This phase commences at the moment a surgical intervention is deemed necessary and finalizes when the child/adolescent is transported to the operating room. The authors perform a systematic and holistic evaluation, using the Gordon Functional Health Patterns. Special emphasis is given to aspects such as the perception-management health pattern, the nutritional-metabolic pattern, the elimination pattern, the exercise-activity pattern, the dream-rest pattern, the self-perception pattern and the adaptation-stress tolerance pattern. They evaluate the perception and responses children of varying ages provide to being separated from parents. They highlight the cultural factors which must be born in mind in order to achieve an adequate evaluation and individualized care. The authors select the Nursing Diagnoses of NANDA, the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, which most frequently appear in this pre-operative phase: fear/anxiety, risk of aspiration, risk of an alteration in health maintenance, and risk of infection. Finally, the authors describe the nursinginterventions related with these diagnoses.