Non-pharmacological nursing interventions in Post-Operative Nausea and Vomiting treatment.

Abstract

Background: Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is one of the most common complications after surgery, causing patient discomfort, longer stays at hospital settings and other complication after surgery such as electrolyte imbalance, hemorrhage and rsk of wound opening. Currently many pharmacological interventions are available but they show little efficacy and they count with many serious side-effects and are very costly treatments. Task and objectives: The objective of this paper is to conduct a research on non- pharmacological interventions to mitigate PONV that can be conducted by nurses. Implementation method: This is a literature review, we have used two databases; Medline and Cinahl. Articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria and their quality was assessed using the assessment score from Hawker & Payne by two researchers. The data analysis was conducted using content analysis methodology. Results: Research conducted found that nurses can implement subjective and/or objective treatments. Subjective treatments are based on patient trust and interventions without and object. Objective treatment includes: GRS (Go-rei-San) herbal compound, fluid therapy, aromatherapy, acupressure, Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation TEA P6 and Chewing Gum Conclusions: Several options as non-pharmacological treatment are available, however, more research needs to be done in that field as there are many factors to consider like, type of surgery, length of surgery, anesthesia type, gender.