Patient Needs, Death, and Dying in Surgical Technology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering patient needs, special patient populations, and protocols surrounding death and dying in surgical technology.

Aeger Primo

The guiding surgical technology motto meaning "The Patient First," emphasizing that every surgical patient is a unique individual requiring critical thinking and holistic, patient-centered care.

Direct Care

Hands-on care delivered straight from a health-care worker (such as a surgeon, nurse, or surgical technologist) to the patient involving physical touch and specialized anatomical knowledge.

Indirect Care

Care provided in support of health-care workers delivering direct patient care; it typically does not involve hands-on contact and is often carried out by ancillary departments.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

A triangular developmental framework stating that most basic human needs must be satisfied before higher needs can be fulfilled; ordered from physiological needs up through security and safety, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

Physiological (Biological) Needs

The most fundamental human needs that must be satisfied first, including nutrition, water (fluid balance), shelter, air and oxygen ($O_2/CO_2$ exchange), rest, sleep, elimination, movement, and freedom from pain.

AMA

An abbreviation for "against medical advice," referring to a competent patient's legal right to refuse medical or surgical treatment.

Infant (Pediatric Stage)

The pediatric developmental stage spanning from birth to 18 months of age.

Toddler (Pediatric Stage)

The pediatric developmental stage spanning from 19 months to 3 years of age.

Preschooler (Pediatric Stage)

The pediatric developmental stage spanning from 4 to 6 years of age.

School-Aged Child (Pediatric Stage)

The pediatric developmental stage spanning from 7 to 12 years of age.

Adolescent (Pediatric Stage)

The pediatric developmental stage spanning from 13 to 16 years of age.

Pediatric Thermoregulation Challenge

The physiological vulnerability wherein pediatric patients cannot regulate body temperature due to low body fat, and infants under 6 months cannot shiver to generate heat.

Pediatric Urinary Catheterization Restriction

The clinical standard stating that surgical patients under 6 months of age cannot be catheterized due to the high risk of injury to the urethra.

Obese Patient (Surgical Definition)

A patient who is 100 pounds heavier than their ideal body weight, requiring specialized equipment, extra transfer assistance, and deep surgical instruments.

Pregnant Surgical Patient Positioning

Surgical positioning that involves placing a roll under the patient's right hip to relieve pressure on major abdominal vessels.

Watters and McClaran's Critical Factors

A set of guidelines for achieving the best surgical outcomes in geriatric patients, including physiological optimization, careful pharmacology management, gentle surgical technique, and minimizing hypothermia, hypoxia, and pain.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A condition seen in veterans, assault victims, and individuals exposed to violence, marked by irritability, aggression, and heightened reactivity to environmental stressors such as noise and surgical sharps.

Denial (Kübler-Ross Model)

The initial, temporary coping defense mechanism where an individual refuses to acknowledge the reality of impending death or severe loss.

Anger (Kübler-Ross Model)

The second stage of grief that surfaces when denial can no longer be maintained, typically characterized by feelings of rage and the question, "Why is this happening to me?"

Bargaining (Kübler-Ross Model)

The third stage of grief where a dying patient seeks to postpone death by making promises or negotiating for more time.

Depression (Kübler-Ross Model)

The fourth stage of grief that occurs when denial, anger, and bargaining subside, allowing the deep sadness and reality of the impending loss to set in.

Acceptance (Kübler-Ross Model)

The final stage of grief reached after working through preceding stages, characterized by accepting death as an inevitable reality.

Determination of Death

The formal clinical verification of death in the operating room, jointly performed by the surgeon and the anesthesia provider using established brain death criteria.

Criteria for Determining Death

Clinical parameters including irreversible cardiovascular cessation, non-drug/non-hypothermic respiratory failure, absent response to external stimuli, lack of cranial nerve reflexes, and absent EEG brain activity.

Physical Changes of Death

Post-mortem bodily alterations that include hypothermia (cooling down), loss of muscle tone, open eyes, dropped jaw, livor mortis, and rigor mortis.

Post-Mortem Body Positioning

The immediate protocol following death in the clinical setting of elevating the head of the bed to $30^\top$ degrees, closing the eyes and jaw, and placing absorbent pads.

Post-Mortem Invasive Device Protocol

The standard procedure requiring that all catheters, intravenous lines ($\text{IVs}$), and surgical tubes remain left in place on the deceased patient for coroner and post-mortem evaluation.

Coroner’s Cases

Jurisdictional deaths requiring forensic investigation, including unexplained, suspicious, homicidal, suicidal, accidental, or poisoning-related deaths, as well as deaths where no practitioner attended within 30 days or a physician cannot be located within 6 days to sign the certificate.