Pre-operative assessment and post-operative care
RCSI heading: Teaching the junior student nurse. This topic is one of the current examples RCSI names for the station. You get 1 minute to think and 7 to teach, leaving time inside the ten-minute station for the assessor. The assessor marks what you teach and how. Check rcsi.com before your date.
Teach it
Out loud, standing, to an empty chair if you have to. Record yourself if you want to hear how much of the time you talked.
You are the staff nurse on a surgical ward. A second-year student is with you for the day.
Mrs Dunne, 66, in bed 3, is second on the list for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. She is fasting, her consent form is signed and her left wrist has an identity band.
The student asks: "What are we actually checking before she goes down, and what do I watch for when she comes back?"
teach the student the pre-operative checks the ward nurse makes, the safe surgery checklist, and the first hours of post-operative care.
The pass: theory and OSCE
Teach every topic on the clock.
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Sources
- HSE National Policy and Procedure for Safe Surgery 2022 (V3, current), sections 13 to 16 checked 2026-09-16
- HSE National Consent Policy checked 2026-09-16
- HSE Irish National Early Warning System V2 checked 2026-09-16
- NMBI, Quality Clinical Learning Environment (page 6 on the RCSI list)
The situation is a practice piece written to the shape of the RCSI descriptors. It is not an exam task; the exam may name any topic from the reading list.
Something wrong or out of date? (Teaching pre-and-post-operative-care)