This thesis has been intended as a revision of the literature about skeletal traction, particularly about how nurses should apply it. Skeletal traction is a device that temporarily stabilises a fracture, it is still used in orthopaedic and traumatologic operating units if it is not possible to operate the fracture permanently in a short time.
This method is beneficial on a particular type of fracture, but is not risk free so it should be applied only if needed. It is doctors' task to decide whether to insert a skeletal traction and how to place it, nurses collaborate during positiong and then takes care of the patient after the traction has been applied. Nurses must know how to take care of a patient in this condition in order to avoid the outbreak of complications that could affect the successful outcome of the therapy and the following recovery.
For the patient to be in the best possibile conditions in surgery day, it's fundamental to draft an assistance plan based on the needs of the person and considering the circumstances and actions that could harm the patient. Furthermore, the assistance plan ensures a continuous and uniform assistance by all the nurses of the operating unit.
In writing this thesis, basical notions were searched in anatomy and physiology books, while more specifical orthopaedic texts were consulted to illustrate the technical part, about the inserting of the traction and the reasons for placing it. Finally, the strictly nursing part was based on the text used to draft the assistance plan and on articles, the most pertinents of which have been selected in this work.
