Tutorial: Drafting Your First Post-Operative Recovery Instructions

This tutorial walks you through a complete session with an AI tool. The task: draft post-operative recovery instructions for a patient who has just had a total hip replacement. She is 68 years old, fit and well otherwise, and is going home tomorrow under an enhanced recovery pathway. She has her daughter with her.

The whole process takes around fifteen minutes the first time. By the third time, five.

You do not need any technical knowledge. You need a free account at claude.ai or chat.openai.com.

Step 1: Open the tool and start a fresh conversation

Go to claude.ai or chat.openai.com. Sign in. You will see a text box at the bottom of the screen. Click inside it. Start a fresh conversation each time you begin a new task.

Step 2: Set the task before giving any clinical content

Type the following first — this is your instruction to the tool, not the clinical content:

You are helping an orthopaedic surgeon draft post-operative recovery 
instructions for patients. I will give you the clinical parameters. 
Draft clear, structured instructions in plain English using numbered 
lists and clear headings. Do not include specific drug names, doses, 
or anaesthetic information. Do not include fasting instructions.

Press Enter. The tool will acknowledge — something like "Understood. Please share the clinical parameters."

Step 3: Provide your clinical parameters

Type your anonymised parameters. For this tutorial, use:

Procedure: total hip replacement, posterior approach with capsular repair.
Patient: woman, 68, otherwise fit, enhanced recovery pathway, 
discharging tomorrow.

Parameters:
- Weight-bearing: full weight-bearing with walking frame from day one, 
  progress to crutches by day 3–4
- Hip precautions: no hip flexion beyond 90 degrees, no crossing legs, 
  no rotating leg inward — for 6 weeks
- Wound care: waterproof dressing in place, no bathing until wound 
  healed at 2 weeks, shower with dressing covered
- Swelling: expected for months, elevate leg when resting, 
  ice 20 minutes three times daily for first 2 weeks
- Driving: not for 6 weeks
- Stairs: can do with bannister from day one
- Driving: not for 6 weeks
- Return to light household activities: 2–4 weeks
- Warning signs: sudden severe hip pain, leg shortening or rotation, 
  clicking or clunking, fever, wound redness or discharge, 
  sudden calf swelling or pain

Step 4: Read the first draft

The tool will produce a structured document in under thirty seconds. Here is the kind of thing it might produce:

Your Recovery After Total Hip Replacement

Going Home

You are going home tomorrow as part of an enhanced recovery programme. This is planned and safe. Most patients find they feel much more comfortable at home than in hospital.

Getting Around

You will leave hospital using a walking frame. Use the frame for all walking for the first few days. You can progress to crutches around day three or four when you feel ready. Your physiotherapist will guide you on this before you leave.

Important Hip Precautions — Please Follow These for 6 Weeks

Your new hip can dislocate if moved in certain ways during the first six weeks while the tissues heal around it. Please follow these rules:

1. Do not bend your hip beyond 90 degrees (do not lean forward further than a right angle when sitting).
2. Do not cross your legs or ankles.
3. Do not rotate your leg inward (do not turn your foot in toward the other leg).

These precautions apply when sitting, lying, dressing, and using the toilet. A raised toilet seat and chair raisers may be helpful — your physiotherapist can advise.

Wound Care

Your wound has a waterproof dressing on it. You can shower, keeping the dressing dry with a waterproof cover. Do not have a bath until the wound is fully healed — usually at two weeks. If the dressing comes off or the wound looks wet, call the ward.

Swelling

Swelling around the hip and thigh is normal and can last for several months. When resting, raise your leg on a cushion. Apply an ice pack wrapped in a damp towel for 20 minutes, three times a day, for the first two weeks.

Stairs

You can manage stairs from day one — lead with your good leg going up, and your operated leg going down. Hold the bannister.

Driving

Do not drive for six weeks after surgery. You need to be able to perform an emergency stop safely.

Everyday Activities

Most light household activities — cooking, light tidying — can be resumed at two to four weeks. Avoid heavy lifting, gardening, and more demanding activities until your six-week review.

When to Seek Urgent Help

Contact the ward or go to your nearest emergency department immediately if you experience:

• Sudden severe pain in the hip
• The leg looks shorter than the other, or is rotated outward
• A click, clunk, or give-way sensation in the hip
• Fever
• Increasing redness, warmth, or discharge from the wound
• Sudden pain or swelling in the calf

Your Next Appointment

[Add appointment details here]

Step 5: Review as a clinician

Read the draft against your surgical protocol. In this example, you notice:

• The hip precautions are correct for a posterior approach with capsular repair
• The weight-bearing progression is accurate
• The warning signs are clinically appropriate — all the relevant ones are there

What needs adjustment: the line "Do not have a bath until the wound is fully healed — usually at two weeks." Your unit's wound care advice says two to three weeks depending on healing. Change this to "usually at two to three weeks, or when told by your surgical team."

Step 6: Add information the tool cannot provide

Copy the draft into your clinical system or word processor. Now add:

• Your ward's phone number and hours
• The physiotherapy department contact
• The patient's next appointment date and time
• The patient's name at the top of the document
• Any medication instructions (from your standard prescribing — not from the tool)

Step 7: Replace general guidance with your unit's specific protocol

Check whether your unit's specific protocols differ from what the tool produced. In this example:

• Your anaesthetic department uses a specific wound dressing that is removed at ten days, not at two weeks. Update this line.
• Your unit provides raised toilet seats to patients before discharge — mention this in the hip precautions section.

Step 8: Read the complete document one final time

Read it aloud — slowly. Your patient is 68, going home tomorrow, mildly anxious about managing at home, with her daughter reading over her shoulder. Every sentence needs to be immediately clear on first reading.

Remove any sentence that is ambiguous. Check the warning signs section is prominent and easy to find. Ensure the phone number to call is clearly visible.

What the tool does badly

The tool cannot know your surgical approach — and hip precautions differ significantly between approaches. For an anterior approach, most precautions do not apply, and giving posterior approach precautions to an anterior approach patient will restrict them unnecessarily. Always specify the approach in your prompt and check the precautions section against your protocol.

The tool also cannot generate medication instructions. Do not add medication guidance to the prompt. These instructions come from your prescribing team and pharmacy.

What to try next

Use the same approach to draft the physiotherapy referral letter for the same patient. You already have the clinical parameters. The workflow is identical: set the task, provide the parameters, review the draft, add what only you can add.

Remember: AI is a helpful assistant, not a clinician. You make the call.