Following an evisceration, the nurse must protect the integrity of the intestines by covering them with gauze soaked in warmed sterile normal saline. The nurse places the patient in low Fowler’s, not high Fowler’s, with the knees flexed. The nurse stays with the patient and recruits a colleague to contact the surgeon and attending physician; this is not the nurse’s initial action. The patient should be encouraged to relax the abdominal muscles, not engage them, to prevent strangulation of the eviscerated intestines.