A practical handbook to boost your confidence with assessment techniques and key clinical skills when administering effective acute care
This helpful revision tool was developed to assist healthcare workers in the field of acute care, at a time when healthcare professionals have been under more pressure than ever before. In Acute Care for Nurses, readers will find: - A revision of medicines management formulas, plus advanced formulas seen in a clinical setting, with chapters on sepsis and conflict resolution - Assessment techniques and the individual components of the ABCDE assessment, covering vital signs, clinical observation at superficial and more in-depth levels, and clinical actions - Higher skills, such as caring for the ventilated patient and fluid resuscitation in adults and children, and subcutaneous fluid hydration - Critical care simulation and need-to-know medical abbreviations, plus three helpful appendices containing tool kits and charts
Acute Care for Nurses is a must-have resource for nursing students, including nursing associates, registered nurses and midwives, assistant practitioners and senior healthcare assistants, return to practice nurses, overseas nurses and anyone else requiring acute clinical skills and assessment techniques.
Table of Contents
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
PART 1 NURSING IN THE ACUTE CARE SETTING 1
1 DIAGNOSTIC TESTS AND ADVANCED FORMULAE 3
2 RECOGNISING SEPSIS 25
3 CONFLICT RESOLUTION 43
4 PATIENT ASSESSMENT 63
5 SITUATION, BACKGROUND, ASSESSMENT, AND RESPONSE (SBAR) 89
PART 2 RECOGNISING AND RESPONDING TO MEDICAL EMERGENCIES 103
6 AIRWAY 105
7 BREATHING 117
8 CIRCULATION 135
9 DISABILITY 149
10 EXPOSURE 173
PART 3 ACUTE CARE SKILLS 185
11 EMERGENCY FLUID MANAGEMENT 187
12 TREATING PAEDIATRIC DEHYDRATION 207
13 HYPODERMOCLYSIS 217
14 CENTRAL LINES 231
15 INVASIVE AND NON-INVASIVE VENTILATION 243
PART 4 CRITICAL CARE SIMULATION 265
16 CRITICAL CARE SIMULATION 267
17 MEDICAL ABBREVIATIONS 281
18 ANSWERS TO ACTIVITIES, QUESTIONS, AND TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE 293
APPENDIX 1: NATIONAL EARLY WARNING SCORE 2 OBSERVATION CHART 315
APPENDIX 2: SEPSIS TOOL CHART 317
APPENDIX 3: FLUID PRESCRIPTION CHART 319
INDEX 321
