Acute Care for Nurses

Acute Care for Nurses 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.

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