Find out how to start a pressure ulcer prevention program on your unit or in your facility.
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Find out how to start a pressure ulcer prevention program on your unit or in your facility.
Learn about LINX, a surgical procedure for treating chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease.
Reproductive status, hormonal therapy, oral contraceptives, irregular menstrual cycles, and pregnancy complications may raise womanās risk of cardiovascular disease.
Anaphylaxis can kill within minutes unless the victim receives immediate treatment. Calling a rapid response team to the scene can avert disaster.
Stop life-threatening pneumothorax with quick thinking and action.
An antibiotic infusion triggers a near-fatal reaction.
The patient thinks she knows what’s causing her chest pain. Her nurse knows she must rule out myocardial infarction.
Global traveling brings about 1,000 cases of malaria to this country each year. Don’t be caught off guard if you encounter it in your practice.
More than 1 million Americans a year suffer a myocardial infarction (MI). This article tells you how – and how quickly – you need to respond to the most dangerous MI.
When a patient begins to vomit bright red blood, a nurse relies on his knowledge of Mallory-Weiss tears-and the adroit interventions of the rapid response team.
The author clears up misconceptions and discusses treatment.
Researchers use the odds ratio to analyze which of two groups of individuals
is more likely to have an adverse outcome. Find out how to calculate the
odds ratio and interpret its significance
Saving a patient’s life may rest on recognizing which findings are red herrings and which hold the key to the crisis.
Many patients face prolonged recovery and permanent disability after a traumatic brain injury. This article reviews appropriate assessment and intervention and highlights family care.
Typically caused by antibiotic therapy, Clostridium difficile is now common in hospitals. Learn how to help stop the spread of this potentially fatal infection.
Community-acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is exactly what it sounds likeāa lung infection acquired while out and about in the world. The cause may be a virus, bacteria, or fungus. (See CAP stats.) community acquired pneumonia cap stats The estimated cost of treating CAP in the United States is about $12.2 billion a year. Inpatient treatment ranges from $7,500 to $10,227 per admission, whereas outpatient treatment ranges from $150 to $350 per patient. This difference demonstrates the need for accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Why critically ill patients with acute renal failure need continuous renal replacement therapy.
Dog bites can cause serious or even fatal injuries. Find out how to assess and intervene when your patient has been bitten.
Deep-brain stimulation can make a significant difference in the lives of patients with dystonia.
Thanks to an alert nurse, an elderly patient avoids respiratory failure during her recovery from hip fracture surgery.
Early recognition and action can save a limb.
Check out these highlights from the American College of Chest Physicians’ new guidelines.
Fast, focused assessment and action can stop this dangerous imbalance.
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), the most common healthcare-associated infection, can be deadly.
Without effective treatment, more than 40% of frostbite
victims require digital amputation. Can Jonathanās toes
be saved?
Most patients manage the heartburn, nausea, and belching of gastroesophegeal reflux disease with lifestyle changes and medications. But some may experience a dangerous symptom cluster that warns of more serious problems.
Many patients with HIV/AIDS are doing well on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Yet HAART can increase cardiovascular risks by reducing high-density lipoprotein levels, raising triglyceride levels, and causing insulin resistance.
This rare and sometimes hard-to-detect condition can jeopardize your patient’s life and limb.
In its early stages, sepsis can be difficult to detect.
Learn about the sometimes-subtle signs and symptoms.
Although painful and disruptive, interstitial cystitis often can be managed with drugs, bladder instillation and other procedures, and dietary changes. Most patients also need psychosocial support or professional counseling to deal with related stress, anxiety, depression, and frustration.
A type of dialysis, MARS removes toxins and replaces
lost liver functions.
Most elderly men don’t know they are at risk for osteoporosis-and they probably won’t find out until a nurse tells them.
Pain, arthritis, fractures, and skeletal deformities are calling cards of Paget’s disease. A new one-dose drug therapy can produce extended remission.
Peripheral arterial disease is all too common – and all too often goes unrecognized.
Despite recent gains in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, a cure is a long way off. Diagnosis and therapy can be tricky, and prognosis remains poor. Still, there are ways nurses can help slow disease progression and improve quality of life for a child with this condition.
When you administer paternal and enteral phenytoin (Dilantin), make sure your patient stays free from seizures and drug toxicity.
Recognizing this rare condition requires knowledge – and some creative thinking.
Suspect polymyalgia in patients who continue to decline after treatment for pericardial effusion.
Patients with traumatic brain injuries can suffer from this syndrome for months or even years after injury.
Pressure mapping shows you high risk areas, so you can take steps to help prevent pressure ulcers.
How to manage this complex condition correctly to avoid severe complications.
Complications of an anterior cervical fusion did not lead to an airway obstruction because of one nurse’s assessment skills and critical thinking.
Identify the signs of hypovolemia and intervene before hypovolemic shock develops.
Avoid multiple organ failure with early monitoring and early intervention.
How an evidence-based protocol for risk assessment and risk-based prophylaxis can decrease venous thromboembolism in your institution.
I.V. fluids should help a dehydrated patient, but for one with a history of atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease, they could contribute to pulmonary edema. For Grace Johnson, quick assessment and action staved off a poor outcome.
Dr. Curtin explores the healing effects of focused intention.
Follow the signs and symptoms to this unusual source of life-threatening bleeding.
For a postoperative laminectomy patient, sudden left-sided weakness and sensation loss warrant a STAT return to the OR.
Without quick thinking and a call to the rapid response team, this reaction to atypical antipsychotics can kill.
When a cancer patient’s thirst increases and urine output decreases, suspect syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone.
While hiking, Paul Sawyer, age 31, is bitten twice on the right hand by a rattlesnake. When he arrives at the emergency department (ED), the team obtains STAT laboratory tests, including a complete blood count, prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen, fibrin, chemistry panel, blood typing and crossmatch, urinalysis, and urine myoglobin.
Manay dangerous ischemic events are clinically silent. Continuous ST-segment monitoring gives early warning of the silent ischemia that many other diagnostic methods fail to detect.
How to recognize sepsis in time and use the therapies recommended by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign.
Read this puzzling case history, and see if you can decide on the correct diagnosis.
You can help patients suffering from this chronic skin disease.
Rising intracranial pressure calls for fast action.
Recognize and reverse this medical emergency.
An update on risk factors, prevention, and treatment.
Nursing vigilance helps a patient with chronic obstructive oulmonary disease stave off respiratory failure.
Each year, emergency departments see about 1.5 million patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Update your knowledge of the disease and its treatment.
Air enters a patient’s central venous catheter site. It’s all down hill from there.
Protect your ARDS patients from danger with perfusion, positioning, protective lung ventilation, protocol weaning, and prevention of complications.
This complex disorder takes many forms, has many causes, and is growing more common due to increased heparin
exposure. Learn how to help prevent it, identify it early, and manage both the disorder and its complications.
When a patient’s blood pressure goes stratospheric, the first priority is to check for signs of organ damage.
Use The Joint Commission core measures to improve the care of patients with heart failure.
How genetic testing ensures that patients start warfarin therapy at their personal-best doses.
A new lab technique called segmented gradient gel electrophoresis identifies subclasses of cholesterol and more precisely predicts your patient’s cardiac risk.
A patient’s brief loss of consciousness leads to discovery of long QT syndrome. By thinking fast and making all the right moves, you can stave off the threat of torsades de pointes.
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