Acute Care Nursing 1 Flashcards
What are the requirements of a medication prescription?
Must be legible Must contain: - start date - medicine - route - dose - frequency / dose times - indication (if appropriate) - prescriber name, signature, contact details
What are the high risk medications as specified by APINCHS
A - antimicrobials
P - potassium and other electrolytes / psychotropic medication
I - Insulin
N - narcotics/opioids
C - chemotherapeutic agents
H - heparin and other anticoagulants
S - systems (eg safe administration of liquid medications)
What are the 6 rights of medication administration?
1 - right patient 2 - right medication/drug 3 - right dose 4 - right route 5 - right time 6 - right documentation
Sites for subcutaneous injections
- anterior abdominal wall (5cm clear of umbilicus and any scars)
- anterior aspects of the upper arms
- anterior aspects of the thighs
- scapulae
Sites for intramuscular injections
- deltoid (upper arm)
- dorsogluteal (buttock)
- rectus femoris (anterior quadricep)
- vastus lateralis (lateral anterior quadricep)
- ventrogluteal (hip)
How to locate the ventrogluteal injection site
- place palm of hand against the greater truncator of the femur and index finger on the anterior on the anterior superior iliac spine of the pelvis
- abduct the middle finger posteriorly along the iliac crest
- inject between the V of the two fingers
Potential complications of IMI
- fibrosis and contractures of the muscles
- nerve injuries/palsy/neuropathy
- arterial puncture/haematoma formation
- local irritation/infection/abscess
What is the maximum injection volume for each injection site
- deltoid = 2mL (EXCEPT Invega Trinza, 2.6mL)
- ventrogluteal = 2.5mL
- dorsogluteal = 3mL
- vastus lateralis = 5mL
- rectus femoris = 5mL
What vital signs should be conducted?
- respiration rate
- oxygen saturation
- heart rate/rhythm/strength
- blood pressure
- temperature
- level of consciousness
- pain
- cognition
What aspects of respiration should be assessed?
- rate (breaths/min)
- rhythm
- depth and symmetry
- effort
- audible sounds
Types of audible/abnormal breath sounds
- stridor: high-pitched breath sound
- stertor: laboured snoring sound
- wheezing: high-pitched and squeaking
- crackles, bubbles, gurgles
Types of abnormal breathing patterns
- apnoea: absence of breathing
- tachypnoea: resp rate greater than 20 breaths/minute
- bradypnoea: resp rate less than 10 breaths/minute
- dyspnoea: shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
- hypoventilation: reduced rate and depth of breathing
- hyperventilation: rapid deep breathing
- Cheyne-Stokes: slow and increased depth of breathing with periods of apnoea. Sign of dying
Clinical conditions affecting oxygen sats
- severe hypoxia
- abnormally high pH
- hypotension
- arrhythmias
- hypothermia
- pharmacological vasoconstrictions
- peripheral oedema
- jaundice/hyperbilirubinaemia
- low perfusion states/poor peripheral circulation/peripheral vascular disease
- anaemia
- carbon monoxide exposure
- medical conditions such as COPD
Pulse sites
- temporal pulse
- carotid pulse
- apical pulse
- brachial pulse
- radial pulse
- femoral pulse
- popliteal pulse
- posterior tibial pulse
- pedal pulse
How to locate the apical pulse
5th intercostal space, left mid-clavicular line