Week 7 Flashcards
Prioritisation of Care
What is clinical deterioration?
Includes physiological, psychological and cognitive changes that indicate a worsening of a patient’s health status.
- refers to an individual whose medical condition is worsening or declining.
What is a primary survey?
Focuses on identifying life-threatening conditions and the need for emergency first aid.
What is a secondary survey?
Comprehensive head-to-toe or systematic patient assessment, including inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation of the body systems.
Nurses role in clinical deterioration
- must possess physical assessment skills for patient assessment.
- be able to interpret the findings accurately.
- awareness of where to locate, and how to use, emergency resuscitation equipment.
First sign of of deterioration
Tachypneic, meaning that they present with quick, shallow breathing.
What is a rapid response team?
clinical staff trained to respond rapidly to urgent calls fir help when it is suspected or apparent that a patient is experiencing serious clinical deterioration.
Strategies for managing a potentially deteriorating patient
- call for help: use the emergency call button.
- position the patient: depending on how the pt is presenting, generally guided by vital signs/symptoms.
- collect more information/data: while waiting for help, rv the pt’s medication chart, obs chart and perform regular assessment until help comes.
- oxygen therapy: may require additional oxygen therapy.
ABCDE approach
Designed to provide initial management of life-threatening conditions in order of priority, using a structured method to keep the patient alive and to achieve the first steps to improvement, rather than making a definitive diagnosis.
Role of the RN in ABCDE approach
Go through each step of this method and make an initial assessment of the deteriorating patient, this will determine the severity of the patient’s condition.
