ICU Nursing Paper

Critically ill patients that require mechanical ventilation are at risk of developing secondary infections that may increase length of stay and possibly even morbidity. This fragile patient population requires special attention and meticulous adherence to established nursing standards of care. These standards of care are founded on evidenced based practices. It is important that nurses receive education about why these standards are in place and what consequences can result due to not following the established care protocols.

The concept of nurse residency programs is not by any means a new concept. Programs have been grounded on Benner’s theory of novice to expert. Benner established the notation that nurses develop skills and understanding of job skills over time through an education also with hands on experiences. She noted a nurse passes through five levels of proficiency: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert and was generally reached only after years of gaining experience as a practicing nurse. A nurse residency can facilitate new nurse graduates to transition smoothly through the levels and sometimes even more quickly. As a new graduate a nurse residency program is very appealing, not only does it help mentor you through novice period but also helps develop competent nurses for the organization.

ICU patients suffer from a broad range of pathologies, requiring MV, sedation and use of multiples devices, which do not allow patients to protect their airway (Augustyn. 2007; Kollef. 2004).

I am interested in pursuing a career in nursing. A career that really interests me is a neonatal intensive care nurse. This is a type of nurse that works in a neonatal intensive care unit. These nurses often work with infants who were born prematurely, born with birth defects, or infants who are having critical complications during the first month after birth. Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit require constant monitoring and are often being treated for life threatening diseases. According to The National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) approximately 40,000 infants are born each year in the United States needing specialized NICU care. NICU nurses are always present when a baby is being delivered so they can provide immediate

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an in depth exploration of the nursing care considerations of patients in a specific clinical area. Through the synthesis of prior knowledge, clinical experiences and skills, evidence based best practices, and care of patients a comprehensive care and teaching plan will be composed. Integration of critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills, combined with evidence-based research will provide confirmation of nursing process comprehension. The inclusion of reviewed literature will further support knowledge and understanding.

The health care industry is experiencing a surge in the number of baby-boomers needing health care and increased demands on the physicians providing the care. This trend has made the role of Advanced practice providers more important (cite). It is imperative to understand the differences and similarities in the advanced practice provider roles as it pertains to healthcare. This paper will identify specialty nursing roles including advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). It will further compare and contrast the advanced practice nurse (APN) and physician assistant (PA) roles in practice.

When I arrive to the Trauma ICU 4800 unit, all of the nurses were already being followed by other students. The nurse in charge had me follow several different nurses, so I was able to observed several different patient cases. The first patient had received a triple bypass open-heart surgery. The patient had received a creatinine blood test. The patient had a dialysis machine next to them, which was used to function as the kidneys since the patient’s kidneys were not functioning correctly. Also, the patient’s body temperature was lowered from having a taken cool liquids so the nurses were keeping him warm with a bair hugger, which was a machine that helped regulate the patient's’ body temperatures.

This process paper will evaluate the complex relationship between disease pathophysiology and how it has progressed to the patient’s current state of health. It will include a comprehensive discussion of chronic and acute problems leading to the patient’s hospital admission, a complete description of interrelationships and pathophysiology for all medical diagnoses, a comprehensive discussion of the client’s signs and symptoms and results of all diagnostic studies to the underlying pathophysiology, and a comprehensive listing of all medications ordered at the time of admission with explanations of why each was ordered and identification of the most common side effects which may

The American Association of Critical-Care Nursing (AACN) is the largest nursing organization of a non-profit character in the world. It represents 500,000 nurses and their interests. The responsibility of these nurses is to provide health care services to the critically and acutely ill patients. Thus, the duty of the AACN organization is to give its members all the possible resources and knowledge, so that they could help critically ill clients become healthier. Therefore, I would like to join the AACN organization. To become a member of this particular organization I need to learn more about it by researching some questions.

This essay sets out to discuss the importance of comprehensive and accurate assessment on a registered nurses’ ability to make excellent clinical decisions. It will examine what factors can change a nurses’ capability to be aware of, and act on abnormal assessment findings. As well as assessment being part of the nursing process that is used in every day nursing, it is also a critical part of patient safety (Higgins, 2008). Assessment findings are used to determine what needs to be done for the patient next. Early warning scoring systems currently exist to aid in the early detection of patient deterioration (Goldhill, 2005). The rationale for the use of these systems is that early recognition of deterioration in the vital signs of a

A brief history of what the American Red Cross does. As one of the nation’s premier humanitarian organizations, the American Red Cross is dedicated to helping people in need throughout the United States and, in association with other Red Cross networks, throughout the world, (The American Red Cross, 2016). They depend on the many generous contributions of time, blood, and money from the American public to support their lifesaving services and programs, (The American Red Cross, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to inform you of the Red Cross’s Mission, give a description of the members, their dues, and benefits.

My nurse preceptor today was Patricia. Patricia was an amazing preceptor with an immense amount of knowledge. I enjoyed Patricia’s passion for knowledge. She just finished her DNP. She spoke to me about how she also held two bachelors degrees and a masters in nursing. She was very caring of her patient and showed compassion to not only the patient but the family as well. I don’t think I would have done anything differently because she was a great patient advocate, caring healthcare professional, and great at time management. I was fortunate to have worked with her today in the CICU. We had a 1:1 assignment, a 67 year old male who had a STEMI. Ultimately, he ended up needing an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) to assist his heart. This was placed 8/31.

This essay will now analyze the nursing intervention that requires for the acutely ill patient to prevent an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The nurse carried out an initial assessment of a full history, taking in consideration that the patient was over 35 years of age who has been, or still is, a cigarette smoker, with vascular related diseases and had symptoms of breathlessness on exertion, chest tightness, wheezing, coughing, sputum production especially in the morning and chest infection (Currie 2009). A physical examination was done to check the patient respiration rate, depth and rhythm, blood pressure, pulse, temperature and oxygen saturation (Lynes 2007). The acutely ill patient’s respiration was between 30-34 breaths per minute, blood pressure 580/98, pulse 110 beat per minute and saturation levels 80-82%. Increase respiration indicates that the patient was in fear, pain and anxious. Anxiety causes stimulation of sympathetic nervous activation which forces bronchioles

The nurse manager I selected to interview is a Baccalaureate degree nurse and has attended several in-house training sessions related to her position within the hospital. She attended Lenoir Rhyne University to obtain her BSN and has been employed with the institution for 13 years and has been in nursing for nearly 20 years. She is currently certified as a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and is also a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. The Hospital that she is employed with is a private hospital she manages a 15 bed emergency department and 6 bed express care facility, which also holds several involuntary commitments for several hours at a time waiting on placement.

The orientation process for new hires lasts six weeks. The new nurse attends nursing orientation for one week and then is assign a preceptor on the unit for each shift. The DPCS introduces the new employee to their preceptor. This nurse works three weeks on the day shift, one week on the evening shift and one week on the night shift working with both medically acute rehabilitation patients and surgical patients. Nurses receive extra days of their orientation with patients that the nurse has limited clinical experience such as a nurse with postoperative experience will work more with the medically acute rehabilitation patients to practice new skills. For new graduates their orientation is individualize and can last from 8-16 weeks.