Critical Care Nursing

This new textbook explores the essential concepts that form the basis of critical care nursing practice in all settings. Built on a strong medical-surgical nursing foundation, it examines the impact of current trends in health care on the critical care nursing field and prepares nurses to meet the resultant challenges.An introductory unit investigates critical care across the healthcare continuum ethical/legal issues the professional role of the critical care nurse and cultural concerns. It also examines how critical illness affects the patient and family.Subsequent units address individual body systems, each progressing from an overview of anatomy and physiology through history-taking and physical assessment normal changes associated with aging relevant laboratory and diagnostic tests and specific disorder chapters. An additional unity explores complex, multisystem disorders.
Each disorder is discussed in a single chapter, following a consistent format that reviews etiology and pathophysiology assessment nursing diagnoses collaborative management and multidisciplinary outcomes.Clinical Exemplars in each unit present examples of caring and competent nursing practice. Written by nurses nominated for AACN Excellence Awards, these stories provide insight into the complexities of critical care nursing and its potential impact on patients and their families.
Learning tools include chapter objectives summaries of key concepts Beyond the ICU, Research Utilization, and Ethical Dilemmacharts sample Clinical Pathways and Critical Thinking exercises.Appendices present the most current ACLS Guidelines.