Monitoring Temperature
Care should be taken when using the tympanic thermometer, because poor technique can render the measurement inaccurate. To ensure that the temperature measurements are accurate, the tympanic thermometer probe should…
Monitoring the Critically Ill, Pregnant Patient
html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”> 16 Monitoring the Critically Ill, Pregnant Patient LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of the chapter the reader will be able to: outline the relevant physiological changes that occur…
Monitoring the Patient with Infection and Related Systemic Inflammatory Response
Acquired Defences Humoral Immunity Exposure to a certain infectious disease creates a resistance to that disease. Specialised blood proteins called antibodies are produced which bind to the infectious agent or…
Monitoring Hepatic Function
The neurological status of the patient should be evaluated and closely monitored; in brief, the conscious level, motor movement, sensory pupil size and reaction to light should be examined. In…
Monitoring Nutritional Status
Table 11.2 provides a comprehensive guide to the relevant monitoring required when a patient is receiving TPN. In particular the nurse should be alert to the possible complications of TPN….
Monitoring Gastrointestinal Function
Hiatus hernia Gastritis Peptic ulcers Tumours Oesophagogastric dismotility Pyloric stenosis result of chronic peptic ulcerationBiliary tractGallstones Hepatoma Metastic liver diseaseSmall and large intestineCrohn’s disease Irritable bowel syndrome ObstructionMetabolicUraemia Diabetic ketoacidosis…
Monitoring Neurological Function
The GCS can be used by different observers and still produce a consistent assessment and has been found to be reliable and easy to use (Ciechanowski et al. 2009). However,…
Recognition and Management of the Deteriorating Patient
Unfortunately, most in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrests are caused by either asystole (39%) (Fig. 1.2) or pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (37%) (i.e. no pulse, but an ECG trace that would normally be…
Assessment of the Critically Ill Patient
Resuscitation Council UK (2011) Causes of Altered Conscious Level Causes of altered conscious level include: severe hypoxia poor cerebral perfusion drugs, e.g. sedatives, opioids cerebral pathology hypercapnia hypoglycaemia alcohol Treatment…
