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When a patient complains of shortness of breath, congestive heart failure (CHF) may be one of the first things you suspect, but a definitive diagnosis can be difficult. Now a new blood test that measures a cardiac biomarker, the terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), can give you an answer within minutes.
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While the two new requirements involving hand-offs and medication labeling are the most obvious changes in the 2006 National Patient Safety Goals just released by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, there are other, more subtle changes that also are critically important for nurse managers to know about.
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The diagnosis of meningitis was clear: The one-month-old infant showed classic signs and symptoms. A lumbar puncture was ordered, but antibiotics werent given until several hours later, and the child suffered severe brain damage. The result of the ensuing malpractice lawsuit: A $1 million settlement.
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This is the second of a two-part series on care of sepsis patients in the ED. This month, we cover educational strategies for emergency nurses regarding practice changes to comply with new guidelines. Last month, we covered new approaches for assessment and intervention in the ED.
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An 8-year-old boy with a fractured arm was grimacing in pain when he arrived at the ED at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. Nurses quickly learned about his love for dinosaurs, cars, and superheroes and talked to him about his interests.
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A man walks into your ED screaming at the top of his lungs and waving his arms wildly. Its clear that sedation is needed, but the safety of this patient and the ED staff is very much at risk.
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Overworked ED nurses at McKay-Dee Hospital Center in Ogden, UT, were frustrated with spending hours looking through charts to figure out charges for procedures.
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Care of the critically ill pregnant patient poses unique challenges. The normal physiology of a pregnant patient differs considerably from that of a non-pregnant patient and these differences may affect many aspects of routine care: resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, choice of drugs and use of diagnostic studies are some examples.
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This observational study from a university-affiliated, urban, tertiary hospital in Toledo, OH, retrospectively reviewed the records of 840 patients admitted to various ICUs to determine if the time to first visit by a physician had an effect on a number of clinically relevant outcomes.
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The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of subglottic secretion drainage in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Dezfulian and colleagues performed a comprehensive analysis of randomized trials that have compared subglottic secretion drainage with a standard endotracheal tube care in mechanically ventilated patients.
