ED Nursing Archives – May 1, 2009
May 1, 2009
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New ED protocols dramatically improve survival rates of cardiac arrest patients
A 35-year-old patient was brought to the ED at Long Island College Hospital of Brooklyn (NY) in full cardiac arrest. His heart was successfully restarted, but he was in a coma and in danger of suffering brain damage. By lowering his body temperature, swelling of the brain was prevented, and the patient awoke from the coma with no lasting damage. -
Take steps now to prevent pressure ulcers in your ED
If patients spend hours or even days in your ED, they are at increased risk for pressure ulcers. -
Put a stop to IV med errors with 4 practices
Intravenous (IV) drug errors are twice as likely to cause harm to patients as drugs given orally, according to new research from the American Society of Health- System Pharmacists (ASHP). -
While patients wait, triage nurses do interventions
Triage nurses at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center in Houston ordered a chest X-ray for a patient who reported chest pain but had stable vitals and a normal EKG. As a result, the patient's pneumothorax was identified quickly. -
Go above and beyond with med reconciliation
When a young man came to an ED, he appeared to be developmentally delayed, but this was not the case. -
New test tells if kidney damage is acute or chronic
Your patient's serum creatinine, the current diagnostic test for renal failure, is elevated to 2.0. This could be due to volume depletion, chronic kidney disease that the patient has had for years, or acute kidney injury.