Given the complexity of critical care practice today, it’s impossible for even experienced clinicians to remember all the information required to give safe and effective care to critically ill patients. Clinicians frequently need to use a variety of clinical resources to verify drug information, normal laboratory and physiologic values, ECG and hemodynamic monitoring information, emergency algorithms, and other essential facts of patient management.
To save time and avoid frustration, clinicians often create their own “pocket guides” by cutting and pasting together information from a variety of sources so they always have a quick reference source available.
The AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing Pocket Handbook is designed to provide busy clinicians with an easy to use resource that can, literally, be kept in their pockets. The pocket handbook contains selected tables and figures from the textbook, AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing, and includes items that clinicians are most likely to need at their fingertips:
To save time and avoid frustration, clinicians often create their own “pocket guides” by cutting and pasting together information from a variety of sources so they always have a quick reference source available.
The AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing Pocket Handbook is designed to provide busy clinicians with an easy to use resource that can, literally, be kept in their pockets. The pocket handbook contains selected tables and figures from the textbook, AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing, and includes items that clinicians are most likely to need at their fingertips:
- Critical care drug tables (common vasoactive drugs, neuromuscular blocking agents, antiarrhythmics, IV medication guidelines).
- Normal values table for laboratory tests and physiologic parameters.
- Lists of assessment components.
- Cardiac rhythms: ECG characteristics and treatment guides including sample rhythm strips.
- 12-lead ECG changes in acute myocardial ischemia and infarct.
- Troubleshooting guides for hemodynamic monitoring equipment.
- Indications for mechanical ventilation.
- Weaning assessment tool.
- Chest x-ray interpretation.
We hope this pocket book will, indeed, be placed in your pocket and assist you in making a difference in the lives of the patients and families you encounter.
- The Authors -
- The Authors -
Key Features
- The Essentials – provides fundamental information that new clinicians must understand to provide safe, competent nursing care to all critically ill patients, regardless of their underlying medical diagnosis.
- Pathological Conditions – covers pathologic conditions and management strategies commonly encountered in all adult critical care units.
- Advanced Concepts in Caring for the Critically Ill Patient – presents advanced critical care concepts or pathologic conditions that are less common or more specialized than those generally found in adult critical care units.
- Key Reference Information – includes reference information that you will find helpful in a clinical environment, such as normal laboratory and diagnostic values, algorithms for advanced cardiac life support, and summary tables of critical care drugs and cardiac rhythms.
- Each chapter begins with Knowledge Competencies that can be used to gauge your progress. This edition is compatible with ECCO (Essentials of Critical Care Orientation), the online program offered by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Contents
SECTION 1: THE ESSENTIALS
- Chapter 1. Assessment of Critically Ill Patients and Their Families
- Chapter 2. Planning Care for Critically Ill Patients and Their Families
- Chapter 3. Interpretation and Management of Basic Cardiac Rhythms
- Chapter 4. Hemodynamic Monitoring
- Chapter 5. Airway and Ventilatory Management
- Chapter 6. Pain, Sedation, and Neuromuscular Blockade Management
- Chapter 7. Pharmacology
- Chapter 8. Ethical and Legal Considerations
SECTION 2: PATHOLOGIC CONDITIONS
- Chapter 9. Cardiovascular System
- Chapter 10. Respiratory System
- Chapter 11. Multisystem Problems
- Chapter 12. Neurologic System
- Chapter 13. Hematology and Immunology Systems
- Chapter 14. Gastrointestinal System
- Chapter 15. Renal System
- Chapter 16. Endocrine System
- Chapter 17. Trauma
SECTION 3: ADVANCED CONCEPTS IN CARING FOR THE CRITIALLY ILL PATIENT
- Chapter 18. Advanced ECG Concepts
- Chapter 19. Advanced Cardiovascular Concepts
- Chapter 20. Advanced Respiratory Concepts: Modes of Ventilation
- Chapter 21. Advanced Neurologic Concepts
SECTION 4: KEY REFERENCE INFORMATION
- Chapter 22. Normal Value Tables
- Chapter 23. Pharmacology Tables
- Chapter 24. Advanced Cardiac Life Support Algorithms
- Chapter 25. Hemodynamic Monitoring Troubleshooting Guide
- Chapter 26. Cardiac Rhythms, ECG Characteristics and Treatment Guide
About the Author
- Marianne Chulay, RN, DNSc, FAAN, is a critical care nursing/clinical research consultant in Chapel Hill, NC.
- Suzanne Burns, RN, MSN, RRT, ACNP, CCRN, FAAN, FCCM, is a Professor of Nursing, an Advanced Practice Nurse 2 in the MICU, and the Director of the Professional Nursing Staff Organization's Clinical Research Program at the University of Virginia Health Systems in Charlottesville Virginia.
Product Details
- Spiral-bound: 195 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 2 edition (2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0071664084
- ISBN-13: 978-0071664080
- Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches
List Price: $36.95