November 11, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Capnography provides dynamic monitoring of ventilatory status in patients with acute respiratory distress, such as from asthma, bronchiolitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and cystic fibrosis.

November 10, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
In addition to uses in resuscitation, capnography can also be used to monitor patients with active seizures and maintain appropriate ETCO2 levels in patients with elevated intracranial pressure.

November 9, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
During cardiac arrest, ETCO2 reflects the degree of pulmonary blood flow as alveolar ventilation and basal metabolism are constant, so that it can be used to gauge effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

November 8, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Capnography is used in the ED for intubated and nonintubated patients. For intubated patients, it provides information regarding respiratory function and ventilator settings and gives immediate notification of accidental extubation.

November 7, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Pulse oximeters are generally accurate between 80% and 100% saturation, but large changes in the SpO2 can occur with small changes in the PaO2 in hypoxic patients. Below this range, the role is reversed.

November 6, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Pulse oximetry measures the percentage of arterial hemoglobin that is in the oxyhemoglobin state. It reflects the amount of oxygen that hemoglobin is carrying as a percent of the maximum it can carry.

November 5, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
The gold standard and the most accurate method of measuring blood pressure, remains the intraarterial catheter. However, this method is invasive and time intensive, and carries the infrequent but real risk of arterial injury or thrombosis.

November 4, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Blood pressure monitoring remains a standard and important ongoing measure of changes in the physiologic adaptation to stress and serves as a dynamic measure and singular predictor of adverse outcomes in medical and surgical patients.

November 3, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
The pulse pressure is important because it closely resembles stroke volume when accounting for arterial compliance and resistance. At a given arterial compliance (C), stroke volume (SV) is associated with changes in pulse pressure: C = SV/PP.

November 2, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Flumazenil should be used with extreme caution in patients with benzodiazepine dependence or a history of seizures because it may precipitate life-threatening status epilepticus refractory to common treatment.

November 1, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Flumazenil has a rapid onset of action in 1 to 2 minutes, peak effect in 5 to 10 minutes, and clinical duration of 30 to 90 minutes. Continuous patient monitoring must be ensured with longer lasting benzodiazepines because resedation is likely.

October 31, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Flumazenil is a competitive antagonist of benzodiazepines. Although it reverses sedation, it is not as effective for reversing respiratory depression. In general, when oversedation occurs, brief support of ventilation permits the patient to recover.

October 30, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Naloxone is a competitive antagonist of opioids and has been effectively used for the reversal of opioid-induced respiratory depression. It has a rapid onset of action and half-life of 45 minutes, although its effects last only 15 to 30 minutes.

October 29, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Propofol is another ultra short-acting sedative-hypnotic that has no analgesic properties. It has an extremely rapid onset, short duration of action and predictable efficacy for inducing deep sedation.

October 28, 2024

Nursing Tip of the Day! - Critical Care Nursing

Category: Critical Care Nursing 
Etomidate has been used for deep sedation because of its rapid onset, short duration of action and, most importantly, minimal effects on respiratory and cardiovascular function.