Evidenced based practice:
19.Apply evidence-based practice and research related to vital signs across the life span.
Consider the evidence or research that ultimately affects how we care for different age groups. You have several boxes throughout the chapters that highlight how and why things are different for older adults as compared with younger adults.
Think about what I said in lab about blood pressure. About a decade ago, nurses would place a blood pressure cuff on a patient’s arm and pump it up to 200-220 mm Hg. We now have research that says this is not the best way to do blood pressure because the old way was causing a great deal of damage to patients. Now, we have the two step blood pressure process that we learned in class to prevent harm associated with measuring blood pressure.
Teamwork & Communication:
20.Collaborate with interdisciplinary team members related to patient education concerning vital signs and physical assessment.
Consider the patient who has high blood pressure measurements or an abnormal bruise pattern on the abdomen noted on physical assessment. In either case, you will communicate your findings to your charge nurse and the patient’s physician. For the patient with the high blood pressure, you may need to consult the dietary department for diet modifications. For the patient with the abnormal bruise, you may need to consult social services, if you suspect the bruise is a result of abuse.
Back in module 1, the ATI book chapter 2 was assigned. This chapter reviewed all members of the “interprofessional team” or “interdisciplinary team” that help take care of the patient.
Informatics:
21.Describe how the computer system is used for documentation of vital signs and the physical assessment.
This simply refers to how we document our vital signs and physical assessment in the computer. For vital signs, we know that we need the temp value, the route the temp was taken, and if it was in degrees F or degrees C.
Quality Improvement:
22.Identify related quality improvement techniques to improve safety regarding the delegation of vital signs.
While it is an acceptable practice to delegate vital signs to nursing assistants or LPNs, the nurse is ultimately responsible for assessment and monitoring vital signs. One way we have work to improve safety with this is requiring staff to include vital signs in hand- off or bedside reporting. Also, the nurse has autonomy in deciding if vital signs need to
19.Apply evidence-based practice and research related to vital signs across the life span.
Consider the evidence or research that ultimately affects how we care for different age groups. You have several boxes throughout the chapters that highlight how and why things are different for older adults as compared with younger adults.
Think about what I said in lab about blood pressure. About a decade ago, nurses would place a blood pressure cuff on a patient’s arm and pump it up to 200-220 mm Hg. We now have research that says this is not the best way to do blood pressure because the old way was causing a great deal of damage to patients. Now, we have the two step blood pressure process that we learned in class to prevent harm associated with measuring blood pressure.
Teamwork & Communication:
20.Collaborate with interdisciplinary team members related to patient education concerning vital signs and physical assessment.
Consider the patient who has high blood pressure measurements or an abnormal bruise pattern on the abdomen noted on physical assessment. In either case, you will communicate your findings to your charge nurse and the patient’s physician. For the patient with the high blood pressure, you may need to consult the dietary department for diet modifications. For the patient with the abnormal bruise, you may need to consult social services, if you suspect the bruise is a result of abuse.
Back in module 1, the ATI book chapter 2 was assigned. This chapter reviewed all members of the “interprofessional team” or “interdisciplinary team” that help take care of the patient.
Informatics:
21.Describe how the computer system is used for documentation of vital signs and the physical assessment.
This simply refers to how we document our vital signs and physical assessment in the computer. For vital signs, we know that we need the temp value, the route the temp was taken, and if it was in degrees F or degrees C.
Quality Improvement:
22.Identify related quality improvement techniques to improve safety regarding the delegation of vital signs.
While it is an acceptable practice to delegate vital signs to nursing assistants or LPNs, the nurse is ultimately responsible for assessment and monitoring vital signs. One way we have work to improve safety with this is requiring staff to include vital signs in hand- off or bedside reporting. Also, the nurse has autonomy in deciding if vital signs need to
