Nursing in the critical care setting

This thesis is the compilation of five case studies completed for my critical care nursing class, NUR 430. These case studies are based on the patient care I delivered as a nursing student at IU Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana. Over the semester, I completed five case studies on patients in the Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and Emergency Department. The discussion points for the case studies include: each patient’s history; the course of their illness and reason for admission; the pathophysiology of their primary health concern; objective and subjective findings; pertinent assessments and diagnostics; nursing diagnosis and interventions; medications and their actions; medical interventions and the role of the nurse in carrying out the interventions; patient safety and quality in relation to IOM and QSEN guidelines); and my interpretation, analysis, and synthesis of the information presented in each case study including rationales for interventions and clinical judgements. A thorough patient history and reason for admission are provided at the beginning of each case study and are reviewed in depth at the end of the case study in the interpretation, analysis, and synthesis sections.