Critical care and nursing : an inquiry

The following bullet points are the discussion points for each case study that will be explored in depth in the thesis: Patient History (description of patient); Course of Illness (reason for current admission to critical care and/or emergent care); Pathophysiology (related to main acute illnesses/body systems for ICU/CIC/ED); Assessments-physical exam findings/subjective findings, Vital Signs, Hemodynamics, spontaneous breathing parameters, pain, delirium, etc.; Nutrition (describe nutritional needs and interventions); Diagnostics (actual findings, what results mean or indicate, and how findings impact care); Nursing Diagnoses; Nursing Interventions, Drugs/IV solutions (how drugs work in the body, not just the desired outcome of using the drug or IV solution, consider IV solution tonicity [movement of water] specific drug nursing implications, process of titration with analysis and synthesis of patient responses to the drug/fluid); Medical Interventions and the nurse’s role in it (drugs/IVs as above, discuss any mechanical ventilation/weaning, CVVHD, ventriculostomy, surgery, PCI, etc.); Patient Safety and Quality (related to IOM and QSEN guidelines in Blackboard including patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, use of EBP, quality improvement, safety, and informatics); Interpretation, Analysis, and Synthesis-includes rationale for clinical judgments.