From AACN experts comes a resource dedicated to helping you oversee or care for critical care patients in any practice setting. This comprehensive critical care nursing textbook addresses serious and potentially life-threatening patient conditions with a foundation rooted in the critical thinking process: the comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and application of knowledge.
Key Features
- Endorsed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the largest specialty nursing organization in the United States, for the most authoritative coverage available.
- Thorough discussions of each body system emphasize advanced concepts, presenting physiology in an application format that examines the clinical implications of physiological science.
- Coverage of assessment focuses on interpreting abnormal findings and linking those findings to diagnosis and intervention.
- Appropriate interventions are discussed from an interdisciplinary, evidence-based perspective.
- Hundreds of new, full-color illustrations and design clarify important concepts and improve the book's usability.
- Complex, unfolding case studies are presented in all disease chapters, accompanied by review questions with a comprehensive answer key.
- Multidisciplinary Plans of Care provide at-a-glance information for common ICU conditions.
- Nutrition boxes appear in each relevant chapter, offering guidelines for patient needs with specific illnesses.
- Research-Based Practice Guidelines boxes and Promoting Evidence-Based Practice features appear throughout the text whenever applicable to present the latest research-supported nursing assessment and intervention practices.
- Drug boxes include common classifications of critical care drugs for specific disorders, including drug, actions, dosage, and special considerations.
- Applying the Technology features help you apply the latest technology to patient care.
- NIC Interventions boxes list NIC intervention labels appropriate for the conditions discussed in a chapter.
Author Information
By American Association of Critical-Care Nr; AACN; Karen K. Carlson, RN, MN, CCNS, Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Carlson Consulting Group, Bellevue, WA and Clinical Faculty, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing, University of Wahington, Seattle, WA
UNIT I: PRACTICE IN TODAY’S CRITICAL CARE ENVIRONMENT1. The Critical Care Environment2. Alternate Settings for Critical Care3. Comorbid ConditionsUNIT II: ELEMENTS OF CARE4. Pain and Sedation5. Symptom Management-Diarrhea-Vomiting/Nausea-Dyspnea6. Nutrition7. Thermoregulation-Hypothermia-Hyperthermia8. Families in Critical Care9. Improving Outcomes through ProphylaxisUNIT III: CARDIAC10. Advanced Arrhythmias11. Acute Coronary Syndromes12. Heart Failure13. Heart Disease in Women14. Cardiac Surgery15. Valvular Disease and Surgery16. Vascular Emergencies17. Cardiomyopathy18. Heart and Lung TransplantationUNIT IV: PULMONARY19. Acute Respiratory Failure and Acute Lung Injury20. Mechanical Ventilation and Weaning21. Thoracic SurgeryUNIT V: NERVOUS SYSTEM22. Head Injury and Dysfunction23. Cerebral Vascular Disorders24. Spinal Cord Injury25. Special Neurologic Patient PopulationsUNIT VI: GASTOINTESTINAL26. Gastrointestinal Bleeding27. Liver Dysfunction and Failure28. Pancreatitis29. The Gut in Critical Illness30. Liver, Kidney, and Pancreas TransplantationUNIT VII: RENAL31. Electrolyte Emergencies32. Complex Acid-Base Disorders and Associated Electrolyte Imbalances33. Acute Renal FailureUNIT VIII: ENDOCRINE34. Glycemic Control35. Pituitary, Thyroid, and Adrenal DisordersUNIT IX: HEMATOLOGIC36. Blood Conservation and Blood Component Replacement 37. CoagulopathiesUNIT X: IMMUNE (CRITICAL CARE IMMUNOLOGY38. Caring for the Immunocompromised Patient39. Bone Marrow TransplantationUNIT XI: MULTISYSTEM DISORDERS40. Shock and Endpoints of Resuscitation41. Optimizing Hemodynamics: Strategies for Fluid and Medication Titration in Shock42. Trauma43. Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome44. Burns45. Mass-Casualty CompetenciesUNIT XII: SPECIAL PATIENT POPULATIONS46. Caring for the Patient in the Immediate Postoperative Period47. Caring for the Critically Ill Pregnant Patient48. Caring for a Pediatric Patient in an Adult Critical Care Unit49. Caring for the Critically Ill Elderly Patient50. Caring for the Critically Ill Patient with a Psychiatric Disorder51. Caring for the Bariatric Patient52. Oncologic Emergencies53. Chemical Dependency54. End-of-Life Care
"The book provides extensive coverage of body systems, including cardiac, pulmonary, renal, neurological, haematological and multi-system disorders. There is a chapter on caring for the bariatric patient, highlighting potential complications and treatment options, including surgery. Information is presented consistently, with full-colour illustrations. Case studies and boxes on the latest research are threaded throughout, promoting engagement and critical thinking. Every chapter is supported with contemporary evidence." Nursing Standard, April 15 2009
"This comprehensive text on critical care nursing is a pleasure to read...The material is logical, coherent and accessible and yet each author has been able to sustain sufficient depth and coverage to make it an ideal text for the postgraduate critical care students or a very handy general source text for critical care units and educators.
Nurse Education in Practice, 2009