• Prioritization: Be prepared to determine the best option when answering exam questions.
  • Delegation: Understand when the nurse should delegate tasks versus when not to delegate.
  • Pre-Skill Considerations: Essential steps to take before performing any skill on a patient.
  • HIPAA Principles: Review and understand principles related to patient privacy and confidentiality.

Nursing Process

  • Steps: Review the steps in the nursing process.
  • Scenario Interpretation: Be prepared to interpret scenarios and determine the corresponding step in the nursing process.
  • Nursing Diagnoses: Consider applicable nursing diagnoses for given scenarios.

Infection Prevention and Control

  • Clean vs. Sterile Technique: Know the difference and examples of skills/procedures requiring each technique.
  • Infection Prevention: List strategies and interventions to prevent infection transmission.
  • Sterile Field Principles: Understand principles for creating and maintaining a sterile field.
  • PPE: Identify types of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and isolation precautions, including the order of removal.

Vital Signs

  • Normal Ranges: Know the normal ranges for each vital sign.
  • Measurement Techniques: Review principles and techniques for measuring vital signs.

Activity and Exercise

  • Client Teaching: Important points to include in teaching sessions for clients using gait belts, canes, walkers, or crutches for the first time.

Immobility

  • Complications: Identify potential complications of immobility.
  • Prevention Strategies: List strategies to prevent complications of immobility.

Skin Integrity and Wound Care

  • Risk Factors: Factors that contribute to the risk of impaired skin integrity.
  • Skin Breakdown Prevention: Strategies to minimize or prevent skin breakdown.
  • Wound Care: Considerations for performing wound care and findings associated with each stage of skin breakdown.

Hygiene

  • Promoting Independence: Strategies to promote independence in hygiene practices.

Oxygenation

  • Safety Considerations: Apply safety considerations for oxygen administration.
  • Oxygen Devices: Types of oxygen administration devices and their indications.
  • Clinical Interventions: Interventions to prevent clinical decline and promote optimal oxygenation.
  • Hypoxia: Causes, clinical manifestations, and interventions related to hypoxia.
  • Chest Tube Care: Considerations for caring for a patient with a chest tube and managing the collection device.

Urinary Elimination

  • Catheter Care: Considerations for placing and removing an indwelling urinary catheter, and care strategies to reduce UTI risk.

Nutrition

  • Wound Healing: Nutritional considerations related to wound healing.
  • Aspiration Risk: Interventions to assess for and minimize the risk of aspiration.

Bowel Elimination

  • Psychosocial/Cultural Considerations: Factors related to bowel elimination.
  • Assessment Findings: Normal findings and those warranting immediate action.
  • Constipation & Paralytic Ileus: Causes, assessment findings, and interventions.
  • Stoma Care: Considerations for stoma care and pouching.

Medication Administration

  • Needle Lengths & Techniques: Sites and techniques for subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intradermal injections.
  • Medication Routes: Fastest and slowest absorption times for different routes (po, SQ, IM, IV).
  • Minimizing Medication Errors: Strategies to prevent errors and steps to take if an error occurs.
  • Contaminated Medication: What to do if medication becomes contaminated before administration.
  • Critical Medication Checks: Purpose, number, and locations of critical medication checks.
  • Medication Orders: Components of a medication order and steps to take if a component is missing or illegible.