- 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.