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Are you a nurse, a physician's associate or a medical student in an acute or emergency unit?

This is your indispensable primer of acute medical care - a pocket guide to caring for patients with acute medical conditions.

This book will help you to

• care for patients in the first critical 24 hours of admission
• manage patients using the most up-to-date evidence based approach
• understand the most common emergency medical conditions and their underlying disease mechanisms
• handle the patient's assessment , understand the observations and manage their disease
• easily obtain clear practical advice
• know what to tell the patient and relatives using jargon-free language
• access information on SARS, avian influenza and bio-terrorism

This updated edition

• contains improved sections on stroke care, diabetes and sepsis,
• introduces the NEWS 2 observation chart
• has revised its case histories in line with current practice

This updated edition:

contains improved sections on stroke care, diabetes and sepsis,

introduces the NEWS 2 observation chart

has revised its case histories in line with current practice

• improved sections on stroke care, diabetes and sepsis,
• introduction of the NEWS 2 observation chart
• revised case histories in line with current practice

A Nurse's Survival Guide to Acute Medical Emergencies Updated Edition

Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Immediate assessment of the critically ill

ABCDE: Immediate assessment and intervention

Early warning: Track and Trigger

National Early Warning Score

Communication - NEWS and SBAR

2. Cardiology

Acute severe breathlessness

Cardiac failure

Heart muscle damage

Valvular disease

Rhythm disturbance

Types of heart failure

Left heart failure

Right heart failure

Congestive cardiac failure

Right heart failure and COPD

Diastolic heart failure

Clinical features and management of cardiac failure

Acute left ventricular failure

Acute on chronic congestive cardiac failure

Ischaemic heart disease

Chest pain

Acute coronary syndromes, NSTEMIs and Unstable Angina

Sudden cardiac death

Atrial fibrillation and arterial emboli

Causes of atrial fibrillation

Importance of atrial fibrillation

Complications of atrial fibrillation

Diagnosis of atrial fibrillation

Management of atrial fibrillation

Infective endocarditis

Drugs in the management of acute heart disease

3. Respiratory medicine

The breathless patient: the general approach

Respiratory failure

Type I and Type II respiratory failure

Principles of treatment

Acute severe asthma

Mechanisms

Assessment of acute severe asthma

Management of acute severe asthma

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Mechanisms

Management of acute exacerbations of COPD

Non-invasive ventilation

Pneumonia

Assessment

The severity score in pneumonia: CURB-65

Management of pneumonia

Antibiotics

Spontaneous pneumothorax

Nursing the patient with a chest drain

4. Acute neurological problems

Ensuring the safety of the patient

Prioritising the initial management: GCS and ABCDE

Managing 'medical' and 'neurological' coma

Responding to neurological deterioration

Stroke and stroke-like emergencies

Cerebral infarction

Transient ischaemic attacks

Intracerebral haemorrhage

Subarachnoid haemorrhage

Subdural haemorrhage

Extradural haemorrhage

Nursing the patient with a stroke: the first 24 h

Meningococcal meningitis

Acute severe headache

Subarachnoid haemorrhage

Lumbar puncture

Sudden loss of consciousness: faints and fits

The basic mechanisms: syncope

The basic mechanisms: epileptic seizures

Pseudoseizures (non-epileptic seizures)

Acute paralysis of the lower limbs

Spinal cord compression

Guillain-Barré syndrome

5. Gastroenterology

Nausea and vomiting underlying mechanisms

Nausea and vomiting in acute medical conditions

Acute upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage

Management of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage

Portal hypertension and the management of oesophageal varices

Acute liver failure and hepatic encephalopathy

Acute jaundice

Acute abdominal pain

Acute diarrhoea: sources and courses

Infective diarrhoea

Clostridium difficile diarrhoea

Infective diarrhoea versus acute ulcerative colitis

Medical conditions presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms

6. Diabetic complications

Diabetes on the Acute Medical Unit: the general approach

Normal blood sugar control and the nature of diabetes

An overview of Type I and Type II diabetes

Acute medical conditions associated with diabetes

Diabetic renal disease

Diabetic neuropathy

Cardiovascular disease

Cerebrovascular diseas