Editing Medical-Surgical Nursing (section)

== High-Yield Priority Reminders ==

Report immediately: a new or worsening change in level of consciousness; new chest pain; sudden dyspnea or hypoxemia; a rigid board-like abdomen; pain unrelieved by opioids after orthopedic injury; absent or diminished pulses in an extremity; a dusky or black stoma; cloudy peritoneal dialysate; hypertension with pounding headache in a patient with a spinal cord injury above the sixth thoracic vertebra; any suspected transfusion reaction; and any sign of bleeding in an anticoagulated patient.

Assess before acting when the patient is stable and the data would change the action. Act first when the airway, breathing, circulation, or life is immediately threatened.

[[Category:Medical-Surgical Nursing]]
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