Routine checks (Nurse)

Ensure patient meets the necessary requirement to survive and to maintain their well-being

1) Check ECG monitor and compare with previous record if there is any steep changes. This is important to ensure the patient’s health is well monitored and anomalies to be reported immediately.

2) Check to ensure the ventilator (breathing equipment) is set correctly. If the patient keeps coughing, feels uncomfortable and has odd behaviors, this may be the issue. If you tried and problem persists, you may have to send the patient to critical care.

3) To ensure blood and fluid flow are smooth, check;

i) Tubing to ensure they are not kink (pressed) that would cause the flow to stop

ii) Loose tubing that would also prevent flow from happening

4) If patients are too violent due to emotions and/or pain, they will tend to pull fluid tubing out, which affects their medical stability. We will then have to use sedative drugs to keep them asleep. If we observe they are sweating, we will have to take their temperature to check if they have a fever.

Tips

For accountability purposes, always check if the actual readings of ECG are the same as the report provided in the time slot by the previous shift.

If numbers are incorrect, seek clarifications and rectify accordingly. Ensure the nurse from the previous shift is aware of the changes and have them acknowledged with a written note and signature. This is important because if the patient pass away suddenly, the person on shift is held accountable.