The Fourth Edition of High Acuity Nursing delivers essential understanding of complex patients and instructs both students and nurses on how to provide nursing care in varied clinical settings.  Broken down into a series of learner-focused, active learning modules, High Acuity Nursing takes complex information and presents it in smaller, more accessible chunks that promote easier mastery by readers.  As the modules progress in difficulty, this text addresses the multiple-system problems that nurses face when caring for high acuity patients. 

With a focus on concepts and principles that can be applied across practice settings and patient populations, High Acuity Nursing, Fourth Edition is a learner-friendly approach that will help nurses and nursing students master the concepts and confidence necessary to succeed in today’s health care settings.

New to this edition:

• Greater attention to problems seen in high acuity populations
• Integration of research and Evidence Based Practice boxes throughout modules
• Conceptual approach to patient care that provides readers with an understanding of rationales
• Consistency and continuity among modules that is achieved by means of a single concept or nursing application format

SPECIAL TOPICS

1. Caring for the High Acuity Patient: Patient, Family, and Nursing Consideration

2. Acute Pain in the High Acuity Patient 

3. Fluid and Electrolyte Balance in the High Acuity Patient

PULMONARY GAS EXCHANGE

4. Determination and Assessment of Pulmonary Gas Exchange

5. Alterations in Pulmonary Gas Exchange

6. Mechanical Ventilation

7. Nursing Care of the Patient with Altered Pulmonary Gas Exchange

PERFUSION

8. Determination and Assessment of Cardiac Output

9. Hemodynamic Monitoring

10. Electrocardiographic Monitoring and Conduction Abnormalities

11. Alterations in Myocardial Tissue Perfusion

12. Alterations in Cardiac Output

13. Nursing Care of the Patient with Altered with Altered Myocardial Tissue Perfusion

OXYGENATION

14. Oxygenation

15. Shock States

16. Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome

17. Nursing Care of Patient with Impaired Oxygenation

NEUROLOGIC

18. Determinants and Assessment of Cerebral Perfusion

19. Alterations in Cerebral Tissue Perfusion: Acute Brain Attack

20. Decreased Adaptive Capacity: Acute Head Injury

21. Sensory Perceptual Disorders

22. Nursing Care of the Patient with Altered Cerebral Function

METABOLIC

23. Metabolic Responses

24. Hematologic Dysfunction

25. Altered Immune Function

26. Organ Transplantation

27. Altered Glucose metabolism

28. Altered Renal Dysfunction

29. Nursing Care of the Patient with Altered Metabolic Function

GASTROINTESTINAL

30. Acute Gastrointestinal Dysfunction

31. Acute Hepatic Dysfunction

32. Acute Pancreatic Dysfunction

33. Nursing Care of the Patient with Altered Gastrointestinal Function

INJURY

34. Complex Wound Management

35. Acute Burn Injury

36. Trauma

37. Nursing Care of the Patient with Multiple Injuries