Critical Care Nursing Practice Guide
CCRN Study Guide A Critical care nurse provides a high level of care to critically and acutely ill patients who need round the clock nursing and treatment at an intense level. Although a registered nurse can work in critical care, they will be limited to the amount of work they can do and cannot work unsupervised which can be frustrating, especially if you have the knowledge and experience.
The only way you can become qualified is to take the CCRN examination and pass. To pass the first time, there is a lot you will need to learn. Follow these tips and ace it your first time around! Critical care nurse duties include, but are not limited to; taking regular tests to establish the patient’s vitals and recording them. You will also need to be able to send off for, read and understand test results. To be a proficient nurse in these fields, you will need to explain results and patient status’s to people who know all of the medical terminology. You are also responsible for knowing how to communicate and empathize with family members of patients who also do not generally understand medical terminology, so a full understanding is necessary.
Working full time as a nurse, as most people preparing for the test do, can leave very little time to study or to attend classes that can help you to achieve your goal. Using online tools can help you to get the information you need, remember it and see where your weak points are. The online tools allow you to study when you have the free time, so you don’t have to do so on a set schedule that may clash with your work schedule. Mock exam papers can allow you to take the practice tests and check your answers to see where you are going wrong.
This allows you to target those areas, so that you may improve your chances of passing. Always use information that is up to date, as the procedures and other areas of working as a critical care nurse are subject to change, especially with the constant advancements in technology. Using old information could mean that you study as hard as possible, but still do not get the score level required to pass and receive certification.
Take as many quizzes as you possibly can with an aim to receive the highest possible score. The CCRN exam focuses a lot on pulmonary and cardio, so these are areas you should ensure you know as much about as possible.
Dec 12, 2017 - Australia boasts high quality intensive care nursing clinical practice, education. As per the NHMRC standard for clinical practice guidelines. Read and Download Critical Care Nursing Practice Guide Free Ebooks in PDF format CRITICAL CARE CRITICAL CARE CRITICAL CARE PARAMEDIC EXAM REVIEW FAST FACTS FOR. GUIDE FOR AUTHORS. The aim of the. Relevant to critical care nursing. Important learning that can be translated to the wider critical care community and practice.
Many of the other parts you will already know as a nurse who has worked with critical care patients. What you also need to remember is that following other nurses in critical care is a great idea, but the information they have received could be up to three years out of date. Good intentions from staff may include giving you resource papers, but be sure ask whether they are relevant to the test you are going to be taking.
You will have to answer 125 questions on the exam, of them you will need to answer 89 correctly to receive your certification. You will not know the full content until you sit down to take the exam because it can change, so steer clear of anyone offering cheat papers or similar, as they are not given by the governing bodies and can actually hinder your chances of passing while risking the lives of the patients you are hoping to save and nurse back to health. If you work on a regular ward, ask if there are any opportunities, even as overtime, for you to work in the critical care unit, even if it is just as an extra pair of hands to assist. It is easier for most to remember the procedures and treatments that they have seen administered, rather than trying to picture them from text in a book or on screen.
This kind of unit is usually crying out for extra help, allowing you to gain overtime, build a rapport with staff you might be working with in the future and help you to familiarize yourself with the latest equipment. Even if you already have experience in a previous place of work, but have started somewhere new, the experience you gain in their critical care unit, can help you to pass the CCRN. You should study in conditions that you feel comfortable in. Studying in a busy area with a lot going on around you could mean that you do not take in all of the information.
Ensure you read all of the information more than once, if there is anything you don’t totally understand, you should ask someone in the field to explain it in more detail. Just remembering text from a book will not help you to answer questions that are phrased differently than the actual examination questions. Videos of certain procedures can be found on YouTube so that you can view what has been represented in the text, in practice. Ensure the videos you use for your studies are recent, so that you are not learning about procedures that may be outdated or have been amended.
Doing so could make the difference between you getting a question right or wrong. You must practice regularly and if possible, get a member of the critical care team to help with your revision. They will be able to point out where you are going wrong and may even be able to provide you with additional resources. Brush up on the law surrounding critical care and familiarize yourself with any changes. Do not take the test if you are not doing well on the mock examination papers. It is better to reschedule for a later date than to take it, fail and need to pay again for a retest. CCRN Course Tips – 12 Lead ECG.
Guide for Authors The aim of the journal is to promote excellence, inform practice and encourage debate in the care of the critically ill patient by specialist nurses and healthcare professionals. It provides an international forum for the dissemination and exchange of research findings, experience and ideas. We also welcome manuscripts from other members of the multidisciplinary team providing the content is relevant to critical care nursing. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing: the international journal of practice and research has, as the sub-title indicates, an international audience. Therefore the manuscript should be placed in a global context e.g. If local demographic statistics are used these should be compared with international trends/statistics. In the literature review and discussion similarities and differences in approach and evidence should be described at an international level.
In the same vein it is also important that the context in which a research study took place is described fully so that readers may compare and judge the relevance of the findings to their own environment. The use of parochial English should be avoided. At submission stage, authors of reviews, quality improvement reports and original research articles are required to provide three to four bullet points outlining the manuscript implications for clinical practice.
Types Of Contributions - word limits exclude tables, figures and references. The Editors of the journal welcome contributions for publication from the following categories: Letters to the Editor and Editorials, Reviews and Original Research articles, quality improvement reports, Commentaries, Clinical Practice articles (Case Studies) with educational value Letters to the Editor (500-1,000 words) The Editorial Board welcomes critical responses to any aspect of the journal. In particular, letters that point out deficiencies and that add to, or further clarify points made in a recently published work, are welcomed. Not all letters will be published, the editorial decision is final. The Editorial Board reserves the right to offer authors of papers the right of rebuttal, which may be published alongside the letter.
Editorials (1,000-2,000 words) Authors who have ideas for editorials which address issues of substantive concern to the discipline, particularly those of a controversial nature or linked directly to forthcoming content in the journal, should contact the Editor in Chief - iccn@elsevier.com Research Articles (2,000- 3000 words for quantitative research studies and up to 5000 words for manuscripts which present qualitative data). These should be reports of new findings related to critical care nursing that are supported by research evidence. These should be original, previously unpublished works.
Research papers should adhere to recognised standards for reporting Quality Improvement Reports (max 4000 words) Quality improvement papers should report evaluations of service improvement initiatives with reference to their implications for an international audience. Papers should include a clear rationale for the quality initiative, which should be based on a robust literature review. They should include detailed justification for their methodological choices, with reference to an underlying improvement or implementation science theory or theories. Evidence of appropriate approval is mandatory for publication. Important learning that can be translated to the wider critical care community and practice areas should be evident. Quality improvement papers should adhere to recognised standards for reporting e.g.
SQUIRE guidelines. Review papers (up to 3,000 words) Critical or systematic reviews that seek to summarise or draw conclusions from the established literature on a topic relevant to critical care nursing including: - systematic reviews, which address focussed practice questions; - literature reviews, which provide a thorough analysis of the literature on a broad topic; - policy reviews, i.e.
Critical Care Nursing Journal
Reviews of published literature and policy documents which inform nursing practice, the organisation of nursing services, or the education and preparation of nurses specifically relating to the critical care and related environment. Case Studies (1,000-2,000 words) Usually document the management of one patient, with an emphasis on presentations that are unusual, rare or where there was an unexpected response to treatment (e.g. An unexpected side effect or adverse reaction). Authors may also wish to present a case series where multiple occurrences of a similar phenomenon are documented. Submission Checklist The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review.
Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item. Files required for uploading - authors are advised to save the following files to their desktop ready for uploading during the submission process: Mandatory files for all articles: Title Page Authors are also encouraged to include their personal Twitter handles on the Title Page if they wish for these to be published. Manuscript file Cover Letter Mandatory files for Research papers and Review articles: Supporting File - Author Checklist Optional files If Supplementary material, images and tables are submitted these should also be uploaded as separate files. Supplementary material should be labelled as 'e-component' files.