The American journal of nursing
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Case Reports
Prescription Opioid Analgesics: Promoting Patient Safety with Better Patient Education.
Patients expect and deserve adequate postoperative pain relief. Opioid analgesics are widely used and effective in controlling postoperative pain, but their use poses risks that many patients don't understand and that all too often result in adverse outcomes. ⋯ Nurses play a key role in providing this patient education. This article provides a case study that highlights the risks and important aspects of opioid medication use in the postoperative patient.
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The real story may be the poor health of the population.
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Establishing safe nurse staffing levels is no easier abroad than in the United States.
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ED care providers have long debated which of the various methods of temperature measurement of pediatric patients is best. While the efficacy and accuracy of temporal artery, tympanic membrane, axillary, and infrared temperature measurement have been studied, the gold standard has been rectal temperature measurement. ⋯ The project included an exhaustive literature search, a review of relevant studies, the development of a table of evidence, a presentation of the findings, and recommendations for practice change. This article describes the project and the adoption of temporal artery thermometry, a painless, noninvasive screening method that provided consistently accurate temperature measurement as well as increased patient and nurse satisfaction and a shorter triage process.