Nursing times
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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation can save a life, but is invasive and traumatic. Leaving people in the "default" position of receiving CPR if they go into cardiorespiratory arrest can result in treatment that is unwanted or offers no benefit. Updated guidance by the British Medical Association, the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the Royal College of Nursing states that good clinical practice includes making advanced individualised CPR decisions for people who are near the end of life or at risk of cardiorespiratory arrest. Staff should involve patients and/or their loved ones in the.decision-making process to reduce the risk of administering unwanted treatment.
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A guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and a NICE-endorsed tool on safer nursing care allow decisions on safe staffing levels to be made at a local level. Decisions must be based on sound evidence and factoring in patients' individual needs as well as numbers of patients. ⋯ The tool is easy to use by frontline nursing staff, but must be applied correctly and consistently for data to be valid, and to allow benchmarking against agreed standards. It should be combined with nurses' professional judgement and account for local factors.