Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987)
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Healthcare professionals will be aware of the need to improve treatment of hip fractures, with the ultimate goal of returning the individual to pre-injury health. Patients with hip fractures awaiting surgery can experience severe pain that may be difficult to relieve with traditional analgesics. ⋯ This article looks at the prevalence of hip fractures and associated problems. It highlights the importance of effective management of pain and explores the use of local anaesthetics for pain relief.
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Maintaining optimum body temperature is essential to life, and taking and recording a patient's temperature is a fundamental nursing skill. Deviation from the normal range of body temperature can be an important clinical indicator of altered physiological status requiring further investigation. Correct technique and careful recording are important for accuracy because clinicians rely on clinical observations to make diagnoses and decide on treatment. Nurses need to be able to interpret single stand-alone temperature recordings as well as sequential pattern recordings in the context of safe and acceptable physiological boundaries.