Clinical Skills
This technique involves the use of a sterile field and sterile instruments to prevent contamination during surgical procedures.
What is aseptic technique?
This minimally invasive surgical technique uses small incisions and specialized instruments to perform procedures, often resulting in quicker recovery times and lower infection risks.
What is laparoscopic surgery?
This device is used in critical care to provide continuous blood pressure monitoring and allows for frequent blood gas sampling, often inserted into a major blood vessel
What is an arterial line?
This member of the surgical team works inside and is responsible for maintaining the sterile field, passing instruments to the surgeon, and ensuring that all surgical supplies are accounted for during the procedure.
Who is a scrub nurse?
This device, essential for diagnosing hypertension, measures arterial blood pressure by inflating a cuff around the arm and using a manometer to gauge the pressure exerted by the blood against the arterial walls.
What is a Sphygmomanometer
This scale is used to assess a patient’s level of consciousness, particularly after a head injury.
What is the Glasgow Coma Scale?
This method of feeding bypasses the gastrointestinal tract, delivering nutrients directly into the bloodstream, and is often used for patients who cannot eat or absorb nutrients through their digestive system.
What is Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN)?
This critical intervention, often performed in emergency and intensive care settings, involves the insertion of a tube through the vocal cords into the trachea to secure the airway, facilitate positive pressure ventilation, and protect against aspiration, particularly in patients with severe respiratory distress or failure
What is intubation?
First successfully demonstrated in 1846 by dentist William T.G. Morton, this type of medication revolutionised surgery by rendering patients unconscious and insensible to pain, allowing for more complex and invasive procedures to be performed safely.
What is general anaesthetic?
This instrument, whose name derives from the Greek words for “chest” and “examine,” revolutionized the practice of medicine by enabling physicians to non-invasively assess the internal sounds of the thoracic cavity, and it remains a fundamental tool in diagnosing conditions such as pneumonia, heart murmurs, and bowel obstructions.
What is a stethoscope?
This is the first step in any clinical procedure to ensure patient safety and prevent infection.
What is hand hygiene?
This small organ, located beneath the liver, stores and concentrates bile, which is released into the small intestine to aid in the digestion of fats
What is the gallbladder?
This type of non-invasive ventilation is often used to treat patients with hypercapnia by providing two levels of pressure to improve ventilation and reduce carbon dioxide levels in the blood.
What is BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure)?
This term, derived from the Latin word for “barren,” is used to describe surgical instruments and environments that have been treated to eliminate all forms of microbial life, ensuring they are free from any potential contaminants.
What is sterile?
Emerging from the integration of electrochemical sensors and microelectronics in the late 20th century, this device provided a critical advancement over earlier manual testing methods by offering a rapid, quantitative assessment of glucose concentration in capillary blood.
What is a glucometer?
This advanced life support technique involves delivering a controlled electric shock to the heart in cases of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.
What is defibrillation?
This yellow compound, produced during the normal breakdown of red blood cells, can cause jaundice if it accumulates in the blood.
What is bilirubin?
This essential diagnostic procedure, frequently performed in critically ill patients, involves obtaining a sample to measure partial pressures of gases, bicarbonate levels, and pH, providing crucial insights into a patient’s ventilatory, oxygenation, and acid-base status, often guiding the management of conditions like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)
What is an arterial blood gas (ABG)?
This term refers to the process of removing dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue, often used in wound care and surgery.
What is debridement?
Often used in critical care and emergency settings, this device utilizes light absorption principles to estimate the percentage of hemoglobin saturated with oxygen, and is a crucial tool in assessing a patient's respiratory efficiency.
What is a pulse oximeter?
This systematic process involves notifying higher levels of clinical expertise or intervention when a patient’s condition deteriorates beyond the scope of initial management, ensuring timely and appropriate response to worsening health status
What is escalation of care?
This diagnostic procedure involves the use of a flexible, lighted instrument to examine the inner lining of the large intestine allowing for the visualisation, biopsy, and removal of abnormal growths.
What is a colonoscopy?
This class of medications, often administered in the ICU, includes drugs like norepinephrine and metaraminol, which are used to increase blood pressure in patients with severe hypotension.
What are vasopressors?
This diagnostic procedure, essential in interventional cardiology, involves the use of a radiopaque substance to enhance the visibility of coronary vessels under X-ray imaging, allowing for the precise identification and assessment of arterial obstructions.
What is coronary angiography?
Developed in the late 19th century, this object revolutionised personal and professional note-taking. Despite its unassuming appearance, its invention marked a significant leap from its predecessors by introducing a reliable mechanism for controlled ink delivery.
What is a pen?