Communication
Communication means sharing information so that both people understand. Good nurses:
- use simple words and avoid medical jargon with patients;
- ask open questions ("How did you sleep?") and then wait;
- listen with eyes and ears; body language, tone and silence also speak;
- use the patient’s language, and an interpreter if needed;
- repeat back to check ("So you take this tablet twice a day, right?");
- record clearly and hand over to the next shift with all key facts.
Infection prevention
Germs move from person to person mostly on hands. The most important step is hand hygiene: wash with soap and water for about 20 seconds (palms, backs, between fingers, thumbs, fingertips, wrists), or rub alcohol gel until dry. Do it before touching a patient, before clean procedures, after body fluids, after touching a patient and after touching their surroundings.
Other steps: wear gloves, mask or apron when needed; keep equipment clean and used once if it is single-use; throw sharp needles in a puncture-proof box; clean the surroundings; stay home if you are ill. These are called standard precautions: we treat every patient’s blood and fluids as possibly infectious.
Safety management
Safety means preventing harm. Typical checks:
- Identify the patient: check the name band and ask the name before any care.
- Prevent falls: bed rails up if needed, floor dry, bed low, call bell within reach, good light.
- Medicine safety: the five rights (person, drug, dose, time, route).
- Correct lifting and moving: bend knees and use help or aids, to protect the patient and the nurse’s back.
- Report and learn from mistakes and near misses, without hiding them.
Physical assessment
Physical assessment means checking the body using the senses and simple tools: look, listen, touch, measure. The four vital signs for a healthy adult at rest are:
- Temperature: about 36.1 to 37.2 °C.
- Pulse: about 60 to 100 beats per minute.
- Breathing rate: about 12 to 20 breaths per minute.
- Blood pressure: about 120/80 mmHg.
Also look at skin colour, pain, alertness and swelling. Write the numbers down: a single reading matters less than a trend over time.
The nursing process
The nursing process is a five-step loop for planning care:
- Assess: collect facts (talk, look, measure, read records).
- Diagnose: name the care problem, for example "pain" or "risk of falling".
- Plan: set a clear goal ("pain below 3 by tonight") and choose actions.
- Do (implement): carry out the actions and record them.
- Evaluate: did the goal happen? If not, assess again and change the plan.
It is a loop, not a line: after Evaluate, the nurse goes back to Assess.
Key formulas and definitions
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Worked examples
1. A patient’s pulse is 110 per minute at rest. Is it in the normal range?
No. The normal resting adult range is 60 to 100, so 110 is fast. The nurse rechecks, notes how the patient looks and reports it.
2. Which step of the nursing process is: "Pain score is now 2 out of 10, goal met"?
Evaluate, because she compares the result with the goal.
3. A nurse washes hands for 5 seconds. What should she do?
Wash longer, about 20 seconds, covering all parts of the hands, because short washing leaves many germs.
Common mistakes
- Washing hands quickly. Aim for 20 seconds with soap.
- Wearing the same gloves for two patients. Change gloves and clean hands between patients.
- Treating the nursing process as a one-way line. It loops back to Assess.
- Using hard medical words with patients. Use simple words and check understanding.