Clinical Aromatherapy.

Clinical aromatherapy is an alternative medicine therapy that can be beneficial in the inpatient or outpatient setting for symptom management for pain, nausea, general well-being, anxiety, depression, stress, and insomnia. It is beneficial for preoperative anxiety, oncology, palliative care, hospice, and end of life. Essential oils can be dangerous and toxic, with some being flammable, causing skin dermatitis, being phototoxic with risk of a chemical burn, or causing oral toxicity or death.

Kidney Influence on Fluid and Electrolyte Balance.

The frontline nurse is confronted daily with patients that have some type of kidney dysfunction or disease. Some renal issues resolve themselves, some disorders can be reversed, and others are permanent. Major complications from kidney impairment discussed are fluid and electrolyte disequilibrium with common problems in volume overload, hyperkalemia, metabolic acidosis, hyperphosphatemia, and hormonal secretion.

Management of Acute Gastrointestinal Bleed.

Acute gastrointestinal bleeding is a common problem found in critically ill patients that can range from self-limited bleeding to a hemorrhaging emergency. Patients can quickly develop shock and altered mental status when they develop hemodynamic instability. Therefore, it is essential that the frontline critical care nurse develop self-efficacy for management of these disorders.

Pharmacologic Interventions for Pain Management.

Serious life-threatening respiratory depression may occur with pharmacologic pain intervention. The nurse has an ethical and legal duty to provide safe, quality, and accountable pain management. The nurse must acquire self-efficacy for the administration of pain medications for critically ill patients to prevent serious side effects and adverse reactions.

Transforming home health nursing with telehealth technology.

Telehealth technology is an evidence-based delivery model tool that can be integrated into the plan of care for mental health patients. Telehealth technology empowers access to health care, can help decrease or prevent hospital readmissions, assist home health nurses provide shared decision making, and focuses on collaborative care. Telehealth and the recovery model have transformed the role of the home health nurse.

Aging population.

Our aging population is rapidly growing and accounts for 46% of critical care patients and 60% of medical-surgical patients in the hospital. These acutely ill patients are challenging to frontline nurses because they frequently have multiple chronic conditions. This article provides a tool kit of resources and clinical skills to develop safe, quality, and accountable care plans for positive patient outcomes; it presents several resources to assist in individualized care, the complexity of care, and the issues of transitions of care.

Electrodiagnostic studies.

This article overviews electrodiagnostic tests that provide evidence-based data in the treatment and management of abnormalities in nerves and muscles. There is a focused review on cardiac tests, nerve-conduction tests, low-back pain tests, seizure and epilepsy tests, and obstructive sleep apnea electrodiagnostic tests. Case reports demonstrate how these electrophysiologic tests can provide specific data about the location and underlying causative factors of abnormalities in the nerves and muscles that routine diagnostic tests cannot differentiate.