Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Jun 1992
Aspects of neurosurgical assessment using the Glasgow Coma Scale.
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) has become a cornerstone of the neurological/surgical assessment of patients used by both nursing and medical staff. Since its development in the 1970s it has been used in a variety of clinical situations to monitor changes in a number of key neurological functions, including level of consciousness, pupil reaction and limb movement. During this time, however, there have been suggestions that there are problems with some of the measurement principles underlying its use, which in part has stimulated the development of other neuro-assessment tools. ⋯ The criterion for judging the accuracy of subject's assessments was established by a panel of experts. As expected, RGNs had the highest proportion of correct assessments and students the least. Subjects were identified as having difficulty in determining the relative amounts of weakness that a patient exhibited, and in correctly distinguishing between flexion and extension.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Jun 1992
Continuous monitoring of mixed venous saturation (SvO2): an adjunct to nursing assessment?
Technological advances in oximetry have enabled the development of a pulmonary artery catheter which allows the continuous monitoring of a patient's mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2), which is recognised as a valuable indication of cardiac output and the balance between oxygen supply and demand (delivery and consumption). This paper briefly explains the rationale for monitoring SvO2 and highlights possible areas where the data it provides could influence the assessment and implementation of nursing interventions undertaken within intensive care units, and enable those decisions to be made more safely.