The American journal of nursing
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Caregivers need certain knowledge and skills both to provide the best possible care and to protect their own well-being.
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Communicating about care preferences can improve the well-being of caregivers and care recipients.
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Graduated compression stockings, when used correctly, have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis in surgical patients, but they can be harmful to skin and may even increase the risk of thrombosis if the wrong size is used. The authors sought to determine whether nurses correctly size and apply the stockings, whether problems were more common in knee- or thigh-length stockings, and whether nurses adequately educate patients on the usage of the stockings. ⋯ The authors recommend that nurses ensure that graduated compression stockings are properly sized and used, that the education of both nurses and patients regarding the stockings be improved, and that knee-length stockings be the standard length used.