School of Nursing and Midwifery

This module is designed to meet the needs of acute care nurses who will need to recognise and respond to adult patients who are acutely unwell or have a deteriorating clinical condition. This module will equip nurses towards working towards the DOH (2007) 'Primary Responder' role. The module content, delivery and assessment will enhance the confidence of acute care nurses to interpret objective and subjective clinical data and initiate a clinical management plan, this may include making appropriate and timely referrals to other healthcare professionals. The module has been devised utilising current best practice and clinical guidelines to underpin the students ability to make informed clinical decisions. Taking a blended learning approach the module leader wishes to take a facilitative coaching approach to the cohort to ensure all students develop both professionally and academically as a result of undertaking this module.

This module forms part of the where this module content is seamlessly developed and expanded upon within the complimentary; Holistic Health Assessment double module. The final module within the Graduate Certificate (Acute Care) is the Evidence Based Practice module, which facilitates the application of theory to the practitioners own practice area. This combination of modules to form the Graduate Certificate (Acute Care) develops acute care practitioners to meet the needs of contemporary healthcare provision.

This module is available as a core module for the BSc (Hons) Clinical Practice (Acute Care Pathway).
This module may be undertaken as a stand alone/ elective module within the BSc (Hons) award for other pathways.

The module aims to promote evidence based assessment and management of acutely ill or deteriorating patients by enhancing knowledge and skills in the recognition and response of acute illness regardless of clinical setting.

Normally hold a professional registration with an appropriate body and be working within a care setting relevant to the module.

The principles of Acute Care to include the identification, assessment, observation and management of patients requiring Level 1 care and the interventions and management prior to stepping up to higher levels of care:

•Awareness and critical evaluation of the evidence base and current research supporting the management of acutely ill patients requiring Acute Care; to include NICE guideline 50 competencies, NPSA reports, NCEPOD, Department of Health publications (10 Key roles) and other sources of evidence.

•Recognition and appropriate response to acute illness or clinical deterioration of adults; to include understanding of track and trigger systems such as Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS)

•Understanding the significance of timely physiological observations and observation of trends

•History taking

•Clinical decision making and prioritization of care

•Assessment frameworks

•Decision-making and of acutely ill patients

•Pathophysiology related to acute illness:
- shock 
- acute respiratory problems
- cardiovascular 
- neurological
- renal

•Therapeutic interventions in acute care nursing: 
- airway management, 
- oxygen therapy, 
- pulse oximetry, 
- suctioning, 
- oral and IV fluid management,

•Safe timely and accurate documentation:

•measurement of observations

•recording of assessment, care planning, delivery and evaluation of care

•Response to both objective and subjective data:
- MEWS/PART tools
- care bundles
- non-invasive monitoring
- 3 lead ECG interpretation

•Professional issues related to care of the patient requiring Acute Nursing:
- professional accountability
- responsibility
- record keeping
- challenging sub-optimal practice

•Effective and timely referral to the multi-disciplinary team

•Effective and timely communication with patients and families