The goal of this book is to teach the ability to form an autonomous and clinically useful opinion about any 12-lead electrocardiogram (EKG). It introduces basic principles of anatomy and physiology, including a review of the heart’s electrical system. The heart has an intricate electrical system, made up of highly specialized cells, that is responsible for generating each heart beat. The heart’s electrical system consists of five structures: the sinoatrial (SA node), the atrioventricular (AV node), the bundle of His, the right and left bundle branches, and the Purkinje fibers. One of the most basic yet important pieces of information the EKG provides is the heart rate (HR). The most accurate way to measure heart rate is by measuring the R-R interval. Learning the normal electrical direction of forces in the heart provides a simple and scientific way of understanding and interpreting an EKG. The book also discusses vital elements of cardiology, such as atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, conduction abnormalities and heart block, ischemic and nonischemic disorders, and more. It explains various types of heart blocks such as premature atrial contraction, sinus arrest and asystole, and various types of pacemakers such as ventricular pacemaker and artrial pacemakers. Drug effects and toxicities, electrolyte imbalances, trauma, pericardial diseases, lung disease, cancer, cardiomyopathies, and systemic diseases are conditions that can cause specific changes on the EKG.

This book was designed to be a high-speed review—a last-minute gut check before the exam day. The authors created this review, which is a quick summary of the key topics one’ll encounter on the exam, to supplement to their certification preparation studies. They encourages the readers to use it in conjunction with other study aids to ensure they are as prepared as possible for the exam. This book, written by certified critical care nurses, follows the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN®) most recent exam content outline, and uses a succinct, bulleted format to highlight what one need to know. It will help the readers solidify their retention of information in the month or so leading up to their exam. Special features appear throughout the book to call out important information, including: complications: Problems that can arise with certain disease states or procedures; pearls: Additional patient care insights and strategies for knowledge retention; Alerts: Need-to-know details on how to handle emergency situations; pop quizzes: Critical-thinking questions to test your ability to synthesize what you learned; medication tables: Handy tables at the end of each body system chapter highlighting the indications, mechanisms of action, contraindications, and adverse effects of commonly administered medications; and list of abbreviations: A useful appendix to help guide us through the alphabet soup of clinical terms. We know life is busy. Being able to prepare for our exam efficiently and effectively is paramount, which is why the authors created this book. One have come to the right place as they continue on their path of professional growth and development. The stakes are high, and the authors want to help us succeed.

This book is a “how-to” guide that describes the problem-solving method in detail. It provides an overview of the method, and step-by-step instructions, tips, tools, activities, and cases to facilitate practicing and learning the problem-solving method. The problem-solving method comprises of three phases, each of which has several steps namely how to define the problem, how to study the problem, and how to decide upon and implement the best course of action to resolve the problem. It imposes a logical thought process that builds leadership competencies in accurately and effectively defining problems, especially around very complex organizational issues that may involve multiple root causes, and supports arriving at recommendations that get implemented and actually solve the problem at hand. The book is especially useful in supporting experiential learning and coaching for students and professionals early in their careers—specifically providing a problem-solving method and tools for students, student teams, and early careerists working with healthcare organizations on consulting projects, or on projects as an administrative intern, resident, or fellow. It assists in facilitating teaching a structured approach to problem-solving and decision-making in undergraduate or graduate level case study, experiential learning, problem-solving and management decision-making courses. The book also supports teaching leadership and problem-solving skills in early careerist leadership training programs within organizations. It will be instructive for organizations that wish to enhance the problem-solving and decision making skills of its workforce more broadly. Organizations who adopt the text as part of their administrative fellowship development programs will find benefit in using the Problem-Solving Method as a structured approach to support the success of fellows in developing their ability to excel on their assigned organizational projects.

This book makes a timely and essential contribution to professional training and is a welcome resource for those dedicated to improving long-term care services for older adults. It reflects the way society views the growing elderly population and the implications of this demographic trend for the field of long-term care. Long-term care continues to be the fastest growing segment of the healthcare industry; there is a critical need to educate and train a core of professional personnel with the knowledge and skills to address the complex issues in aging, health, and human services. The book aims to provide a useful reference of content information, effective practices, and model programs in elder care related to assisted living/residential care (AL/RC) administration. Similar to the first edition, this book is based on the core competencies required to operate assisted living communities. It contains five parts; each part focuses on a core competency in assisted living administration such as organizational management, human resources management, business and financial management, environmental management, and resident care management. The book embraces chapter features such as useful learning objectives, case studies, effective practices, and model programs in elder care that are relevant to assisted living communities. New chapters in this edition address topics such as inter-professional practice; home- and community-based services; information and communication technology; LGBTQ and other diverse groups; memory care; and palliative and hospice care. Importantly, the book is based on core competencies required to operate assisted living communities, and each of its five parts focuses on a core competency (i.e., domain of practice). The book serves as a useful reference for professionals who are associated with AL/RC organizations. It can also function as a primary textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in gerontology, health administration, and long-term care administration that focus on assisted living/residential care administration.

An aging population is one where the number and proportion of older people increases over time. This is referred to as demographic aging or population aging. Demographic changes since the second half of the last century have led to a global aging population resulting in important economic and social concerns worldwide. The main causes of aging populations are declining fertility rates and increasing life expectancy. This review book compares and contrasts the five domains of practice to the four domains identified in the National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards (NAB) criteria effective 2022. Except for NAB's realignment from five to four domains of practice, the content information, knowledge base and tasks are equivalent. Each of the five parts of this Review Book focuses sequentially on the five domains of practice resulting from this comparative analysis. It is evident that this Review Book has retained the initial knowledge areas or domains of practice; the Review Book also reflects the Second Edition of Assisted Living Administration and Management: Effective Practices and Model Programs in Elder Care upon which it is based. Part One covers Domain of Practice 1, organizational management; Part Two explores Domain of Practice 2, human resources management; Part Three focuses on Domain of Practice 3, business and financial management; Part Four includes Domain of Practice 4, Environmental management; and Part Five involves Domain of practice 5, Resident care management. Aspiring residential care/assisted living administrators must identify a particular path to fulfill their professional goal and obtain a career in long-term care administration. While there are different options for students and practitioners, the review book explores possible steps to becoming a residential care/assisted living administrator.

This book has been designed to be a high-speed review—a last-minute gut check before the C-EFM^® exam day. The authors created this review, which is a quick summary of the key topics one”ll encounter on the exam, to supplement their certification preparation studies. They encourage the readers to use it in conjunction with other study aids to ensure they are as prepared as possible for the exam. This book follows the National Certification Corporation’s (NCC) most recent exam content outline. It uses a succinct, bulleted format with sample electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) tracings to highlight essential knowledge. The aim of the book is to help the readers solidify their retention of information in the month or so leading up to their exam. It is written by certified nurse practitioners who are familiar with the exam and the content one need to know. Special features appear throughout the book to call out important information, including the following: Complications: Problems that can arise with certain patient conditions or procedures; Nursing Pearls: Additional patient care insights and strategies for knowledge retention; Alerts: Need-to-know details on how to handle emergency situations or when to transfer care; Pop Quizzes: Critical thinking questions to test ones’ ability to synthesize what they learned; and List of Abbreviations: A useful appendix to help guide us through the alphabet soup of clinical terms. Chapters cover maternal and fetal physiology, internal and external fetal monitoring equipment, fetal assessment methods, EFM pattern recognition, fetal and maternal complications, ethical and legal issues, and more.

This book was designed to be a high-speed review —a last-minute gut check before the exam day. The authors created this review, which is a quick summary of the key topics one’ll encounter on the exam, to supplement to their certification preparation studies. They encourages the readers to use it in conjunction with other study aids to ensure they are as prepared as possible for the exam. This book follows Competency & Credentialing Institute’s (CCI®) most recent exam content outlines, and uses a succinct, bulleted format to highlight what one need to know. The aim of this book is to help one solidify their retention of information in the month or so leading up to their exam. It is written by certified perioperative nurses who are familiar with the exam and the content one need to know. Special features appear throughout the book to call out important information, including: complications: problems that can arise with certain disease states or procedures; pearls: additional patient care insights and strategies for knowledge retention; alerts: need-to-know details on how to handle emergency situations or when to transfer care; pop quizzes: critical-thinking questions to test our ability to synthesize what we learned; unfolding scenarios: case studies that develop over the course of the chapter to challenge our critical -thinking skills; and list of abbreviations: a useful appendix to help guide us through the alphabet soup of clinical terms. We know life is busy. Being able xto prepare for our exam efficiently and effectively is paramount, which is why the authors created this book. One have come to the right place as they continue on their path of professional growth and development. The stakes are high, and the authors want to help us succeed.

Infusion therapy can be delivered safely and effectively in the home setting. Successful home care agencies provide knowledgeable and qualified home care nurses and have structures and processes in place to ensure quality patient care. As an invaluable resource, this book can provide the framework for an effective home infusion therapy program that ensures optimal outcomes and patient safety. The first part of the book addresses the foundations of home infusion therapy. It describes the author’s model for safe infusion therapy, which provides a framework for the subsequent chapters. This model predicts that positive outcomes, including the absence of infusion therapy-related complications, patient satisfaction, and health care provider satisfaction, are maximized when four aspects of care are addressed during the home care planning process and during the process of providing care. The part discusses the importance of patient education. The role that patients and caregivers play in home infusion therapy is what makes home care unique. The nurse’s skill in teaching patients is equally important to any infusion administration skills. The part also describes concepts in infection prevention, an important goal of infusion therapy in all health care settings. The second part of the book addresses access devices and methods, including peripheral catheters, the growing use of midline catheters, and central vascular access devices, as well as subcutaneous infusion and intrathecal catheters. The final part of the book includes a chapter on infusion methods and issues followed by infusion therapy-specific chapters. Each of these chapters follows a similar format based upon the author’s model.

This book serves as a clinical guide to assist clinicians in prescribing psychotropic medications to address mental health conditions. It is used to assist clinicians to understand the key aspects of psychopharmacology. This is the first practical guide for novice and experienced nurse practitioners for explaining and choosing appropriate psychiatric medications. This clinical reference is ideal for students and all clinically oriented healthcare professionals since it provides concise, bulleted-style text for easy access to pertinent information. The book offers readers a broad understanding of the key aspects of psychotropic medications used in general psychiatry and primary-care settings and includes strategies to ease medication decision-making and evidence-based best practices to select and manage psychotropic medications. It is organized into two parts. Part I begins with an overview of general pharmacological principles and a brief overview of neurotransmitters, and covers the rationale for medication use and the risks and benefits of the major classes of psychotropic medications. Part II includes medications across drug classes that are divided by age population and includes practice management strategies, safety considerations, drug interactions, identification of side effects and adverse reactions, basic laboratory test recommendations, treatment options, and self-management strategies. The book ends with important concepts for patient and/or caregiver education and advocacy. It is intended for clinical healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, APRNs, and other healthcare clinicians who need a practice guide, test review, or clinical resource guide that is easy to access and use.