Pocket Guide to Basic Skills and Procedures

This resource includes 92 nursing procedures commonly performed in the clinical setting. These skills are grouped by speciality area and presented in a step-by-step format, with each step promoting learning and understanding. Each skill includes the purpose of the procedure, a list of actual or potential related nursing diagnoses and the equipment needed. This edition includes 5 new skills: assessing pulse oximetry, assessing central venous pressure, teaching self-catherization, using a hypothermia blanket and measuring peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), which should prepare nurses for current practice. It incorporates current universal precautions and BSI guidelines throughout, and an appendix with lab values for normal ranges, which provides assessment criteria.

Anne Griffin Perry, RN, EdD, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean, School of Nursing, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL