Nursing practice

An abbreviation that most often means emergency department; it can also mean erectile dysfunction.

Harm or neglect of an older adult by someone they should be able to trust, such as a family member or caregiver.

A digital version of a client's medical record that the care team can read and update on a computer.

The digital chart one hospital or clinic keeps of a patient's visits and stays there.

When a client who cannot keep themselves safe leaves a care facility without staff knowing.

Being ready, as a facility and as a person, to respond to a disaster or emergency through plans, training, drills and supplies.

A facility's written plan for what each person does in a disaster or emergency.

The ability to know and manage your own emotions and to read and respond well to the emotions of others.

Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act: a 1986 US law requiring emergency departments to screen and stabilize anyone who comes in.

The care given to a person and their family in the last days, weeks or months of life.

Describing a disease that is always present at a steady, expected level in a certain area or group.

Being caught or trapped, such as a body part caught in a bed's side rails or a nerve squeezed by nearby tissue.

A rise in cases of a disease in a community or region well above what is normally expected.

The study of how often diseases happen in groups of people, who gets them, and why.

Having to do with what is morally right, or acting in line with accepted moral principles.

A situation in which a person must choose between two or more actions that each have moral reasons for and against them.

The study of right and wrong, and the principles that guide good conduct and decisions.

A group in a health care facility that helps staff, clients and families work through difficult moral questions about care.

Helping a person who is suffering to die, by a deliberate act or by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

Moving people out of a place of danger to a safer one, as in a fire or a disaster.

To judge whether care worked by comparing the client's results with the goals that were set.

To compare how the client is actually doing with the expected results, to see whether the care given worked.

Care that combines the best research findings with clinical experience and the client's own wishes.

An assessment result that is normal, or that is anticipated for the client's age, condition or treatment.

A specific, measurable result the nurse and client aim for, used to judge whether care is working.