Nursing practice

National Council of State Boards of Nursing: the US group of nursing boards that writes and runs the NCLEX exams.

An error or unsafe situation that was caught before it reached the client, so no harm was done.

A planned look at what a person, group or community needs, done before deciding what services or teaching to provide.

Failure to give a child or dependent adult the food, shelter, care, safety or medical help they need.

Failure to use the care that a reasonably careful person would use in the same situation.

Relating to a newborn baby, in the first 28 days after birth.

A physician who specializes in the kidneys and their diseases.

A doctor whose specialty is diseases of the brain, spinal cord and nerves, treated mainly without surgery.

A set spot on the sterile field where sharps are put down and picked up, so two people never hold the same sharp at once.

Neonatal intensive care unit: a hospital unit that cares for newborns who are sick or born early.

National Incident Management System, the US system that sets one structure and one set of terms for responding to emergencies.

No known drug allergies: a charting note that the client reports no allergic reactions to any medicine.

National League for Nursing: a US organization devoted to nursing education and nursing faculty.

A charting phrase meaning the client has no allergies that they or their records know of.

Not sticking to a wound, as a dressing contact layer that lets drainage pass and comes off without pulling tissue.

The ethical principle of doing no harm to the client.

Ways of responding to a client that shut down open, honest talk instead of encouraging it.

Without words: communicated through facial expression, body language, touch, tone of voice or silence.

Sending messages without words, through facial expression, eye contact, posture, gestures, touch and tone of voice.

The usual feelings, thoughts and behaviors that follow a loss, such as a death.

A normal body temperature; for surgical patients, a core temperature of at least 36°C (96.8°F).

To tell the person who prescribes the client's care about a finding, change or problem.

A state's law that defines nursing practice, sets the scope of each type of nurse and creates the board of nursing.

A registered nurse with a graduate degree and advanced training who can assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe.

A nurse's organized collection of information about a client's health, needs and responses, the first step of the nursing process.

A trained, certified worker without a nursing license who helps clients with daily care under a nurse's direction.

A nurse's judgment about a client's response to a health problem, which the nurse can treat within the nursing scope.

A place where people who need daily help and nursing care live, for a short stay or long term.

The step-by-step method nurses use to plan and give care: assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate.

A planned, step-by-step return to healthy eating and body weight for a person who is malnourished.