Procedures and skills

Incision and drainage: cutting open an abscess or collection so pus or fluid can drain out.

A urinary diversion in which the ureters drain into a short, isolated piece of ileum brought out through the skin as a stoma, where a bag collects the urine.

A surgical opening that brings the end of the ileum through the belly wall, so stool leaves the body there.

A device or material placed inside the body, such as an artificial joint, pacemaker or birth control rod.

A fertility treatment in which eggs are joined with sperm in a lab and an embryo is then placed in the uterus.

A hand-held device that helps a person take slow, deep breaths and shows how much air they breathe in.

A clean cut made through the skin and tissue during surgery.

A biopsy that removes only a piece of a lump or lesion for diagnosis, leaving the rest in place.

Sealing a vessel by touching the active electrode to a clamp or forceps holding it, so the current runs down the instrument to the tissue.

The ending of a pregnancy on purpose, by medicine or by a procedure that empties the uterus, before the fetus can live outside it.

The starting of a process on purpose, such as bringing on labor or putting a client under anesthesia.

Placed inside the body and left there for a period of time.

A tube passed through the urethra into the bladder and left in place to drain urine into a bag.

The leaking of IV fluid or a drug that is not harmful to tissue out of the vein into the tissue around the IV site.

The slow delivery of a fluid or drug into the body, usually into a vein, over a period of time.

A machine that delivers IV fluid or medicine into the body at a set rate and amount.

How fast an IV fluid or drug flows into the client, usually written in milliliters per hour or drops per minute.

A hand-held device that delivers a measured dose of drug for a person to breathe into the lungs.

A device that delivers a medicine or fluid into the body by injection, such as an auto-injector pen.

The act of putting a device such as a tube, catheter or needle into the body, or the place where it goes in.

Placing drops or fluid into a body cavity lined with membrane, such as the eye, nose, ear, bladder or a duct.

The more complex tasks a person needs to live on their own, such as managing money, medicines, shopping and cooking.

Blowing a gas into a body cavity, such as carbon dioxide into the abdomen during laparoscopic surgery.

A small, worn device that gives insulin all the time through a thin tube placed under the skin.

The measured record of all fluids a client takes in and all fluids that leave the body over a set time.

Checking the baby's heart rate during labor at set times with a hand-held Doppler or fetoscope, instead of continuous monitoring.

Holding broken or cut bone in place from inside the body with implants such as plates, screws, rods, nails, pins or wires until it heals.

A large vein deep on each side of the neck that carries blood from the brain, face and neck back toward the heart.

A row of separate stitches, each placed, tied and cut on its own.

Finding and treating disease through a needle or a thin catheter steered by medical images, in place of an open incision.

Within or into the dermis, the layer of skin just below the surface.

An injection of a tiny amount of fluid into the dermis, the layer just under the top layer of skin.

Into a muscle; used for a drug given by injection into muscle tissue.

An injection that puts medicine deep into a muscle.

Into the bone marrow, the route used to give fluids and drugs through a needle in a bone when an IV line cannot be started or kept.

Into the spinal canal, into the fluid-filled space around the spinal cord (the subarachnoid space).

Entering the body through the skin or a body opening; for a cancer or infection, spreading into nearby tissue.

Surgical removal of a small piece of the iris, so aqueous humor can flow from behind the iris to the front chamber again.

A small hole made through the iris, usually with a laser, without removing any iris tissue, to let aqueous humor drain.

Washing out a wound, body cavity, tube or eye with a steady flow of liquid.

Intravenous: into a vein, or the tube placed in a vein to give fluids and drugs.

Giving a drug by injecting it directly into an IV line or port over a short time, usually a few minutes.