Emergency Care and Life Support

Prerequisites: None Established

GENERAL OBJECTIVES
a. Understand the delivery of care to patients requiring urgent attention.
b. Understand the coordination and mechanisms of Emergency Care.
c. Acquire basic knowledge in the ability to communicate with individuals and family members
during situations requiring Emergency Care.
d. Be able to identify and manage situations of imminent vital compromise.

General Objectives
1. Be able to provide professional technical care, according to the patient?s needs, guided by scientific knowledge, maintaining high levels of quality and security through established legal and ethical norms
2. Plan and provide nursing care to individuals, families or groups with the goal of improving health, evaluating its impact through guidelines of clinical practice which are described in the process by which a health problem is diagnosed, treated or cared for.
3. Understand and be able to apply the fundamentals and theoretical & methodological principles of nursing.
4. Understand the behaviour of people according to their gender and ethnic group within a social and multicultural context.
5. Design systems of care directed towards people, families or groups
evaluating their impact and applying the necessary modifications.
6. Base nursing interventions on scientific evidence and means available.
7. Understand patients, without prejudice, considering their physical, psychological and social aspects. Respect their opinions, beliefs and values and guarantee their right to privacy and confidentiality.
8. Promote and respect the patient?s right to participation, information, independence and informed consent in the decision making process.
9. Encourage a healthy life style and self-care while supporting preventative and therapeutic measures.
10. Protect the health and well-being of patients and families,guaranteeing their security.
11. Establish effective communication with patients, families, social groups and colleagues, and encourage the education of their own health.
12. Learn the ethical code of Spanish Nursing, understanding its ethical implications in the context of a world in transformation.
13. Understand the principles of healthcare finance and the appropriate use of available resources.
14. Establish evalution mechanisms considering their scientific-technical and quality aspects.
15. Work as a basic unit with a team of professionals in which the members and other healthcare personell are estructured in a uni or multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary form.
16. Understand healthcare information systems.
17. Provide nursing care based on comprehensive health care, implying multidisciplinary cooperation, process integration and continuity of care.
18. Understand strategies to provide care and comfort to patients and family members, who require palliative care for advanced and terminal diseases.

SPECIFIC SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
1.- Recognize high risk situations and be able to execute Basic and Advanced Life Support maneuvers.
2.- Recognize Emergency situations and be able to monitor and manage these patients.
3.- Understand the clinical signs of pathophysiological processes and the risk factors that determine the states of health and illness during the different stages of life.
3.- Identify the psychosocial responses of people facing different health situations (particularly, sickness and suffering), and take the appropriate actions to provide the best care possible.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
R-1 Can identify Cardiopumonary Arrest and is able to initiate ACLS (SVA) maneuvers. 1, 2, 3, 4
R-2 Knows different methods of airway and circulation management. 1, 2, 4
R-3 Knows the systems of organization and care in accidents with multiple victims. 1, 2, 3
R-4 Knows different nursing skills and procedures needed when caring for critical patients. 1, 2, 3, 4
R-5 Performs a ?Continuity of Care? for critical patients throughout their chain of care. 1, 2, 3, 4
R-6 Promotes bio/psychosocial care for critical patients and their families. 1, 3, 4
R-7 Develops plans of care for adult critical patients. 1,2,3,4
R-8 Develops plans of care for pediatric critical patients. 1,2,3,4
R-9 Can recognize the seriousness of the condition in which patients present to the Emergency Department. 1,2,3,4
R-10 Understands the systems of triage and classification of patients during emergencies.1,2,3,4

SYSTEM for the ASSESSMENT of the ACQUISITION of COMPETENCIES
and QUALIFICATIONS
The evaluation of the aquisition of competencies for the module will be performed considering
the following :
1. Written Theorical Exam : Will be 65% of the final grade.
2. Practical Exam and Projectwork : The seminars will be evaluated by multiple choice exams
based on the presentations and clinical cases.
Work can be done in groups of up to a maximum of 4 students. The evaluation of the presented
work will be based upon its structure, quality of documentation, originality, spelling and
presentation.
3. Attendance and Active Participation in class sessions. Evaluated by the professor using
attendance logs and should be a minimum of 80% of the lectures. It will compose upto 5% of
the final grade.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
1. Topic 1.? Subject Presentation. General Concepts : Critical /Emergency Patient.
2. Topic 2.? Organization, Coordination and Legal Framework of the Emergency Department.
3. Topic 3.? Triage Nurse. Pre?Hospital and In?Hospital.
4. Topic 4.? Pharmacology during emergencies. Complimentary Tests in Emergency Care.
5. Topic 5.? Nursing Care in the Critical Patient.
6. Topic 6.? Nursing Care for the Emergency Patient with Medical Pathology.
7. Topic 7.? Nursing Care for the Emergency Patient with Surgical Pathology.
8. Topic 8.? Nursing Care for the Emergency Patient with Multiple Traumatic Injuries.
9. Topic 9.? Psychological Care for the Patient with Critical Illness. Providing Family Support and Communicating Bad News.
10. Topic 10.? Nursing Care for the Emergency Pediatric Patient.
11. Topic 11.? Nursing Care in Emergency Women?s Health Issues.
12. Topic 12.? Nursing Care in Emergency Patients with Psychiatric Pathology.
13. Topic 13.? Technical Skills in the Emergency Department.
14. Topic 14.? Catastrophic Emergencies and Caring for Multiple Victims
15. Topic 15.? Monitoring and Stabilizing the Critical Patient.