General Nursing Terms

4. Term used to indicate a medical emergency that requires immediate attention, such as a cardiac arrest
5. The number of times a patient breathes in one minute
11. Care, interventions, and education given after surgery to prepare a patient for discharge or to return to the hospital unit
12. A scale used to measure a patient's level of pain
13. Patients are "at liberty" or do not have any restrictions in certain areas of care; shortened term
14. An intestinal blockage that can happen after surgery
16. Nurse A nurse who supervises the clinical care of patients within a nursing department
18. The speed at which the heart beats; recorded in beats per minute

1. Measure of how much hemoglobin is bound to oxygen in the bloodstream, which is an indication of how much oxygen is available to the tissues
2. Term used for nursing students in their final semester of nursing school who are finishing their clinical hours with a licensed nurse in a clinical setting
3. National Council Licensure Examination; a computer adaptive test nursing students must complete and pass to get their state nursing license to practice nursing
6. Care given to a patient directly before surgery; sometimes used to indicate medication given in preparation for anesthesia
7. Medical documentation usually kept in digital form that follows the patient at one hospital
8. Biophysical indicators of health that include body temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and level of pain
9. Samples taken from a patient's body for testing, such as blood, urine, sputum, tissue, and stool
10. Part of nursing education where student nurses provide patient care in a hospital setting under the supervision of staff nurses and their clinical instructors
12. An experienced, licensed nurse who supervises nursing students during clinical rotations or new graduates during their first job
15. The process of adding information to the chart
17. Latin abbreviation "as needed"