Critical Care and Emergency Nursing
Core concepts
Emergency and critical care questions reward systematic assessment and rapid escalation. Know the primary survey (airway with cervical spine control, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure), shock types, arrhythmia recognition, and the basics of ventilation and vasoactive infusions. Understand triage categories and the chain of survival.
Traps to expect
- Airway before everything: in trauma, control the cervical spine while securing the airway.
- Shock classification: hypovolaemic, cardiogenic, distributive (septic, anaphylactic, neurogenic), and obstructive; treatment differs and giving fluids indiscriminately in cardiogenic shock is a classic distractor.
- Anaphylaxis: intramuscular adrenaline is first-line, not antihistamines or steroids.
- Arrhythmias: ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia need immediate defibrillation; asystole does not.
- Monitoring interpretation: a falling blood pressure with narrowing pulse pressure suggests tamponade or tension pneumothorax.
Worked rule of thumb
Use the primary survey as a loop: assess, intervene, reassess. Any intervention that does not improve the patient within minutes means escalating to the next level of care rather than repeating it indefinitely.
Study approach
Learn each emergency as a recognition cue plus a single decisive action.