The nursing care of critically ill patients is often problematic due to lack of staff and equipment. But if basic things are done correctly many lives could be saved. Ritva Niemi anaesthetist nurse, MHSc who worked in Haydom Lutheran Hospital for 4 years as a nurse tutor has made these follow-up charts. The aim was to lift the quality of the care and follow-up of the patients.

One difficult area is IV-therapy and medication especially care of babies and small children, who tend to get overloaded when there are no drop counters. Also nurses don't document carefully all the infusions given for the patients. It is not good care if you have to ask from the relatives how many bottles the patient has got. Preoperative rehydration of acute abdomen and severe gastro-enteritis tend to be too slow. Postoperative care of many patients also often needs more intensive follow-up.

In order to make more intensive attention to patient's condition and to all vital signs in hospitals with little resources print this Fluid balance chart and Observation chart . These charts can be used in ICU or special follow-up room for pre- and post-operative patients as well as for all critically ill patients. This Observation chart has the Glasgow coma-scale. How to do it and interprete it can be found here. Anaesthesia is usually administered by specialized nurses but the quality of the anaesthesia record varies a lot. You can print this Anaesthesia record and Preoperative visit chart out and use them in your hospital.

This simple Fluid intake chart can be used in other wards to document intravenous fluids and other fluids and hang it at the bedside and the follow-up will be much better. Charting of IV-infusions and medicines is an important part of a good nursing care. Signing is essential in this chart also. Drop count chart is helping to calculate the right speed.

It has also become evident that we need a good chart for examinations, treatments, medicines, iv. infusions and vital signs which can all be seen in one chart instead of having a lot of paper slips and different kinds of charts. You may use this Patient fever, examination and treatment chart.