As I've said many times before, nursing is all about solving problems. You SEE something, you DO something...it's so simple. But, at the same time, putting it into practice can be quite complex. The patient problems you start out with at the beginning of your shift, are not always going to be the same problems you're dealing with a few hours in. As a nurse, your ability to adapt, reprioritize and reevaluate is the MOST ESSENTIAL thing you can do.

In this podcast, we go through a trauma case study that highlights this in detail. Follow along through four shifts as you take care of a young trauma victim with multiple problems, multiple changes in condition and multiple priorities to manage. It's a lot to juggle, so if you'd like to read about it instead, look for the blog post titled Trauma Nursing Case Study at www.straightanursingstudent.com.

*DISCLAIMER: This is a fictitious patient and is not based in any way on actual events.