ANZAC Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

PQRST

I like mnemonics. I find that they make it easier for me to remember things. One of the most useful that I’ve found as a nurse is PQRST - the systematic way to assess a patient’s complaint of pain.

By going through the process systematically, it often gives you a pretty good idea of what is causing the pain, which then guides what you are going to do about it.

And for the novice nurse: always remember to treat chest pain as cardiac in origin until otherwise ruled out. Why? Because heart stuff will kill you a hell of a lot quicker than reflux. That generally means an ECG.

And for some unknown reason, you can bet that when a patient reports experiencing chest pain, right as you’re about to clock off, that it’s going to end up being something significant…

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