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Nurse.ICU

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ABG Interpreter

pH, PaCO₂, HCO₃⁻ → the acid-base call with compensation — plus anion gap, albumin correction, and delta ratio when you add electrolytes.

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A nurse in scrubs sitting at a break-room table with a laptop, notebook, and coffee mug, looking thoughtfully to one side.
Critical Care

CCRN Pass Rate 2025: What the Numbers Actually Mean

The 2025 CCRN (Adult) first-time pass rate was 72.02% across 17,151 candidates — down from 81% in 2023. Here's what drove the drop, what the November 2025 cut-score change means, and how worried you should actually be.

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Two nurses in blue scrubs facing each other across a counter in conversation, one gesturing while explaining, workstation monitors in the background.
Critical Care

CCRN vs PCCN: Which Critical-Care Certification Is Right for You?

CCRN and PCCN are both AACN certifications, but they're for different patients and different units. A clear comparison of patient population, eligibility hours, exam format, and how to choose the one that matches where you actually work.

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A nurse in scrubs at a desk highlighting a page in a study notebook, a steaming coffee mug and laptop beside them.
Critical Care

How to Study for the CCRN: A Plan That Actually Works

A practical, four-step CCRN study plan built around the AACN blueprint — how to map the exam, drill the systems your unit doesn't expose you to, use practice questions the right way, and simulate the real 150-item exam.

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A nurse charting at a computer-on-wheels workstation beside a patient's hospital bed.
Neuro & Stroke

Neuro Checks: Documenting Them Defensibly

A neuro check is only as good as the record it leaves. How to chart level of consciousness, pupils, motor, speech, and vitals so the trend is obvious, the change is caught, and the documentation holds up — with the specific phrasing that beats 'neuro checks stable.'

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A nurse walking through a hospital corridor holding a clipboard, colleagues in the background.
Neuro & Stroke

New Nurse on a Stroke Unit: The First 90 Days

A realistic, phase-by-phase guide to your first three months on a stroke or neuro unit — what to master first, what can wait, and how to build the assessment instincts that make the rest click. Written for new grads and nurses transferring in.

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A nurse holding up two fingers in front of an alert patient during a bedside neurological assessment.
Neuro & Stroke

NIHSS Scoring Walkthrough: The 11 Items, With Original Practice Scenarios

A plain-language walk through all 11 NIH Stroke Scale items, the scoring rules people miss, and three original written scenarios to practice on — built to teach the method, not to leak copyrighted test content.

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A close view of a nurse's hands drawing medication up into a syringe from a small glass vial, the needle inserted through the vial's rubber stopper.
Neuro & Stroke

TNK vs tPA: What Stroke Nurses Do Differently (2026 Guideline)

The 2026 AHA/ASA stroke guideline makes tenecteplase a Class I, co-equal thrombolytic for acute ischemic stroke. Here's what changes at the bedside — dosing, the single bolus vs. the hour-long drip, and the monitoring that stays exactly the same.

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Critical Care

Example: How to Read an ABG in 60 Seconds

A short, worked walkthrough of arterial blood gas interpretation — the Nurse.ICU house style for an article, paired with an original diagram.

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An ICU nurse leaning in at the bedside during a rapid response, adjusting the oxygen mask on a patient in respiratory distress, with vital-signs monitors behind.
Critical Care

ABG Interpretation Made Easy: The Tic-Tac-Toe Method (With Practice)

Learn to interpret any arterial blood gas in four steps using the tic-tac-toe method and the ROME mnemonic — normal values, acidosis vs. alkalosis, compensation, the anion gap, and worked practice examples for nurses and nursing students.

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