Clinical meaning
Core nursing fundamentals encompass the essential knowledge and skills that form the foundation of safe, competent practical nursing practice. These fundamentals include infection prevention and control, patient safety, aseptic technique, medication administration, vital signs assessment, patient hygiene, nutrition, elimination, mobility, and documentation. The chain of infection provides the framework for understanding how infections are transmitted and how to break the chain at each link: the infectious agent (pathogen), the reservoir (where the pathogen lives and multiplies), the portal of exit (how the pathogen leaves the reservoir), the mode of transmission (contact, droplet, airborne, vehicle, or vector), the portal of entry (how the pathogen enters a new host), and the susceptible host (whose immune defenses are inadequate to resist infection). Standard precautions (formerly universal precautions) are the minimum infection prevention practices applied to ALL patient care regardless of suspected or confirmed infection status, and include hand hygiene (the single most effective measure to prevent healthcare-associated infections), use of personal protective equipment (PPE), safe injection practices, respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, environmental cleaning, and safe handling of potentially contaminated equipment and linens....