FLUIDS, ELECTROLYTES & ABG'S, OH MY!!

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Holy cow!! How in the heck am I supposed to learn/memorize all these electrolytes & abg's in a week?? It seems like there's so many S&S and a lot of them are alike! And don't get me started on abg's! I even bought that f&e made easy book and read the part on abg's and it's still not easy!!

Anybody have any tips or tricks that helped them through this material??

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

Time and practice. This stuff can get pretty complex. If you are working in a hospital environment, you might take a little extra time to look over a chart or two to see what is running for what patient. What is their diagnosis? What are their ABGs? What do they look like clinically? You might start to see some patterns and it will start coming together.

Is this your first teaching on F&E and ABGs? If it is, there will most likely be more in succeeding course work. The more you see it, the more you build on it, the better you will be at it.

Another tip is to critically think it out. The body is always at work compensating for imabalances. Too much fluid in one place means too little in another. Too much PaCO2 (arterial carbon dioxide) and you will need to throw in some HCO3 (bicarb) to offset it. The body will usually compensate and do just that before it comes to a correct level. There are lots of pneumonics and tricky tic-tac-to boxes that might be helpful but understanding the concepts is always best.

Rome wasn't built in a day and ABG and F&E expertise won't be achieved in a week. Still, for simple uncompensated ABGs, look at your pH. Is it up, down or right where it should be? This determines whether you're looking at an acidosis or alkalosis. If there is an abnormality in PaCO2, it's respiratory. If there's an imbalance in HCO3, it's metabolic. For F&E, if you just want to increase volume, isotonic fluids are best.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.
Holy cow!! How in the heck am I supposed to learn/memorize all these electrolytes & abg's in a week?? It seems like there's so many S&S and a lot of them are alike! And don't get me started on abg's! I even bought that f&e made easy book and read the part on abg's and it's still not easy!!

Anybody have any tips or tricks that helped them through this material??

Just got finished with that....So I know what you mean. I was scared to death I would not pass my test but I did. Study your butt off is all I can tell you.I tried to seperate ICF & ECF to know what each did & which ones worked together/oppsite of each other.On the ABG's I got it alot easier than the F&E. We were on this subject for weeks and I am still fuzzy so a week is not much time. I guess you have already found out you can't just memorize you have to have a little bit of an understanding of why & how things work.Good Luck to you! :wink2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Medicine/ Palliative.

One book that MIGHT help is F&E Made Incredibly Easy! GIve it a whirl! Seeing an actual pt with the manifestations helped me remeber once and for all!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

two words for you: flash cards

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ortho/Neuro.
Holy cow!! How in the heck am I supposed to learn/memorize all these electrolytes & abg's in a week?? It seems like there's so many S&S and a lot of them are alike! And don't get me started on abg's! I even bought that f&e made easy book and read the part on abg's and it's still not easy!!

Anybody have any tips or tricks that helped them through this material??

For ABG's we were taught ROME. Respiratory Opposite Metabolic Equal. You first need to memorize the normal levels of pH, PaCo2 and HCO3. You first look at the pH and decide if it is alkaline or acidic. If the pH is up and the PCO2 is down, it is Respiratory Alkalosis and if the pH is down and the PCO2 is up, it is Respiratory Acidosis. For Metabolic: if the pH is up and the HCO3 is up it is Metabolic Alkalosis and if they pH is down and the HCO3 is down, it is Metabolic Acidosis. This is just the basics of course, we haven't really gotten into compensation yet. This definently helped me with just looking at the lab values. Good luck! :p

Semester 3 of 4!!!!!!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg, Psych.

Thanks SabrinasMom, that is very helpful :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Thanks SabrinasMom, that is very helpful :)

Hello,

Here are several of web sites that assist you in learning the fluid, electrolytes & ABGs:

http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/clinsci/wing/fluids/bloodgas.htm#Normal

This site has charts that maybe helpful:

http://www.edu.rcsed.ac.uk/lectures/lt8.htm

http://pedsccm.wustl.edu/FILE-CABINET/Practical/Akron_pdfs/8FLUIDS.PDF

I am so tired thereore"

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Hello,

Here are several of web sites that assist you in learning the fluid, electrolytes & ABGs:

http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/clinsci/wing/fluids/bloodgas.htm#Normal

This site has charts that maybe helpful:

http://www.edu.rcsed.ac.uk/lectures/lt8.htm

http://pedsccm.wustl.edu/FILE-CABINET/Practical/Akron_pdfs/8FLUIDS.PDF

I am so tired thereore"

Thanks for the input everybody. I've been studying over the weekend and it's coming together a bit. Wish me luck on the exam, eh?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU Level III.

are there any sites that are electrolyte specific?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CV Surgery Step-down.

See if your library has "Fluid and Electrolytes Made Incredibly Easy". This helped me!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

Maagnursing.com is a very instructive site that includes ABGs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment