NCLEX-RN Glossary — Key Terms & Definitions
- Antiseizure medication
- Asking a minor child to interpret
- Cardiogenic shock
- Compartment syndrome
- Heparin, warfarin, and direct anticoagulants
- Infiltration
- Communication, Documentation, and Continuity
- Dosage, Infusion, and Dimensional Control
- Flushing an infiltrated vesicant
- Hyperkalemia in renal failure
- Immunization decision
- Insulin correction dose
- Acute Kidney Injury, Dialysis, and Urinary Emergencies
- Antipsychotic emergencies
- Calcium and magnesium instability
- CAT, Ability, and the 0.00-Logit Standard
- Emergency Response, Resuscitation, and Toxic Exposure
- Exam Architecture
- Giving oral intake in obstruction
- Hypernatremia
- Acute ischemic stroke
- Body mass index
- Collecting culture after antibiotics when avoidable
- Contraction frequency
- Contrast-associated risk
- Delegating the task before assessing stability
- First-come sequencing
- Fresh flowers or raw foods contrary to policy
- Health Promotion
- Hypertensive emergency
- Acute kidney injury
- Adult Prevention, Aging, and Community Health
- Attack rate
- Carbon monoxide or cyanide exposure
- Developmental surveillance and dosing
- Hematology, Oncology, and Immune Compromise
- Identity and specimen integrity
- Everything will be fine
- Acute grief
- Antidepressant and mood-stabilizer surveillance
- Corrected calcium estimate
- Correcting chronic sodium disturbance too rapidly
- First-order elimination
- Heat stroke versus hypothermia
- High-alert medication system
- Arguing with a delusion
- BUN-to-creatinine ratio
- Chemotherapy extravasation
- Chest-compression fraction
- Culture before antimicrobials
- Delegation under changing conditions
- Effective serum osmolality
- Assignment, Delegation, and Supervision
- Cardiac output
- Delirium versus dementia
- Digoxin toxicity
- Gravity infusion rate
- Integrated Practice
- Absolute risk reduction
- Anion gap
- Corticosteroid therapy
- Dehydration in infants and children
- Dragging rather than lifting
- Eating disorder instability
- Heparin infusion rate
- Hypovolemic shock
- Insulin and hypoglycemia
- Acute pancreatitis
- Anaphylactic shock
- COPD exacerbation
- Epiglottitis versus croup
- Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state
- Hyponatremia
- Incident report before client assessment
- Infantilizing communication
- Acid-base disorder
- Acute heart failure and pulmonary edema
- Acute liver failure and encephalopathy
- Drain-output rate
- Emergency and disaster allocation
- Escalating agitation
- Estimated creatinine clearance
- Ethics, Rights, Consent, and Equitable Access
- Handoff failure
- Inspecting a suspected epiglottitis airway
- Intracranial hemorrhage and rising pressure
- Acute severe asthma
- Adverse reaction after first dose
- Alcohol concentration decline estimate
- Aspiration risk and dysphagia
- Basic Care and Comfort
- Beta blocker or rate-control toxicity
- Diagnostic Testing, Specimens, and Point-of-Care Decisions
- Documenting before administration
- Hemodialysis complication
- Initial sepsis crystalloid estimate
- ACE inhibitor or ARB surveillance
- Antimicrobial stewardship and toxicity
- Assessment
- Central-line complication
- Community outbreak control
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Fall with possible injury
- Gestational diabetes
- Interpersonal violence or abuse disclosure
- Acute coronary syndrome
- Anaphylaxis
- Cardiovascular Perfusion, Dysrhythmia, and Shock
- Cerebral perfusion pressure
- Endocrine, Neurologic, Psychiatric, and Antiinfective Drugs
- Estimated date of birth
- Fluids, Electrolytes, Acid-Base, and Renal Perfusion
- Forcing fluids in overload
- Absolute neutrophil count
- Acute transfusion reaction
- Adrenal crisis
- Allergy versus side effect
- Bowel obstruction versus ileus
- Cardiovascular, Renal, and Anticoagulant Pharmacology
- Clinical Judgment
- Collecting irrelevant data while the client deteriorates
- Endocrine Crisis and Glucose Control
- Extravasation
- Growth, Development, and Pediatric Prevention
- Hygiene, privacy, and dignity
- Adult cardiac arrest
- Alcohol or sedative withdrawal
- Alphabetical ABC use without context
- Competing time-critical therapies
- Diabetic ketoacidosis
- Falls and functional decline
- Gastrointestinal, Hepatic, and Pancreatic Failure
- Increased intracranial pressure in infancy
- Newborn transition failure
- Pain and opioid surveillance
- Placing a pillow under the knee after some vascular procedures without order
- Prolonged pulse check
- Recurrent variable decelerations
- Severe hypoglycemia
- Thyroid replacement and antithyroid therapy
- Loop and potassium-sparing diuretics
- Postoperative hemorrhage
- Priority Algorithms That Survive Disguise
- Psychosocial Integrity
- Renal or hepatic accumulation
- Safe mobility and transfer
- Shock differentiation
- Intrapartum, Postpartum, and Newborn Transition
- Late entry disguised as contemporaneous
- Medication-error rate
- Needlestick or mucosal exposure
- Parenteral nutrition and refeeding
- Pediatric maintenance fluid rate
- Postpartum hemorrhage
- Pressure injury as a system signal
- Prioritization
- Respiratory Failure, Airway, and Mechanical Support
- Restraint or seclusion event
- Selecting every plausible option
- Memorizing answer letters
- Neurologic, Spinal, and Sensory Emergencies
- Oncologic compression emergency
- Percent change
- Pneumonia and ARDS
- Pressure
- Sedating an agitated hypoxic client before assessment
- Supine positioning during late-pregnancy hypotension
- Leaving an unstable postpartum client alone
- Palliative symptom control
- Postoperative venous and pulmonary complications
- Leaving items unanswered as time expires
- Malignant hyperthermia
- Mobility, Skin, Hygiene, and Dignity
- Orthostatic pulse change
- Physiological Adaptation
- Sensitivity
- SIADH versus diabetes insipidus
- Treating the monitor instead of the client
- Mass-casualty triage
- Parenteral Therapies
- Peritoneal dialysis peritonitis
- Preeclampsia with severe features
- Priority score for rehearsal
- Quantitative Nursing
- Recapping a used needle
- Intussusception
- Management of Care
- Medication reconciliation failure
- Nutrition, Elimination, Pain, Sleep, and Palliation
- Pain score without functional assessment
- Postprocedure hemorrhage or perforation
- Pressure injury prevention
- Pulmonary embolism
- Readiness, Remediation, and Exam-Day Command
- Reduction of Risk
- Rh alloimmunization prevention
- Staffing workload rate
- Suicide risk conversation
- Massaging an anticoagulant injection site
- Mechanical bowel obstruction
- Meningococcal disease
- Perioperative and Postprocedure Surveillance
- Phlebitis and thrombophlebitis
- Pyelonephritis and urosepsis
- Quality, Error Response, and Disaster Systems
- Reassessment debt
- Major depression and mania
- Meningitis or encephalitis
- Psychosis
- Safety and Infection Prevention
- Screening versus diagnostic evaluation
- The Multi-Client Clinical Judgment Gauntlet
- Therapeutic Communication, Grief, Crisis, and Trauma
- Tumor lysis syndrome
- Lowering severe pressure rapidly without ordered target
- Medication error or near miss
- Medication Systems, Pharmacokinetics, and Adverse Events
- Normalcy bias from one value
- Oxygen content estimate
- Rasch response probability
- Sepsis, Shock, Burns, and Multisystem Failure
- Thyroid storm versus myxedema coma
- Trend, Laboratory, and Point-of-Care Reasoning
- Uncontained infectious diarrhea
- Unstable dysrhythmia
- Mixing incompatible insulins
- Multi-Client Prioritization and Time Control
- Neutropenic fever
- NGN Scoring Without Guesswork
- Pediatric respiratory distress
- Postanesthesia airway obstruction
- IV Therapy, Central Lines, Blood Products, and Nutrition Support
- One unstable client among stable assignments
- Opioid poisoning
- Pounds used as kilograms
- Task slack
- Non-accidental trauma
- Panic and severe anxiety
- Pneumothorax and chest drainage
- Potassium emergency
- Restraint-free fall prevention
- Spinal cord emergency
- Task completion bias
- The Six-Layer Clinical Judgment Cycle
- Major burn resuscitation
- Mean arterial pressure
- Multiple-organ dysfunction
- Pharmacological Therapies
- Placenta previa versus abruption
- Prenatal Assessment and Antepartum Risk
- Psychiatric Disorders, Suicide, and Substance-Related Care
- Shock index
- Standard Precautions, Isolation, and Exposure Control
- Status epilepticus
- Peritonitis or perforation
- Plus/minus item score
- Point-of-care test validity
- Pulmonary tuberculosis
- Recurrent late decelerations
- Sepsis and septic shock
- Stopping insulin when glucose normalizes but gap remains
- Thrombocytopenia and DIC
- Relative contraindication
- Varicella or disseminated zoster
- Venous thromboembolism prevention
- Waiting for hypotension in compensated shock
- NGN plus/minus scoring
- 4-2-1 pediatric maintenance fluid rule
- Urinary retention and catheter harm
- Uterine tachysystole
- NGN zero/one scoring
- Upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage
- Urine output rate
- Weighted mastery index
- Absolute contraindication
- Six-Layer Clinical Judgment Cycle
- NGN rationale scoring
- Ventilator and tracheostomy emergency
- Weight-based liquid dose