Learning route for nurses
Emergency nursing practice: calculations, triage and handover
Work through the arithmetic, identify the patient who needs help first, and make a concise handover. Choose the ward, ED or remote examples that fit your learning needs and scope.
Start here: drug calculations → deterioration → handover → case practice
Starting sequence
Start here: your first three exercises
Each card says what you will do, the level, roughly how long it takes and whether it is a guide or an exercise. The sequence is a suggestion: start anywhere, and there is no enrolment or score to unlock the next step. Use fictional cases for practice and agree your scope with your supervisor or employer.
Starting an activity here saves this route and your place in it in this browser only, so each exercise can show a link to the next one. Moving on is navigation, not a record that you finished anything, and it replaces any other route saved here. Nothing is sent to an account or synced.
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Drug calculations
Five emergency calculations, from an IM adrenaline volume to micrograms/kg/min, with the working shown.
Start the calculations -
Deterioration
Score two NEWS2 scenarios and plan the escalation call.
Start the deterioration exercises -
Handover
Choose the opening line, spot the missing fact and write the recommendation.
Practise SBAR handover
Further practice
Skills to build, in order
Carry on from step 4. Each activity builds on the ones before it.
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Case practice
A remote nurse-led clinic case where the transfer request is yours to make.
Start the remote clinic case -
Calculation trainer
A mixed set of ten questions across units, dose and volume, infusions and advanced arithmetic.
Build a mixed set -
Prioritisation
Four patients, one nurse: choose who needs you first, then reassess after a deterioration.
Start prioritisation practice -
Ward or ED SBAR
Worked ward and ED handovers, then write your own and compare with the model.
Practise a ward handover -
ABCDE or escalation OSCE
Choose from stations 1–4 by learning need: deterioration, anaphylaxis, breathlessness or low glucose.
Choose an OSCE station
Ventilation practice for nurses covers recognition, bedside checks, communication and escalation within your local competence, not unsupervised ventilator adjustment.
Skill 1 of 4
Emergency drug calculations
Write the formula, put the units in, then sanity-check the answer against the dose you expected. The five worked calculations run from an IM adrenaline volume to micrograms per kilogram per minute; the trainer then mixes units, dose and volume, and infusions in a randomised set.
Skill 2 of 4
Prioritisation and triage
Choose who needs you first, say why, and reassess when something changes. The beginner scenarios give one nurse four patients; a deterioration then changes the order, which is the point of the exercise.
Skill 3 of 4
NEWS2 and recognising deterioration
Score the observations, then decide what the score means for this patient: a score of 3 in any single parameter calls for an urgent review even when the total is low. When a score rises, the next results you see are often a blood gas and a chest film, so the beginner ABG and CXR cases sit here too.
Skill 4 of 4
SBAR handover and escalation
Lead with the problem, give only the background that changes the decision, and finish with a clear request and a time frame. Practise the escalation call, the ward handover and an ED example, then rehearse the same structure as an OSCE station.
What to practise before your first shift
Before your first emergency shift, rehearse one weight-based calculation, one NEWS2 score from raw observations and one SBAR call out loud. Then check local policy for who you escalate to and how, and which medicines your area requires an independent second check for. The remote clinic case adds the harder version: a transfer request that is yours to make.
Where this fits with your exams
Medicines calculation assessments are part of most pre-registration nursing programmes and many employers’ induction, and markers look for visible working as well as the right answer. Prioritisation and escalation also appear in NCLEX-style questions and in OSCE stations, including the NMC test of competence for internationally educated nurses. These exercises practise the reasoning; they are not a mock exam and carry no pass mark.
Carry on in the app
Other learning routes
Every route uses the same free exercises. Back to all learning resources, including the resource finder and all seven practice tools.