John B. Taylor & Michelle Rhodes 
Medical Assessment Units 
The Initial Mangement of Acute Medical Patients

Increasing demands on acute hospital resources, together with a reduction in the number of available beds, has placed a greater emphasis on the need for rapid and effective assessment of patients in order to determine their need for hospital adsmission. This has led to the widespread emergence of the specialist Medical Assessment Unit (MAU). This timely book provides an up- to-date guide to the assessment and immediate management of patients with acute medical conditions. It presents a structured approach based on common presenting features and focuses on the first twenty four hours of the patient’s stay in hospital. In writing this book, the editors have been able to draw on their own clinical experiences as a charge nurse in Accident and Emergency nursing and a sister in acute cardiology and respectively.

Table of Content

Introduction.

1. Service Organisation in Medical Assessment Units, Ian
wood.

2. Initial Assessment of The Acute Mental Patient, Michelle
Davies, Judith morgan and Ian Wood.

3. Vulnerable Groups, Linda Miller, Michael Ginns, Judy thorley
and Elizabeth Whelan.

4. Sudden Death, Sue Read and Jane Jervis.

5. cardiac Arrest, Carole Donaldson, Ian Wood and Michelle
Rhodes.

6. Shock, Judith Morgan.

7. Altered Consciousness, Brendan Davies, Michelle Davies.
Lorraine Taylor and Ian Wood.

8. Shortness of Breath, Susan Hope, Jacqueline Mitchell,
michelle Rhodes, Helen Whitehouse and Ian Wood.

9. Chest Pain, Michelle Rhodes.

10. Abdominal Pain and Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding, Ruth
Harris and Terry Wardle.

11. Extremity Pain and Swelling, Ian Wood

About the author

John Brian Taylor is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Michelle Rhodes is the editor of Medical Assessment Units: The Initial Mangement of Acute Medical Patients, published by Wiley.