Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): In a Nutshell (Nursing)

00:00 So, let's wrap this up.

00:01 a traumatic brain injury is a disruption in the normal function of the brain that can be caused by a bump, a blow, a jolt to the head, or a penetrating head injury like a bullet or a shattered piece of their own skull.

00:14 Patients with moderate to severe TBIs are at risk for trauma to the brain tissue, massive hemorrhage, shock, brain herniation, or hypoxic-ischemic damage.

00:25 Now I know that looks like a paragraph, but I want you to slow down and take a look at that.

00:31 We're talking about not a mild TBI, but a moderate to severe one.

00:36 I'm going to be watching for signs of hemorrhage, are the patients going through shock, are their brain herniating.

00:43 Remember those pupils? That's a late one.

00:45 Or signs that they've had a hypoxic-ischemic damage.

00:48 This is when getting information from the family or whoever was with the patient when they experienced the event is going to be critically important.

00:56 This is why we try to figure out why the patient has been down or how long they've been down, and et cetera.

01:02 So history can be really important in helping us figure out and narrow down what we need to do next.

01:08 Thank you for watching our video series.