Monitoring
Ongoing assessment to detect complications early.
Monitoring is the ongoing, systematic assessment of a client’s status to detect complications early, before they become emergencies. Know the critical lab values — for example, potassium below 2.5 or above 6.5 mEq/L — that require immediate action and provider notification. Trends over time are often more meaningful than a single value, so compare each finding to the client’s baseline and previous results rather than judging it in isolation.