Study sheet: Musculoskeletal Nursing Care

📋 Course Outline

1. Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Functions
2. Acute Musculoskeletal Conditions
3. Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions
4. Red Flags and Escalation
5. Pain Types and Descriptions
6. Core Nursing Assessments
7. Mobility and Ongoing Nursing Care

📖 1. Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Functions

📝 Essential Points

• The main musculoskeletal structures and functions are:
  • Bones provide support and protection
  • Joints allow movement
  • Ligaments connect bone to bone
  • Tendons connect muscle to bone
  • Cartilage cushions joints
  • Muscles produce movement

📖 2. Acute Musculoskeletal Conditions

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Fracture : a break in a bone
• Compartment syndrome : increased pressure within a muscle compartment that reduces blood flow and is a medical emergency

📝 Essential Points

📌 Acute musculoskeletal conditions have sudden onset and are often related to injury or trauma.

• Common acute injuries include:
  • A sprain is a ligament injury
  • A strain is a muscle or tendon injury
  • A dislocation is displacement of a bone from a joint

💡 Memory Hook

Trauma → injury → pain, swelling, and possible emergency complications

📖 3. Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions

📝 Essential Points

📌 Chronic musculoskeletal conditions are long-term, progressive, and often lifelong.

• The chronic conditions described are:
  • Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease
  • Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune inflammatory condition
  • Gout is crystal-induced inflammatory arthritis
  • Osteoporosis is reduced bone density that increases fracture risk

📖 4. Red Flags and Escalation

📝 Essential Points

• Immediate escalation is required for:
  • Severe escalating pain not relieved by analgesia
  • Increasing swelling or tightness
  • Pallor, coolness, numbness or tingling
  • Reduced or absent movement
  • Pain on passive stretch

💡 Memory Hook

Pain → swelling → colour and temperature → sensation → movement

📖 5. Pain Types and Descriptions

★ Must-know

📌 Nociceptive pain results from tissue damage such as fractures and sprains and may be described as aching, throbbing, or sharp.

📌 Neuropathic pain involves nerves and may be described as burning, shooting, or pins and needles.

Further detail

📌 Inflammatory pain is associated with swelling and inflammation in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and gout and may feel hot, tender, swollen, or stiff.

💡 Memory Hook

Nociceptive damages tissue, inflammatory pain swells tissue, neuropathic pain involves nerves

📖 6. Core Nursing Assessments

★ Must-know

• Pain assessment records:

  • Location
  • Intensity on a 0–10 scale
  • Quality
  • Onset and duration
  • Factors that worsen or relieve the pain

• The six components of neurovascular assessment are:

  • Pain
  • Pallor
  • Pulse
  • Paraesthesia
  • Paralysis
  • Pressure

Further detail

• A basic neurovascular assessment examines:
  • Pain
  • Circulation
  • Skin colour
  • Temperature
  • Capillary refill
  • Pulses
  • Motor nerve function
  • Sensation
  • Swelling
  • Blood loss

💡 Memory Hook

6 P’s: Pain, Pallor, Pulse, Paraesthesia, Paralysis, Pressure

📖 7. Mobility and Ongoing Nursing Care

★ Must-know

• Mobility evaluation assesses:
  • Ability to weight bear
  • Range of movement
  • Use of aids such as walkers or crutches
  • Gait and balance
  • Impact on activities of daily living

📌 Nursing priorities are pain assessment, neurovascular assessment, mobility evaluation, stabilisation for acute conditions, and ongoing management, education, and support for chronic conditions.

Further detail

• Patient education should address prevention, self-management, and mobility safety.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Acute and Chronic Conditions

Dimension	Acute conditions	Chronic conditions
Onset	Sudden	Gradual
Cause or course	Often trauma-related	Long-term disease
Symptoms	Pain and swelling	Pain and stiffness
Nursing focus	Emergency response and stabilisation	Ongoing management, education, and support