course of action for health care workers in specific sit¬uations and to provide the best outcome for the pa-tient Examples of procedures are nasogastric tube in-sertion and removal and arterial puncture.
Some procedures are similar to protocols (see below) and specify what is to be done; for example, in the case of cardiac arrest in which specific steps are outlined to care for the patient.
A procedure usually includes:
* a description, which identifies the diagnostic criteria that define the problem