ATI LPN
Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing 14e (Hinkle 2017)
Chapter 23 Questions
Question 1 of 5
While planning a patients care, the nurse identifies nursing actions to minimize the patients pleuritic pain. Which intervention should the nurse include in the plan of care?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: The key characteristic of pleuritic pain is its relationship to respiratory movement. Taking a deep breath, coughing, or sneezing worsens the pain. A soft diet is not necessarily indicated and there is no need for the patient to avoid speaking. Ambulation has multiple benefits, but pain management is not among them.
Question 2 of 5
The nurse is caring for a patient who is scheduled for a lobectomy for a diagnosis of lung cancer. While assisting with a subclavian vein central line insertion, the nurse notes the clients oxygen saturation rapidly dropping. The patient complains of shortness of breath and becomes tachypneic. The nurse suspects a pneumothorax has developed. Further assessment findings supporting the presence of a pneumothorax include what?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: In the case of a simple pneumothorax, auscultating the breath sounds will reveal absent or diminished breath sounds on the affected side. Paradoxical chest wall movements occur in flail chest conditions. Sudden loss of consciousness does not typically occur. Muffled or distant heart sounds occur in pericardial tamponade.
Question 3 of 5
The nurse is assessing an adult patient following a motor vehicle accident. The nurse observes that the patient has an increased use of accessory muscles and is complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. The nurse should recognize the possibility of what condition?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: If the pneumothorax is large and the lung collapses totally, acute respiratory distress occurs. The patient is anxious, has dyspnea and air hunger, has increased use of the accessory muscles, and may develop central cyanosis from severe hypoxemia. These symptoms are not definitive of pneumothorax, but because of the patients recent trauma they are inconsistent with anxiety, bronchitis, or aspiration.
Question 4 of 5
The perioperative nurse is writing a care plan for a patient who has returned from surgery 2 hours prior. Which measure should the nurse implement to most decrease the patients risk of developing pulmonary emboli (PE)?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: For patients at risk for PE, the most effective approach for prevention is to prevent deep vein thrombosis. Active leg exercises to avoid venous stasis, early ambulation, and use of elastic compression stockings are general preventive measures. The patient does not require increased dietary intake of protein directly related to prevention of PE, although it will assist in wound healing during the postoperative period. The patient should not be maintained in one position, but frequently repositioned, unless contraindicated by the surgical procedure. Aspirin should never be administered with warfarin because it will increase the patients risk for bleeding.
Question 5 of 5
The nurse is reviewing the electronic health record of a patient with an empyema. What health problem in the patients history is most likely to have caused the empyema?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Most empyemas occur as complications of bacterial pneumonia or lung abscess. Cancer, smoking, and asbestosis are not noted to be common causes.