The nurse is helping a patient get dressed to go to her dialysis treatment. The patient bursts into tears and says, "I can't go! I can't stand another day in that awful place. I will die if I have to go!" Which intervention is best?
a. Stop the dressing process and calmly ask the patient talk about her feelings.
b. Continue to dress the patient and reassure her that she will feel better after her treatment.
c. Stop the dressing process and remind the patient that missing a treatment can make her very sick.
d. Continue dressing the patient and remind her that she must stay on task in order to be on time.
A
A calm and supportive attitude will help the patient identify feelings. The nurse should put the dressing process on hold so that the nurse can focus attention on a therapeutic response to the patient's concerns. The nurse should then ask an open-ended question to give the patient freedom to express her concerns. Making a threatening statement about consequences of missed treat-ments only exacerbates the patient's concern. Continuing to dress the patient while offering empty reassurance or changing the subject ignores the problem at hand.
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