A nurse wants to assess a client's level of anxiety in order to determine how much of an anti-anxiety drug to administer prior to performing a painful dressing change for a deep tissue burn
Which question would give the nurse the most accurate assessment of the client's level of anxiety? 1. Are you ready for this change of dressing?
2. Did you find the medication helpful that you received before the dressing change yesterday?
3. How are you feeling today?
4. On a scale of one to five, with one being none and five being panic, can you rate your level of anxiety right now?
4
Rationale: Asking the client to rate the level of anxiety allows the client to give a concrete response about a subjective phenomenon on which the nurse can base the decision about the dose of anti-anxiety agent medication to administer. Asking how the client is feeling today is too general to elicit the information necessary to determine dosing. Asking if the client is ready for the change of dressing will not elicit the information necessary to determine dosing. While asking about yesterday's response to medication may be an important assessment, today's anxiety might be substantially different (in either direction) than yesterday's.
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