While caring for a patient with a spinal cord injury (SCI), the nurse elevates the head of the bed, removes compression stockings,
and continues to assess vital signs every 2 to 3 minutes while searching for the cause in order to prevent loss of consciousness or death. By practicing these interventions, the nurse is avoiding the most dangerous complication of autonomic dysreflexia, which is what condition?
1. hypoxia
2. bradycardia
3. elevated blood pressure
4. tachycardia
Correct Answer: 3
Autonomic dysreflexia is an emergency that requires immediate assessment and intervention to prevent complications of extremely high blood pressure. Hypoxia, bradycardia, and tachycardia are not the most dangerous complications of autonomic dysreflexia.
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A 71-year-old man is slated for pacemaker insertion for treatment of a third-degree AV block
The man's nurse has been educating him about his diagnosis and treatment and answering the numerous questions he has about his health problem. Which of the following teaching points should the nurse include in this patient teaching? A) "This is almost certainly a condition that you were actually born with, but that is just now becoming a serious problem." B) "Because the normal electrical communication in lacking, the bottom parts of your heart are beating especially fast to compensate for inefficiency." C) "The root problem is that the top chambers of your heart and the bottom chambers of your heart aren't coordinating to pump blood efficiently." D) "If left untreated, this would have put you at great risk of stroke or heart attack."
A hospitalized patient who is given one dose of flurazepam continues to show drowsiness the next day. A nursing student asks the nurse the reason for this, because the drug's half-life is only 2 to 3 hours. Which response by the nurse is correct?
a. "Benzodiazepines commonly cause resi-dual effects lasting into the day after the dose is given." b. "The patient is having a paradoxical reac-tion to this medication." c. "This patient must have developed a pre-vious tolerance to benzodiazepines." d. "When this drug is metabolized, the re-sulting compound has longer-lasting ef-fects."
What is the recommended storage temperature for this medication?
What will be an ideal response?
The nurse is planning care for a child with asthma. Which laboratory/diagnostic tools would likely have been used for this child?
A) Purified protein derivative test B) Sweat sodium chloride test C) Blood culture and sensitivity D) Pulmonary function test