The nurse prepares the patient for surgery to begin in 1 hour, but the pregnancy test included in the preoperative orders written yesterday is not in the medical record. Which action should the nurse implement first?
a. Call the laboratory to determine if they have the pregnancy test results.
b. Collaborate with the surgeon.
c. Draw a stat pregnancy test.
d. Ask the patient if she is pregnant.
A
The nurse should first find out if the test results are available before doing anything else. If the results cannot be found, the nurse obtains a blood specimen for a stat pregnancy test because the provider ordered one before surgery and the order is still valid. If the results have not been found after the specimen for the pregnancy test is drawn and sent to the lab, the nurse notifies the surgeon about the situation. The nurse avoids sending the patient to surgery on the basis of her verbal report because she may be unaware of a pregnancy or she may be concealing the truth. The aneshesia and other operative medications can do damage to an embryo or a fetus.
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The nurse is assessing an 85-year-old patient. Which of the following should the nurse include when assessing this patient?
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