An older patient with cardiogenic shock is cool and clammy and hemodynamic monitoring indicates a high systemic vascular resistance (SVR). Which intervention should the nurse anticipate doing next?

a. Increase the rate for the dopamine (Intropin) infusion.
b. Decrease the rate for the nitroglycerin (Tridil) infusion.
c. Increase the rate for the sodium nitroprusside (Nipride) infusion.
d. Decrease the rate for the 5% dextrose in normal saline (D5/.9 NS) infusion.


ANS: C
Nitroprusside is an arterial vasodilator and will decrease the SVR and afterload, which will improve cardiac output. Changes in the D5/.9 NS and nitroglycerin infusions will not directly decrease SVR. Increasing the dopamine will tend to increase SVR.

Nursing

You might also like to view...

At birth, an infant weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Three days later, the newborn is being discharged. The parents note that the baby now weighs 7 pounds, 15 ounces

What explanation should the nurse give for the change in this newborn's weight? "His weight loss is: 1. "Excessive." 2. "Within normal limits." 3. "Less than expected." 4. "Unusual."

Nursing

A patient with borderline personality disorder approaches you and voices concern that she is being ignored and feels unimportant. The patient blames the nursing staff for these feelings because the nurses are "not paying attention" to her

Your best therapeutic response to this patient is: A. "I will bring it up at our next meeting." B. "It's all in your imagination." C. "Tell me more about your feeling of 'being ignored.'" D. "You need to share your feelings with the individual nurses you feel are ignoring you."

Nursing

Which of the following is NOT a type of shock?

A) septic B) anaphylactic C) metabolic D) gastrointestinal

Nursing

Groups of body cells of the same type that do a particular kind of work are called

a. systems b. organs c. tissues d. nerves

Nursing