The nurse is doing a preoperative assessment of an 87-year-old man who is slated to have a right lung lobe resection to treat lung cancer. What underlying principle should guide the nurse's preoperative assessment of an elderly patient?
A) Elderly patients have a smaller lung capacity than younger patients.
B) Elderly patients require higher medication doses than younger patients.
C) Elderly patients have less physiologic reserve than younger patients.
D) Elderly patients have more sophisticated coping skills than younger patients.
Ans: C
Feedback:
The underlying principle that guides the preoperative assessment, surgical care, and postoperative care is that elderly patients have less physiologic reserve (the ability of an organ to return to normal after a disturbance in its equilibrium) than do younger patients. Elderly patients do not have larger lung capacities than younger patients. Elderly patients cannot necessarily cope better than younger patients and they often require lower doses of medications.
You might also like to view...
Physiological theories of aging focus on all of the following except
a. Genetics b. Nutrition c. Wear and tear of the body d. Personality
The nurse is interviewing parents of an infant with pyloric stenosis. What would the nurse expect the parents to report?
a. Diarrhea b. Projectile vomiting c. Poor appetite d. Constipation
The step of the nursing process in which the nurse determines the appropriate interven-tions for the identified nursing diagnosis is called:
a. Assessment. b. Planning. c. Intervention. d. Evaluation.
A 65-year-old patient is admitted to the progressive care unit with a diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia. The patient has a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes
A set of arterial blood gases obtained on admission without supplemental oxygen shows pH 7.35; PaCO2 55 mm Hg; bicarbonate 30 mEq/L; PaO2 65 mm Hg. These blood gases reflect: a. hypoxemia and compensated metabolic alkalosis. b. hypoxemia and compensated respiratory acidosis. c. normal oxygenation and partly compensated metabolic alkalosis. d. normal oxygenation and uncompensated respiratory acidosis.