A new mother calls the clinic and tells the nurse her toddler has a temperature of 102ºF. How does the nurse explain why the mother should not be alarmed?

Question

A) "A fever is the body's way of fighting an infection and supporting the body's immune system."
B) "Neutrophils release pyrogen, a fever-causing substance, which helps act as a catalyst for the body's inflammatory and immune responses."
C) "Leukotrienes activated by arachidonic acid attract neutrophils to start the process of fighting inflammation."
D) "Inflammation causes the activation of a chemical called Hageman factor that initiates a process to bring more blood to the injured area and allows white blood cells to escape into the tissues."

Answer 1

A
Feedback:
The best response by the nurse would be that a fever actually increases the efficiency of the immune and inflammatory responses, helping the body to fight the infection. While the other three statements are correct, they are more technical and include terminology that a new mother may not understand or even care about. If the appropriate response does not suffice and the mother still has questions, the nurse would then go into more detail and use the rationale from the other options to explain in greater detail.