An adult male patient is 1 day postoperative from a total hip replacement. On a pain scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the greatest pain, the patient reports a pain level of 10
Which medication would be most appropriate for the nurse to administer to this patient?
a. 60 mg morphine sulfate PO
b. 75 mg meperidine (Demerol) intramuscularly
c. 6 mg morphine sulfate intravenously
d. Fentanyl (Duragesic) patch 50 mcg transdermally
ANS: C
The intravenous route is the fastest route of absorption and the one most appropriate for a patient in extreme pain. With the oral route, the medication would take at least 45 minutes to be effective, too long for a patient in extreme pain. With the intramuscular route, the medication would take at least 15 minutes to be effective; although faster than the oral route, this is not as fast as the intravenous route. A Duragesic patch would be the most inappropriate route because of the long drug half-life. This is a more appropriate route for long-term use.
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Decreased renal excretion of drugs
a. Does not affect drug effect b. Decreases the effect of drugs c. Is not a concern for older adults d. Potentially increases the effect of the drug
A nurse reads in the paper that the death rate for women overall has declined substantially. To what does the nurse correlate this finding?
A. Abundant new choices in contraception B. Better detection and treatment of breast cancer C. Greater access to sources of fresh produce D. Improved diagnosis of heart disease in women
Which should be true of any antibiotic used to treat an infection caused by a penicillinase-producing organism?
a. It should be acid stable. b. It should be an extended-spectrum antibiotic. c. It should be penicillinase resistant. d. It should be a narrow-spectrum antibiotic.
Knowing that the healthcare organization utilizes the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Version 9 (ICD-9) for patient and third-party billing, a nurse has requested such records for patients admitted in
the last 3 months to the emergency department. The nurse has requested that the records be provided in an electronic, rather than paper-based, format because A) confidentiality is easier to maintain when working with electronic data. B) electronic data are more likely to be current than paper-based records. C) patients often do not grant permission for release of their health records in hard copy. D) electronic data are easier to manipulate in order to perform statistical analysis.