The nurse notes a patient's prealbumin is 2 mg/dL. What action by the nurse is best?
a. Tell the patient to add more protein to the diet.
b. Conduct a nutritional screening with a standard tool.
c. Refer the patient to a registered dietician.
d. Instruct the patient to maintain good nutri-tional habits.
C
Normal albumin levels are above 15 mg/dl. Values below 5 mg/dL are considered a marker for severe protein deficiency. The nurse should enlist the services of a registered dietician to help manage this patient. Adding more protein to the diet and conducting a nutritional screening are not the best answers because the nurse already knows the patient is severely malnourished. In-structing the patient to maintain his or her good nutritional habits is incorrect.
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