An order is written for meperidine (Demerol), 500 mg IM q3–4h prn for pain. The nurse recognizes that this is significantly more than the usual therapeutic dose. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?
a. Give 50 mg IM as it was probably intended to be written.
b. Refuse to give the medication and notify the nurse manager.
c. Administer the medication and watch the client carefully.
d. Call the prescriber to clarify the order.
D
The nurse should question the order if the written order is illegible, or if the dose seems unusually low or high. The nurse should call the prescriber to clarify the order.
The nurse cannot independently change a physician's orders. The nurse would have to call the prescriber and receive the order for the change.
The nurse should first call the prescriber and clarify the order. If the prescriber does not change the order, the nurse may then refuse to give the medication and notify the nurse manager.
The nurse could be held accountable for administering an ordered medication that is knowingly inappropriate for the client.
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The nurse sets a goal in a career plan to be working as a charge nurse in one year. When the year has passed and the nurse is not working as a charge nurse, what priority action should the nurse take?
1. Complain to the nursing supervisor because the nurse's talents are not being fully utilized. 2. Quit this job and find another job in a facility where nurses are promoted faster. 3. Determine which of the nurse's coworkers is most likely saying bad things about the nurse. 4. Determine the reasons why the nurse hasn't been promoted and create an action plan.
Which statement most accurately evaluates a quantitative research study report's scientific merit?
a. The sample size was appropriate for the statistical tests used. b. The study had one independent variable and two dependent variables. c. Data described in narrative form within the text could have been more concise in a table. d. The discussion was excessive in length.
Megan is a new graduate who has been hired onto a medical-surgical nursing unit at the local hospital. She has discovered that her initial expectation of what nursing was going to be like was very different from what she is experiencing in practice
What Megan is experiencing is known as _________. a. being accepted into the profession b. being questioned in the profession c. being alienated from the profession d. being socialized into the profession
A nurse makes a home visit where there are a number of people. The client says that several people are in her family who are not related. The nurse should
1. Ask the client how they are related to him or her 2. Ask each nuclear member to identify his or her health needs 3. Tell the client that since the people are not related they are not considered family 4. Accept the client's definition of family