A faculty member asks the nursing students, "Which practice by health care professionals is most important in reducing the incidence of infection?" The students would correctly answer
a. covering a cough with the elbow.
b. wearing gloves for all patient contact.
c. thorough hand hygiene.
d. proper disposal of contaminated materials.
C
Effective hand hygiene is the single most important factor in preventing the spread of infection in health care settings.
These practices do help prevent the spread of infection, but they are not the most important prac-tice.
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An essential aspect of teaching that may prevent recurrence of heart failure is:
a. notifying the physician if a 2-lb weight gain occurs in 24 hours. b. compliance with diuretic therapy. c. taking nitroglycerin if chest pain occurs. d. assessment of an apical pulse.
A patient has hypertension and reports no symptoms. To encourage medication compliance, the nurse cautions the patient that uncontrolled hypertension can lead to sudden alterations in health, such as:
1. stroke. 2. blindness. 3. renal failure. 4. epistaxis.
What is the main feature of an opportunistic infection?
a. It usually leads rapidly to sepsis. b. Children are not susceptible to this type of infection. c. It is most often caused by pathogenic microorganisms. d. It is only found in people who are immunosuppressed.
An elderly female patient is diagnosed with sepsis from a urinary tract infection even though her only presenting symptom was a new onset of incontinence. Which of the following would explain this patient's diagnosis?
1. Older patients do not exhibit typical clinical manifestations and fever might not occur. 2. The patient has been sick for a while but did not want to go for treatment. 3. Older patients are usually confused and the patient did not realize she was ill. 4. Older patients are usually incontinent so the patient must have had other symptoms which she forgot.