Prioritize this for me

Nursing Students General Students

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Prioritize the following nursing responsibilities for an infant in the first 24 hours post cleft lip/palate surgery

-provide emotional supoort to child

-fluid maintenance/maintain fluid balance

-maintain adequate airway

-apply arm restraints

-provide education to parents on how to properly feed

Just FYI you are supposed to know that the arm restraints are to prevent the infant from pulling out the sutures-normal protocol for post cleft kip/palate surgery.

What are your thoughts to which is a greater priority we are happy to help you with your homework, but you will learn best if you try to critically think through the problem and ask for feedback if you are correct

Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

Well what are your thoughts - how would you prioritize this and what makes you order the priorities that way? The point of this question is to get you thinking and starting to develop critical thinking skills. What do you remember about priorities from your BLS course? Or think through Maslow's hierarchy? What do you need to address first?

It was a question on our last test. I prioritized it....incorrectly. I got to see the correct answer after the test. I just want to see what everybody here thinks and see if it is consistent with the test rationale.

Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.

Prioritize ABCs, then safety, then psychosocial needs of patient, then psychosocial needs of family. What was the answer you put? I could see the second priority being kind of tricky -- you could be ensuring fluid balance to fulfill circulation needs, but restraints could help protect the airway if the child is able to manipulate the surgical wound and cause bleeding in their airway.

I answered:

1)airway

2)fluid

3)restraint

4)teach family feeding

5)attend to infant's distress

I was going to challenge the question but I was aware I got the last two mixed up. The correct answer was

1)airway

2)restraints

3)fluids

4)attend to infant distress

5)provide feeding education

The rationale was that the infant could pull out the sutures.

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

For future reference, next time read your post and title aloud. This comes across as you commanding us to do your homework for you. That never ends well.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
I answered:

1)airway

2)fluid

3)restraint

4)teach family feeding

5)attend to infant's distress

I was going to challenge the question but I was aware I got the last two mixed up. The correct answer was

1)airway

2)restraints

3)fluids

4)attend to infant distress

5)provide feeding education

The rationale was that the infant could pull out the sutures.

Not if baby is restrained.

I actually think addressing infant distress should be prioritized higher than the test does. Distress can be a warning sign for hypoxia, bleeding... I once cared for a heart transplant pt on POD#1, before he was extubated. He started to become VERY agitated. Looked at him, and his chest tube tubing was FULL of frank blood, plus a liter in the canister.

His anastomosis had come undone in part. He was distressed because he was DYING.

But in any case, unless the family is trying to do something dangerous, addressing distress must come before education.

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