Here's a Question I don't Understand...

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A patient comes in to see you. She has lung and breast cancer and has been undergoing radiation and chemo. She tells you that she has lost 10lbs in the last 3 weeks. How should you respond?

a. describe your normal daily food intake

b. what are your favorite foods?

Of course there were 2 other options but I've eliminated them already.

So between these 2, I went with the assessment before implmeentation according to kaplan, but the explanation was to choose option b because it deals with the "here and now" and knowing what the patient likes to eat, we can offer that patient their favorite foods to bring in more calories.

:confused: so what, the tree has failed me? :uhoh3::mad:

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Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg.

I know you've eliminated the other two, but it would help me to help you if I saw the other two options. If I had to pick 1 of the 2, I've go with describe your normal daily food intake. It is an assessment which should be done first if your question doesn't give you enough data. But again, I'd like to know the other options before I say definitely that's the answer.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg.

Ok wait, I didn't read the rest of your posting...so Kaplan said the anser is B huh? I don't know about that one. Sometimes the decision tree doesn't work for every problem. (sucks to know that right!) I would still pick A lol.

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Think about it, with anyone in your clients who need to gain weight, you decided to suggest eating steaks, nuts, and protein shakes... but the patient does not like to eat any of those!... I seen it with the nutrition diets recommended to patients that want to loose weight... they dont do them, because they dont like them!

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

I would have picked A.

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I think the reason why the answer is B is that it is stated there that the client has Breast and Lung Cancer and has been undergoing Radiation and Chemo. Therefore, it is anticipatory that the client will have a disturbed eating pattern (due to nausea, vomiting, anorexia and decreased appetite- all of which may have been side effects of the treatments).

For the first choice , the word 'normal' may induce confusion as to what time reference it is asking NORMAL 'before the dx and treatment' or NORMAL 'after the dx the treatment'.

For the 2nd choice, the nurse knowing that client's food intake maybe lessened (as I have pointed out as treatment SE), the nurse will most likely include and give patient foods that will stimulate client's appetite such as his/her favorite foods.

That's how I see it, I hope it makes sense.

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i dont know but i'll choose A!

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I was thinking the same thing as euphoria02. Since you already know that she probably has poor nutrition because of the SE of chemo, it would be useless to assess her daily food intake because you already know it is probably low. Thus, this wont help this situation any. By assessing what her favorite foods are you are on the right track of possibly getting her to eat more. Thus fixing what the problem is.

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The tree has not failed you :-)

a and b are all assessments to collect more data, I think.

In this case, we need to find what kind of data is approriate to deal with the client's need.

The client's need is to stop decreasing the body weight by increasing the appetite.

Due to the client has both chemo and radiation which can alter the client's taste sensations and cause mucositis, we need to figure out the way to increase the client's appetite?

What is a best way to increase the appetite? try the client's favorite foods.

BTW, When are you going to take the NCLEX-RN?

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