can you guys give me a tip or two regarding how to answer priority question? i'm having a hard time with this type of question. i was doing practice question and one of the question was...
a patient had abdominal surgery. what is the most important for nurse to do when taking care of this patient? i had to choose between iv fluid, monitor electrolytes, keep patient npo, and pain. well these are all important. so how do you decide which one is more important than the others?
Well I took Kaplan and the way they said to answer these questions is to look at it as if you could do only one thing and go home, what would it be. So ask yourself, "what would happen if I didn't do this?", or, "If I chose to hang Iv fluids and not give pain meds what would happen?" Always go with what could make the pt unstable (fluid balance). Also Kaplan taught us to use maslows hierarchy, meaning that...always pick physical over psy issues...and pain is considered a psy issue and doesn't take priority over phys. (I know they drill pain into us in school). Good luck :0)
Though my Kaplan teacher also told me that pain could also be physiological. it is Psychosocial when its for comfort only.
EG if a pt in cast is complaining of pain in the leg after applying cast, the pain is physiological cos its the cast pressing on the muscle which could cause compartment syndrome
Pick the one that is most essential. If the patient is bleeding, he/she could go into shock and ultimately die if vital signs are not carefully monitored. Obviously pain causes a great deal of discomfort, but it probably won't result in a fatality.
do you think i'll be able to find this book in the bookstore or do i have to special order this book? i'm able to answer knowlege questions correctly but when it comes to prioritization and outcome question, i suck at it. ahhhh..... :bluecry1::banghead::banghead:
I bought the book at a Barnes & Noble, which means Border's probably carries it as well. It's a pretty small book (only ~200 pages), so you should be able to get through it fairly quickly, and the price is right ($22.95 is what I paid).
Pretty soon you'll be changing your name to IamanRN! You can do it!
:mortarboard:
jeffrey930
56 Posts
in that case monitor vital signs