need help with a question...

You MUST assume a TENSION PNEUMOTHORAX (a life and death EMERGENCY if not acted upon within minutes)....The word "absent" gives it away. YES "absent" may indicate a plain-old pneumothorax, HOWEVER, this is not the life threatening problem here. You MUST assume it means TPtx. In CEN exam scenarios or TNCC or TNATC, they are clear about ordinary Ptx - often using words like "decreased", "diminished" or "faint"...however, once you use ABSENT this is VERY specific for a TensionPTX which requires IMMEDIATE action....

I'm not mad. Emotions are another thing that can't be infered from a written post. The fact is a lot of the posts on this site can be answered by "look it up." I chose to provide an actual answer. I could see your point if this were a med calculation where the OP would actually need to know how to perform the skill to reach the right answer. However this is a straight knowledge question. I also doubt that the answer to one homework question (if this even is a homework question) is going to mean the OP will be an unqualified nurse or have poor critical thinking skills. Again, feel free to answer the threads any way you please, but I'm going to use my own judgement as well.

Sounds like a homework question to me, but I could be wrong. Maybe the person does have poor critical thinking skills at this point, but needs to develop them. If they're still a student, than yes they are unqualified, but they have to practice critical thinking to get there. As a LPN her/his critical thinking skills may have been on a different level, and appropriate for the job they were doing. Now the OP has to critically think on a different level. Its cool to agree to disagree. Maybe the OP will come back, maybe they wont. (shrugs) It doesn't matter at this point, they got the answer.

My question is to the OP...

so tell us how you would treat this potentially emergent situation? (yes you may to have look it up)

And yes I do know what the answer is!!

Pulmonary embolism is exactly what I thought too b/c pnemothorax was not an answer and no this is not a homework assignment. I was taking a test for a job but I have to take the med/surg. test in order to work in corrections. And since I missed it, I THOUGHT I would ask fellow nurses, what they thought but forgive me for asking. Since I have worked mostly geriatrics the last several years. I am trying to get back into something different is all. Maybe I will just stick to the old folks, though. Thank you to those who tried to help me anyway.

A pulmonary embolism is NOT the right answer. You still have lung sounds with a PE. "ABSENT" breath sounds are consistent with a tension pneumothorax - NOT a P.E. Tachycardia, tachypnea and decreasing oxygenation/oxygen saturations despite supplemental O2, plus pleuritic chest pain are all more sensitive for a PE than absent breath sounds.

While there is nothing you can do about test writer's skills in writing test questions - I don't want you go to your career thinking absent breath sounds are consistent with Tension PTX.

The reason this is ESSENTIAL knowledge is that there are specific, life saving interventions necessary for a tension PTX - specifically needle chest decompression; a LIFE SAVING procedure.

There is nothing LIFE SAVING you are going to do about a pulmonary embolus -all you're going to do is give 100% O2, get IV access, be prepared for a vasopressor to be ordered (in case the PE drops the pressure), draw your labs, and prepare for chest angio/CT. "MAYBE" (that's a big maybe) you'll give a thrombolytic, but only once the dx is confirmed via imaging.

There is nothing your'e going to do "life saving" in mere minutes for a PE.

A lot of students come here and ask for their homework to be done. I am willing to help, but I also want to teach them critical thinking skills and to have iniciative to at least think the process through.......use what they are learning in school to process the information on their own first before cheating and having someone else do their homework so they can move on.

You say that pneumothorax was not one of the answer choices? The key word we all fixated on was "absent" breath sounds. Shortness of breath and sudden pain are common in both diagnosis....but the absence of breath sounds may occur with PE is a common finding in Pneumothoraxes both spontaneous and tension.

Poor question......

Poor questions. All too common in nursing school, and looks like employment tests too. Crap.

Pulmonary embolism is exactly what I thought too b/c pnemothorax was not an answer and no this is not a homework assignment. I was taking a test for a job but I have to take the med/surg. test in order to work in corrections. And since I missed it, I THOUGHT I would ask fellow nurses, what they thought but forgive me for asking. Since I have worked mostly geriatrics the last several years. I am trying to get back into something different is all. Maybe I will just stick to the old folks, though. Thank you to those who tried to help me anyway.

Breath sounds aren't absent with a PE. The clot is in the pulmonary vasculature, not the airway.