5. The patient is experiencing severe difficulty in breathing and their oxygen saturation level is 82. The nurse calls the physician annd after 30 minutes the physician has not returned the nurses call. What is the best action by the nurse?
a. the nurse has fulfilled his professional responsibility by contacting the physician so no further action is needed
b. contact the nursing supervisor and request the the patient be transferred to the ICU
c. re-contact the physician
d. increase the patients oxygen to 10 liters
Obviously the answer is not A. I am stuck between C and D. It seems like since this is an emergency situation the answer would be D. Please let me know what you think.
people often forget that oxygen is a medication and requires a physician prescription (patient-specific or per protocol). if someone has a spo2 of 82, that's very low and i'm not sure i'd wait half an hour to call again, but if these are only choices they give you, the others are unacceptable.
Wow, I don't like any of those answers. But that is how nursing tests are written! In the real world I would page doctor or on-call hospitalist again, AND get my charge nurse involved. On my floor we would call a Rapid Response with this patient.
AgentBeast, MSN, RN
1,974 Posts
The answer is something a nurse can DO.
Answer A. involves doing nothing so that isn't correct.
Answer B. The nursing supervisor can't transfer the patient to ICU.
Answer D. Oxygen is a medication and a nurse can not prescribe or adjust oxygen.
Answer C. Is the correct answer contact the physician again if you can't get through contact the hospitalist.