Nurses: Did I match up these Meds with the Nursing Diagnoses correctly?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 11, 2011

a few misconceptions in there:

"the current diagnosis is listed as: 'orif (l) hip 1 day ago', so i'm assuming it's a hip fracture

you do know "orif" means "open reduction/internal fixation," i.e., open surgical repair of a fracture using internal hardware, right? it's not the name of the fracture or the kind of hardware that was installed, right?

"the previous history's diagnoses are: systolic hypertension, copd, anemia, gerd, ga, cardiac dysrhythmia, hermiarthoplasty left hip

and the meds are: advair, lovenox, protonix, theophylline, prenatal-s vitamin, docusate sodium, nystatin troche, allegra, lidocaine, ultram

- nystatin troche is to prevent a fungal infection, but i'm not sure why something like that isn't listed in the diagnoses? :/

because somebody didn't think a lady partsl yeast infection was important enough to add to the list? did you know what a "troche" is before you answered this?

- lovenox is a heparin, which is an anticoagulant and it'll prevent thrombi from showing up where the orif was put in, so i'll say it correlates with the current diagnosis

no, not to prevent thrombus from "showing up where the orif was put in," whatever the heck that means. (last i looked, clotting was a good thing at a surgical site.) go look up the drug (and reread what "orif" means) and look at what the lovenox is used to prevent in a patient with this diagnosis.

- protonix is used to treat or prevent gerd, so it's for the gerd

- advair diskus is a bronchodilator, so it's copd

- theophylline is also a bronchodilator, so it's also for copd

- docusate sodium is to relieve constipation so it's... for the gerd?

what major class of medications do people get who have surgery? do they ever get side effects from it?

- allegra's an antihistamine... and i have no clue what diagnosis that goes with!

what does histamine do in various parts of the body? reread your list of diagnoses and see what part histamine could play in one in particular, and so an antihistamine would be helpful.

- lidocaine's for pain, and that has to go with the pain d/t the orif a day ago

nope. what else is lidocaine used for? hint: it's not just a local anesthetic. you gotta look this stuff up, kiddo, not just wing it!

- ultram's also for pain, so i'll say it goes with the orif

- prenatal s is for the anemia, since the calcium level's gotta be low"

calcium and anemia? sorry, try again. pregnant women take prenatal vitamins for more than just calcium for their bones. what is a common lab finding in early pregnancy? what else is in that multivit? look it up and see what else is in it; then think: did this hip-fractured person have trauma? (hint: surgery is just expensive trauma.) is there anything else this person might need to recover from that appears on the list of contents for the vitamin?

why do you think the calcium level has "gotta be low"? does orthopedic surgery lower serum calcium levels? why do you assume that?

i think you're going to use this assignment to learn how to really look things up, not just to go to an online forum and ask us to do your homework for you. you really need to know how to think about meds, diagnoses, physiology, and all, and not rely on what you think you know. several of your assumptions are just flat-out wrong. (what's "ga," anyway?) so.... let us know what you find out!

fromtheseaRN, BSN, RN · Oct 11, 2011

a few misconceptions in there:
"the current diagnosis is listed as: 'orif (l) hip 1 day ago', so i'm assuming it's a hip fracture
you do know "orif" means "open reduction/internal fixation," i.e., open surgical repair of a fracture using internal hardware, right? it's not the name of the fracture or the kind of hardware that was installed, right?
"the previous history's diagnoses are: systolic hypertension, copd, anemia, gerd, ga, cardiac dysrhythmia, hermiarthoplasty left hip
and the meds are: advair, lovenox, protonix, theophylline, prenatal-s vitamin, docusate sodium, nystatin troche, allegra, lidocaine, ultram
- nystatin troche is to prevent a fungal infection, but i'm not sure why something like that isn't listed in the diagnoses? :/
because somebody didn't think a lady partsl yeast infection was important enough to add to the list? did you know what a "troche" is before you answered this?
- lovenox is a heparin, which is an anticoagulant and it'll prevent thrombi from showing up where the orif was put in, so i'll say it correlates with the current diagnosis
no, not to prevent thrombus from "showing up where the orif was put in," whatever the heck that means. (last i looked, clotting was a good thing at a surgical site.) go look up the drug (and reread what "orif" means) and look at what the lovenox is used to prevent in a patient with this diagnosis.
- protonix is used to treat or prevent gerd, so it's for the gerd
- advair diskus is a bronchodilator, so it's copd
- theophylline is also a bronchodilator, so it's also for copd
- docusate sodium is to relieve constipation so it's... for the gerd?
what major class of medications do people get who have surgery? do they ever get side effects from it?
- allegra's an antihistamine... and i have no clue what diagnosis that goes with!
what does histamine do in various parts of the body? reread your list of diagnoses and see what part histamine could play in one in particular, and so an antihistamine would be helpful.
- lidocaine's for pain, and that has to go with the pain d/t the orif a day ago
nope. what else is lidocaine used for? hint: it's not just a local anesthetic. you gotta look this stuff up, kiddo, not just wing it!
- ultram's also for pain, so i'll say it goes with the orif
- prenatal s is for the anemia, since the calcium level's gotta be low"
calcium and anemia? sorry, try again. pregnant women take prenatal vitamins for more than just calcium for their bones. what is a common lab finding in early pregnancy? what else is in that multivit? look it up and see what else is in it; then think: did this hip-fractured person have trauma? (hint: surgery is just expensive trauma.) is there anything else this person might need to recover from that appears on the list of contents for the vitamin?
why do you think the calcium level has "gotta be low"? does orthopedic surgery lower serum calcium levels? why do you assume that?
i think you're going to use this assignment to learn how to really look things up, not just to go to an online forum and ask us to do your homework for you. you really need to know how to think about meds, diagnoses, physiology, and all, and not rely on what you think you know. several of your assumptions are just flat-out wrong. (what's "ga," anyway?) so.... let us know what you find out!

what grntea said. i'm not sure what semester you are in, i promise you by your final semester this will be much easier and less daunting.