I have my assignment due in the next 2 weeks and having trouble picking my nursing priorities. I found this forum and hope you guys can share or help me out :)
Here is my scenario
Nick is 50 years old male with heavy drinker. Recently had motorcar accident. He has 3 ribs L side fractured, a pneumothorax, and a lacerated small bowel. He is now on 3 days post op. He had laparotomy with oversewing of the small bowel laceration. He has an intercostal catheter and epidural line analgesia
On assessment: Urine output decreasing, Abdominal girth increasing, he is agitated, pain ++ and increasing SOB (shortness of breath)
The assignment question
* Identify and discuss 3 most important specific priorities of care for Nick and provide rationales.
My priorities of care was: 1. Maintain breathing or airway clearance. 2. Control pain for his post op. 3. Maintain nutrition or maintain bowel function???
Please help me out with the 3 priorities ? thank you very much
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Hi esma, Ive finished my assignment. I not sure how to send it to you privately because i dont want to show my assignment in public here. Do you have any email so i can send it to you there? I am not very sure if im on the right track with my assignment. Please help me to have a look?
thank you esma.
You can use the PM system to me here, even with less than 15 posts, as I am staff....go to my page and send me a PM....if you clock on the go advanced or full editor you can upload documents
Hi esma, it doesnt work when i tried to pm you, it said We apologize for the inconvenience but sending a Private Message is disabled for all members who have not actively participated on the site. Members are required to have a minimum of 15 quality topics in order to use our Private Messaging (PM) System.
This change is required to decrease the likelihood of someone abusing our policy and soliciting members. If you get any private messages that are soliciting in nature, please report them using the Report button found in the message. Thank you for understanding.
My feeling on this patient is of course SOB, withdrawal from alcohol because this could be life threatening and although the bowel was repaired, it may still be causing problems since the output has decreased however the abdominal girth is increasing which could be a sign of bowel obstruction or possible leakage from the repair.
If this were my assignment, I would select these three areas as my priority. Let us know how the assignment turns out.
It is not in your best interest to just "spoon feed" you the answers because it is not going to help you learn how to think like a nurse and they are trying to get you to the place where you will excel on your own by thinking about what could be gong on in his case such as his liver and infections that may be brewing due to the lacerated bowel. You have to also know where to find the answers yourself as that is a large part of being educated. Hope this helps you and try to understand that they were trying to help you.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I think the OP understands now and completely misunderstood what the poster was saying. I have been speaking with the OP by PM and they understand perfectly. They had that Ah HA moment and I am proud of them
Wow, someone annoyed Esme. That is very hard to do. I know this has to be a misunderstanding from the OP as to why the respondents are asking these questions and I will say I am glad that Esme was around to show them the way. Others would have not been so nice about it. Glad the OP is learning and had the aha moment.
I think the OP understands now and completely misunderstood what the poster was saying. I have been speaking with the OP by PM and they understand perfectly. They had that Ah HA moment and I am proud of them
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Wow, someone annoyed Esme. That is very hard to do. I know this has to be a misunderstanding from the OP as to why the respondents are asking these questions and I will say I am glad that Esme was around to show them the way. Others would have not been so nice about it. Glad the OP is learning and had the aha moment.
It happens now and then..... But I am over it quickly....:)
when i tried to pm you, it said We apologize for the inconvenience but sending a Private Message is disabled for all members who have not actively participated on the site. Members are required to have a minimum of 15 quality topics in order to use our Private Messaging (PM) System. 
. But I am over it quickly....:)
Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN
20,908 Posts
See if this works....PM esme