SimonTan

From what you have witnessed, are RN BSNs any better than RN ASNs in terms of skill, knowledge, etc?

Ah, that is good to know! haha, such basics stuff yet I was unsure of it.

Silly question but what is considered postop day 1? If surgery was 0600 today, is tomorrow day 1 or today?

Thanks jmiraRN! That's good advice. Gonna have to remember that.

Thank you for sharing. Low serum sodium is the ratio of sodium to water is low. To bring it back into balance, restrict H20. Would that also mean that there is fluid excess possibly edema? How do you go about memorizing the signs and symptoms of hyponatremia? I know it affects the nerve impulse and CNS mostly. We had an exam on the electrolytes and trying to memorize all the signs and symptoms were brutal.

In regards to NG tube, what does the term free water mean?

Yep, Hypokalemia is what kaplan says is correct. And it just says diuretic, no mention of k-sparing. Doesn't diuretics and NGT both take out Na+? I looked up gastric juices it contains Na+.

Massive blood loss means hypovolemic. What would you give for someone who has lost blood? A hypertonic solution will draw water out of cells. Good for fixing edema. A hypotonic will push water into the cells. Good for dehydration. A isotonic would do neither but it would add volume to the blood. In a GI bug that causes diarrhea, there would be a loss of electrolytes as well as water. I would give a isotonic to replace the electrolytes and water. Initially, the cells would have more osmolarity and draw up the H20 until an equilibrium in osmolarity is reached. A hypotonic would be OK to rehydrate cells but you would still need to give them supplements to replace electrolytes. Giving just a hypotonic without supplements would cause fatal swelling of the cells.

Your math and answer correct in the academic world. In the real world, it may not be so correct but then you wouldn't be using the instructor's dosage either. You would be getting the dosage from a drug guide.

Dimensional analysis is SO FREAKING EASY that I don't even have to think about most questions. I write down the starting number and put in the conversion ration and BAM!, out comes the answer! No thinking involved. Here's an example from my book(IV drip rates): Pt ordered 120mg of Lasix. Available in liquid form 40mg/5mL. So I write 120mg x 5mL/40mg = ? mL. I start out with 120mg and want to get to mL. The 5mL/40mg is the ratio so I flip it and multiply(you good with math I hope). See how I flipped it? Because you want to cancel out the mg and be left with mL. Repeat. Cancel out mg because we want mL! How can you just flip that? Check this out, since 1 hour = 60 minutes is a ratio(1hr/60min), isn't that basically = 1? So no matter how you flip it, it is still equal to 1! But what you want to do is cancel out the units(mg) to get to the units that you want(mL). It's like back in algebra a/b=c...in this case a(5mg) and b(40mg) are equal so a/b = 1. Remember, this is ratio given to you. And when they give you the ratio, that means a/b = 1. Like 1 teaspoon = 5mL, that's a ratio and it equals 1. Now practice with your height convert to inches 1 foot = 12 inches. Hope that helps, explanation could probably have been better.

If they know how to use a computer or a tablet, maybe you have them communicate with you that way. Or paper & pen.

Don't take my word for it but I would think renal failure might be more important. 23ml/hr is really below normal so there is excessive waste/fluid buildup in the body leading to edema, hypervolemia which would cause complications in the heart and lungs. Let me know what the final answer is.

[h=5]nausea, vomiting, nasogastric drainage, diarrhea, use of diuretics likely causes which electrolyte imbalance? Hyponatremia or hypokalemia? I think both of these answers are correct? Am I wrong?[/h]