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A nurse is caring for a patient who has sickle cell anemia and the nurses assessment reveals the possibility of substance abuse. What is the nurses most appropriate action?
- A. Encourage the patient to rely on complementary and alternative therapies.
- B. Encourage the patient to seek care from a single provider for pain relief.
- C. Teach the patient to accept chronic pain as an inevitable aspect of the disease.
- D. Limit the reporting of emergency department visits to the primary health care provider.
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: The patient should be encouraged to use a single primary health care provider to address health care concerns. Emergency department visits should be reported to the primary health care provider to achieve optimal management of the disease. It would be inappropriate to teach the patient to simply accept his or her pain. Complementary therapies are usually insufficient to fully address pain in sickle cell disease.
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A patient's low prothrombin time (PT) was attributed to a vitamin K deficiency and the patient's PT normalized after administration of vitamin K. When performing discharge education in an effort to prevent recurrence, what should the nurse emphasize?
- A. The need for adequate nutrition
- B. The need to avoid NSAIDs
- C. The need for constant access to factor concentrate
- D. The need for meticulous hygiene
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Vitamin K deficiency is often the result of a nutritional deficit. NSAIDs do not influence vitamin K synthesis and clotting factors are not necessary to treat or prevent a vitamin K deficiency. Hygiene is not related to the onset or prevention of vitamin K deficiency.
A critical care nurse is caring for a patient with autoimmune hemolytic anemia. The patient is not responding to conservative treatments, and his condition is now becoming life threatening. The nurse is aware that a treatment option in this case may include what?
- A. Hepatectomy
- B. Vitamin K administration
- C. Platelet transfusion
- D. Splenectomy
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: A splenectomy may be the course of treatment if autoimmune hemolytic anemia does not respond to conservative treatment. Vitamin K administration is treatment for vitamin K deficiency and does not resolve anemia. Platelet transfusion may be the course of treatment for some bleeding disorders. Hepatectomy would not help the patient.
A nurse is caring for a patient with severe anemia. The patient is tachycardic and complains of dizziness and exertional dyspnea. The nurse knows that in an effort to deliver more blood to hypoxic tissue, the workload on the heart is increased. What signs and symptoms might develop if this patient goes into heart failure?
- A. Peripheral edema
- B. Nausea and vomiting
- C. Migraine
- D. Fever
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Cardiac status must be carefully assessed in patients with anemia. When the hemoglobin level is low, the heart attempts to compensate by pumping faster and harder in an effort to deliver more blood to hypoxic tissue. This increased cardiac workload can result in such symptoms as tachycardia, palpitations, dyspnea, dizziness, orthopnea, and exertional dyspnea. Heart failure may eventually develop, as evidenced by an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) and liver (hepatomegaly), and by peripheral edema. Nausea, migraine, and fever are not associated with heart failure.
A patient has been living with a diagnosis of anemia for several years and has been experiencing recent declines in hemoglobin levels despite ongoing treatment. Which of the following findings would indicate complications from anemia?
- A. Venous ulcers and visual disturbances
- B. Fever and signs of hyperkalemia
- C. Epistaxis and gastroesophageal reflux
- D. Ascites and peripheral edema
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: A significant complication of anemia is heart failure from chronic diminished blood volume and the heart's compensatory effort to increase cardiac output. Patients with anemia should be assessed for signs and symptoms of heart failure, including ascites and peripheral edema. None of the other listed signs and symptoms is characteristic of heart failure.
A nurse is admitting a patient with immune thrombocytopenic purpura to the unit. In completing the admission assessment, the nurse must be alert for what medications that potentially alter platelet function?
- A. Antihypertensives
- B. Penicillins
- C. Sulfa-containing medications
- D. Aspirin
- E. NSAIDs
Correct Answer: C,D,E
Rationale: The nurse must be alert for sulfa-containing medications and others that alter platelet function (e.g., aspirin-based or other NSAIDs). Antihypertensive drugs and the penicillins do not alter platelet function.