NCLEX RN Physiological Adaptation Related

Review NCLEX RN Physiological Adaptation related questions and content

A nursing childbirth educator tells a class of expectant parents that it is standard routine to instill the ophthalmic ointment form of which medication into the eyes of a newborn infant as a preventive measure against ophthalmia neonatorum?

  • A. Penicillin
  • B. Neomycin
  • C. Vitamin K
  • D. Erythromycin
Correct Answer: D

Rationale: Ophthalmic erythromycin 0.5% ointment is a broad-spectrum antibiotic and is used prophylactically to prevent ophthalmia neonatorum, an eye infection acquired from the newborn infant's passage through the birth canal. Infection from these organisms can cause blindness or serious eye damage. Erythromycin is effective against Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. Vitamin K is administered in an injectable form to the newborn infant to prevent abnormal bleeding, and it promotes liver formation of the clotting factors II, VII, IX, and X. Options 1 and 2 are incorrect and are not medications routinely used in the newborn.