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A patient is recovering in the hospital following gastrectomy. The nurse notes that the patient has become increasingly difficult to engage and has had several angry outbursts at various staff members in recent days. The nurses attempts at therapeutic dialogue have been rebuffed. What is the nurses most appropriate action?
- A. Ask the patients primary care provider to liaise between the nurse and the patient.
- B. Delegate care of the patient to a colleague.
- C. Limit contact with the patient in order to provide privacy.
- D. Make appropriate referrals to services that provide psychosocial support.
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The nurse should enlist the services of clergy, psychiatric clinical nurse specialists, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists, if needed. This is preferable to delegating care, since the patient has become angry with other care providers as well. It is impractical and inappropriate to expect the primary care provider to act as a liaison. It would be inappropriate and unsafe to simply limit contact with the patient.
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A patient with a diagnosis of peptic ulcer disease has just been prescribed omeprazole (Prilosec). How should the nurse best describe this medications therapeutic action?
- A. This medication will reduce the amount of acid secreted in your stomach.
- B. This medication will make the lining of your stomach more resistant to damage.
- C. This medication will specifically address the pain that accompanies peptic ulcer disease.
- D. This medication will help your stomach lining to repair itself.
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec inhibit the synthesis of stomach acid. PPIs do not increase the durability of the stomach lining, relieve pain, or stimulate tissue repair.
A nurse is preparing to discharge a patient after recovery from gastric surgery. What is an appropriate discharge outcome for this patient?
- A. The patients bowel movements maintain a loose consistency.
- B. The patient is able to tolerate three large meals a day.
- C. The patient maintains or gains weight.
- D. The patient consumes a diet high in calcium.
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Expected outcomes for the patient following gastric surgery include ensuring that the patient is maintaining or gaining weight (patient should be weighed daily), experiencing no excessive diarrhea, and tolerating six small meals a day. Patients may require vitamin B12 supplementation by the intramuscular route and do not require a diet excessively rich in calcium.
A patient was treated in the emergency department and critical care unit after ingesting bleach. What possible complication of the resulting gastritis should the nurse recognize?
- A. Esophageal or pyloric obstruction related to scarring
- B. Uncontrolled proliferation of H. pylori
- C. Gastric hyperacidity related to excessive gastrin secretion
- D. Chronic referred pain in the lower abdomen
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: A severe form of acute gastritis is caused by the ingestion of strong acid or alkali, which may cause the mucosa to become gangrenous or to perforate. Scarring can occur, resulting in pyloric stenosis (narrowing or tightening) or obstruction. Chronic referred pain to the lower abdomen is a symptom of peptic ulcer disease, but would not be an expected finding for a patient who has ingested a corrosive substance. Bacterial proliferation and hyperacidity would not occur.
A nurse is performing the admission assessment of a patient whose high body mass index (BMI) corresponds to class III obesity. In order to ensure empathic and patient-centered care, the nurse should do which of the following?
- A. Examine ones own attitudes towards obesity in general and the patient in particular.
- B. Dialogue with the patient about the lifestyle and psychosocial factors that resulted in obesity.
- C. Describe ones own struggles with weight gain and weight loss to the patient.
- D. Elicit the patients short-term and long-term goals for weight loss.
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Studies suggest that health care providers, including nurses, harbor negative attitudes towards obese patients. Nurses have a responsibility to examine these attitudes and change them accordingly. This is foundational to all other areas of assessing this patient.
A patient has experienced symptoms of dumping syndrome following bariatric surgery. To what physiologic phenomenon does the nurse attribute this syndrome?
- A. Irritation of the phrenic nerve due to diaphragmatic pressure
- B. Chronic malabsorption of iron and vitamins A and C
- C. Reflux of bile into the distal esophagus
- D. A sudden release of peptides
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: For many years, it had been theorized that the hypertonic gastric food boluses that quickly transit into the intestines drew extracellular fluid from the circulating blood volume into the small intestines to dilute the high concentration of electrolytes and sugars, resulting in symptoms. Now, it is thought that this rapid transit of the food bolus from the stomach into the small intestines instead causes a rapid and exuberant release of metabolic peptides that are responsible for the symptoms of dumping syndrome. It is not a result of phrenic nerve irritation, malabsorption, or bile reflux.