Bleeding for Certified Emergency Nursing (CEN)

The patient’s abdominal X-ray reveals a fusiform infrarenal non-dissecting aortic aneurysm. Which nursing diagnosis would be the highest priority for this patient?

A 38-year-old stockbroker is brought to the ED by a coworker after experiencing an episode of severe weakness after a business luncheon. Although the patient claims to have no medical or surgical history, he admits to taking large amounts of liquid antacids to calm his stomach. He has had several episodes of bloody vomitus within the past 3 to 4 days. The physician diagnoses the patient as having upper GI bleeding. Which nursing intervention would be most helpful in determining the cause of the patient’s bleeding?

An elderly man is brought to the ED by his daughter after an episode of rectal bleeding. After initial treatment in the ED, the patient will probably be:

A 61-year-old man is transferred to the ED by ambulance from his physician’s office with a diagnosis of a possible abdominal aortic aneurysm. When eliciting the patient’s history, the nurse keeps in mind that one of the most common factors predisposing a patient to abdominal aortic aneurysm is:

The patient’s BP suddenly drops to 88/60 mmHg and his pulse increases to 130 beats/minute. After administration of 500 mL of Lactated Ringer’s solution, the patient’s BP increases to 100/70 mmHg and his pulse rate decreases to 100 beats/minute. The nurse’s priority at this time would be to:

In assessing the patient’s health status, the nurse should know that hematemesis is most commonly caused by:

Lower GI bleeding is characterized by bleeding from:

Results of a diagnostic peritoneal lavage may be falsely negative in a patient with a:

In a patient with prolonged bleeding, anemia is a potential complication. The nurse assesses for anemia by noting signs of pallor in the patient’s:

The nurse knows that a patient on long-term anticoagulant therapy must be carefully monitored for potential hemorrhagic complications that most commonly affect the: