Question

A nurse is caring for a client who has a thoracic spine injury. Which of the following actions should the nurse take when turning the client?

Answer 1

Correct Answers:

Use a sheet when repositioning the client onto his side.

Rationale :

🛏️ A thoracic spine injury requires log-rolling, which keeps the spine, head, and torso aligned in one straight line.

🛏️ Using a draw sheet allows the nurse and staff to move the client as a single unit without bending or twisting the spine.

🛏️ This prevents further spinal cord compression, nerve damage, or worsening of the injury.

🛏️ It is the safest and most evidence-based method for repositioning clients with spinal trauma.

❌ Incorrect Answers

Immobilizing collar → Used for cervical injuries, not thoracic.

Arms at the side → Does not protect spinal alignment.

Pillow under knees → Comfort measure, but does NOT stabilize the thoracic spine.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 2

Correct Answers:

Administer oxygen 10 L/min via nonrebreather mask

Rationale :

🫁 After an eclamptic seizure, both mom and fetus are at high risk for hypoxia.

🫁 Providing high-flow oxygen improves maternal oxygenation, which directly improves fetal oxygen supply.

🫁 Oxygenation is a top priority in obstetrics and in seizure management (ABCs).

🫁 This emergency measure reduces risk of fetal distress, acidosis, and maternal complications.

❌ Incorrect Answers

Palpate uterus for contractions → Important later but NOT priority.

Observe for incontinence → Not life-threatening.

Provide quiet environment → Good, but not first priority after seizure.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 3

Correct Answers:

Reinforce orientation to time, place and person.
Establish eye contact when communicating with the client.
Give the client one simple direction at a time.

Rationale :

✔ 1. Reinforce orientation to time, place, and person.

🧠 Dementia causes progressive memory loss and confusion, so regularly reinforcing orientation helps the client maintain a sense of stability and understanding of their surroundings.

🧠 Frequent reminders (e.g., stating the date, location, and caregiver name) reduce anxiety and prevent agitation triggered by disorientation.

🧠 Orientation reinforcement supports cognitive functioning and improves safety, because the client is less likely to wander or misunderstand the environment.

🧠 It also helps maintain trust and connection with caregivers, which is essential due to impaired memory storage and recall.

✔ 2. Establish eye contact when communicating with the client.

👀 Eye contact grounds the client, helping them focus on the speaker despite memory and attention deficits.

👀 Clients with dementia often rely on nonverbal communication, so eye contact enhances understanding and emotional connection.

👀 It signals respect, reassurance, and presence, helping reduce confusion and fear.

👀 Eye contact also slows the pace of the interaction, allowing the client additional processing time when listening or responding.

✔ 3. Give the client one simple direction at a time.

🗣️ Dementia affects attention span, working memory, and ability to process multiple steps; therefore, simple, single-step instructions prevent overwhelming the client.

🗣️ Step-by-step instructions improve compliance, reduce frustration, and help the client feel successful rather than confused or embarrassed.

🗣️ This method decreases agitation, improves safety, and supports independence by allowing tasks to be completed gradually.

🗣️ It is a core communication principle in dementia care, improving both patient outcomes and caregiver effectiveness.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 4

Correct Answers:

Droplet

Rationale :

🦠 Erythema migrans = Lyme disease rash, caused by tick bite.

🦠 Lyme disease is not spread person-to-person, therefore no special isolation is needed.

🦠 Standard precautions (gloves when needed) are sufficient for all patients without communicable airborne/droplet/contact pathogens.

❌ Incorrect Answers

Contact → Not transmitted by touch or wound drainage.

Droplet → No respiratory spread.

Airborne → Not airborne.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 5

Correct Answers:

Diaphoresis
Tremors
Inability to concentrate

Rationale :

✔ 1. Diaphoresis (sweating)

🥵 Hypoglycemia triggers an immediate adrenergic (fight-or-flight) response, releasing epinephrine.

🥵 Epinephrine stimulates sweat glands, leading to sudden, clammy sweating — a classic early sign.

🥵 Diaphoresis may appear even before neurological symptoms, making it an important warning sign.

🥵 It indicates the body is attempting to rapidly mobilize glucose stores, highlighting the urgency of correcting the low blood sugar.

✔ 2. Tremors

🤲 Trembling occurs because low glucose deprives nerves and muscles of necessary energy, disrupting normal function.

🤲 Additionally, adrenaline release amplifies muscle shakiness, making tremors one of the most recognizable signs.

🤲 Tremors indicate the body is in metabolic distress and trying to compensate for declining blood glucose levels.

🤲 They warn that hypoglycemia is progressing toward more severe neuroglycopenic symptoms.

✔ 3. Inability to concentrate

🧠 The brain depends entirely on glucose — it cannot use fat or protein directly for energy.

🧠 When glucose drops, cognitive functions decline rapidly, resulting in confusion, poor attention, and difficulty thinking clearly.

🧠 This is called neuroglycopenia, a dangerous state that can progress to seizures or loss of consciousness.

🧠 Early recognition is essential, as inability to concentrate indicates the brain is already starved of energy.

❌ Incorrect Answers

Polydipsia → Symptom of hyperglycemia, not low blood sugar.

Acetone breath → Sign of DKA, caused by high glucose and ketone buildup.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 6

Correct Answers:

Provide the client with a stool softener.

Rationale :

🟦 Thrombocytopenia places the client at a high risk for bleeding due to low platelet levels, so the nurse must implement interventions that minimize the chance of mucosal or tissue trauma.

🟦 A stool softener helps prevent straining during defecation, reducing the risk of rectal tears, hemorrhoids, or gastrointestinal bleeding, all of which are serious complications in thrombocytopenia.

🟦 Preventing constipation also helps avoid Valsalva maneuvers, which may increase intrathoracic pressure and indirectly lead to bleeding risks.

🟦 This intervention aligns with standard bleeding precautions designed to maintain safety and prevent avoidable internal bleeding.

🟥Incorrect Option

🟥 Remove fresh flowers — Flowers are removed for neutropenia (infection risk), not thrombocytopenia (bleeding risk).

🟥 Encourage flossing daily — Flossing can cause gum bleeding, which is dangerous in thrombocytopenia.

🟥 Avoid serving raw vegetables — This is a precaution for immunocompromised clients, not low platelets.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 7

Correct Answers:

“It will apply an external fetal heart rate monitor during the test.”

Rationale :

🟩 During a contraction stress test (CST), an external fetal heart rate monitor is used to evaluate the fetus’s response to induced contractions.

🟩 The goal is to assess for late decelerations, which indicate uteroplacental insufficiency when contractions temporarily reduce placental blood flow.

🟩 Monitoring is always external, not internal, because the test is noninvasive and contractions are typically stimulated with nipple stimulation or low-dose oxytocin.

🟩 The external monitor allows the nurse to safely observe fetal tolerance of stress in a controlled environment.

🟥Incorrect Option

🟥 Apply oxygen mask — Not part of routine CST; oxygen is used only in response to fetal distress.

🟥 Give terbutaline after the test — Terbutaline stops contractions; it is used only for hyperstimulation, not routinely.

🟥 Give misoprostol to initiate contractions — Misoprostol causes cervical ripening or labor induction; not used for CST.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 8

Correct Answers:

Determine if the tablets are scored.

Rationale :

🟪 Before cutting any medication, the nurse must determine if the tablet is scored, which indicates the manufacturer designed it to be safely divided.

🟪 Unscored tablets, extended-release, enteric-coated, and controlled-release medications should never be cut because doing so alters the drug’s absorption and can cause toxicity.

🟪 Checking for a scored line ensures accurate dosing and maintains medication integrity and therapeutic effect.

🟪 This is an essential safety step when medication adjustments require partial doses.

🟥 Incorrect Option

🟥 Ask pharmacy to create a liquid version — Not necessary unless the tablet is unscored or unsafe to split.

🟥 Manually break tablets in half — Unsafe unless verified as scored; may cause dose inaccuracy.

🟥 Discard the medication in the toilet — Unsafe disposal practice and unnecessary; medication is not being discontinued.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 9

Correct Answers

Blank 1 Correct Option: thoughts of self harm
Blank 2 Correct Option: hopelessness

Rationale :

✅ thoughts of self-harm

✨ The client demonstrates multiple risk factors for self-harm, including recent significant psychosocial stressors (loss of a long-term relationship and job), which are common triggers for suicidal ideation.

✨ Their statements, such as “My life is a mess. I don’t know what to do” and “I have so many problems”, reflect marked hopelessness and helplessness, which are key emotional indicators associated with suicide risk in major depressive disorder.

✨ The client is also on sertraline, an SSRI, and has been taking it for 6 weeks; during this period, energy and motivation may improve before mood fully lifts, potentially increasing the ability to act on self-harm impulses if present.

✨ A family history of major depressive disorder further increases the client’s vulnerability to mood disorders and suicidal behavior, making close monitoring for thoughts of self-harm a high-priority safety concern for the nurse.

✅ hopelessness

🌟 The client’s verbalizations and behavior strongly suggest hopelessness, a core symptom of major depressive disorder and a major warning sign for self-harm.

🌟 Phrases like “My life is a mess” and “I have so many problems”, combined with a flat affect, avoidance of eye contact, and remaining tearful in bed, indicate a perception that their situation is overwhelming and unchangeable.

🌟 The client’s refusal of all meals and withdrawal to bed further support emotional despair and lack of motivation, which commonly accompany profound hopelessness.

🌟 In mental health nursing, identifying hopelessness is essential, as it is directly linked to suicidal ideation and helps guide priority interventions focused on safety, emotional support, and crisis management.

❌ Acute dystonic reaction

🧠 This is an extrapyramidal side effect usually associated with antipsychotic medications, especially first-generation antipsychotics, not SSRIs like sertraline.

🧠 It presents with sustained muscle contractions, such as torticollis, oculogyric crisis, or facial grimacing — none of which are documented in this client’s assessment.

🧠 The notes focus on mood, affect, appetite, and verbal expressions of distress, not neuromuscular changes, so an acute dystonic reaction is not supported by the data.

❌ Anorexia nervosa

🥗 Anorexia nervosa is a chronic eating disorder characterized by intense fear of gaining weight, distorted body image, and persistent restriction of energy intake, usually with significantly low body weight.

🥗 Although the client refused meals for a day and has a BMI of 19, there is no evidence of body image disturbance or weight-control behaviors, which are essential for this diagnosis.

🥗 The decreased intake appears more related to depressive symptoms and emotional distress rather than an underlying eating disorder.

❌ Medication

💊 While the client is taking sertraline, simply stating “as evidenced by medication” does not logically connect the risk (thoughts of self-harm) with a specific clinical manifestation.

💊 Medication use alone is not an indicator of risk; instead, it is a treatment modality.

💊 The priority is to link risk for self-harm with emotional and behavioral cues such as hopelessness, rather than the mere presence of a prescribed drug.

❌ Decreased intake

🍽️ Decreased intake is more directly associated with risk for imbalanced nutrition or weight loss rather than specifically indicating a risk for self-harm.

🍽️ Although refusal to eat is concerning and related to depression, it does not clearly capture the cognitive-emotional danger (such as hopelessness) that underlies suicidal thinking.

🍽️ For a risk statement about self-harm, emotional indicators like hopelessness are more clinically appropriate than changes in appetite alone.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

Answer 10

Correct Answers

Blank 1 Correct Option: opioid intoxication
Blank 2 Correct Option: pupil characteristics

Rationale :

1️⃣ Blank 1: Opioid intoxication

🟦 The client presents with classic manifestations of opioid intoxication, including miosis (pinpoint pupils), decreased respiratory rate (10/min), and marked sedation, all of which strongly indicate central nervous system depression caused by opioid use.

🟦 The fact that naloxone was administered in the field and the client responded by becoming arousable further confirms that an opioid antagonist reversed opioid effects, which does not occur with alcohol intoxication.

🟦 The presence of a needle in the antecubital space and prior treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone two weeks earlier also supports ongoing or recurrent opioid misuse.

🟦 Additionally, decreased bowel sounds, hypoventilation, and somnolence are hallmark features of acute opioid intoxication, making this the most clinically supported conclusion.

2️⃣ Blank 2: pupil characteristics

🟩 The client’s pupil characteristics—specifically miosis—are a highly specific and reliable indicator of opioid intoxication, as opioids stimulate the parasympathetic pathway controlling pupil constriction.

🟩 In contrast, alcohol intoxication does not consistently produce pinpoint pupils, and alcohol withdrawal typically features dilated pupils, anxiety, and tremors rather than miosis.

🟩 Two weeks earlier, the client experienced mydriasis, hyperreflexia, and diaphoresis, which are signs of opioid withdrawal, demonstrating that pupil size changes correspond directly with opioid-related syndromes.

🟩 Because pupil findings change predictably with opioid pharmacology, they offer clear evidence supporting current opioid intoxication, making them the most accurate evidence to fill blank 2.

❌ Incorrect Option for Blank 1

❌ Alcohol withdrawal

🍺 Alcohol withdrawal presents with tremors, agitation, tachycardia, hypertension, diaphoresis, and anxiety, not miosis, decreased respiratory rate, or response to naloxone.

🍺 The client’s history and symptoms do not match the hyperexcitable state caused by alcohol withdrawal.

❌ Opioid withdrawal

💊 Opioid withdrawal causes mydriasis (dilated pupils), diarrhea, yawning, piloerection, and tachycardia—the opposite of what is currently present.

💊 The client's current condition shows respiratory depression and miosis, which align with intoxication, not withdrawal.

❌ Alcohol intoxication

🍻 Alcohol intoxication may cause slurred speech, gait instability, vomiting, and CNS depression, but does not produce pinpoint pupils or a dramatic, immediate response to naloxone.

🍻 Alcohol alone does not explain the needle marks or the reversal seen with naloxone.

❌Incorrect Option for Blank 2

❌ Breath sounds

🫁 Breath sounds are normal (“clear”), which does not confirm intoxication or withdrawal and do not differentiate between opioid vs alcohol causes.

❌ Amount of alcohol consumed

🍺 The client reportedly had one beer, which cannot explain respiratory depression, miosis, or unresponsiveness.

🍺 Alcohol quantity is therefore not valid evidence for the condition observed.

❌ Current temperature

🌡️ Temperature is within normal limits and does not indicate opioid intoxication or withdrawal.

🌡️ It provides no diagnostic value in this scenario.

Distractor Analysis :

Rationale for Incorrect Options to be Available Soon

RN Comprehensive Predictor 2023 (Nov 2025)

No.

1 :
A nurse is caring for a client who has a thoracic spine injury. Which of the following actions should the nurse take when turning the client?

2 :
A nurse observes a client who is at 37 weeks of gestation and has preeclampsia with severe features having a seizure. Which Of the following actions following the seizure should the nurse take first?

3 :
A nurse is planning care for an older adult client who has dementia. Which of the following interventions should the nurse include in the plan of care? (Select all that apply.)

4 :
A nurse in a community clinic is caring for a client who has erythema migrans. The nurse should implement which of the following precautions?

5 :
A nurse is caring for a client who has type 1 diabetes mellitus. The client reports that she is not feeling well. Which of the following findings should indicate to the nurse that the client is hypoglycemic? (Select all that apply.)

6 :
A nurse is planning care for a client who has thrombocytopenia. Which of the following actions should the nurse include?

7 :
A nurse is teaching a client who is at 38 weeks of gestation about a contraction stress test. Which of the following statements should the nurse include in the teaching?

🟥Incorrect Option

8 :
A home health nurse is verifying a client's prescribed medications and notes that one medication dose was decreased by half. The client asks the nurse if they can cut the tablets in half. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

9 :
A nurse on a mental health unit is caring for a client

Correct Answers

10 :
A nurse is caring for a client in the emergency department.

Correct Answers

Connect With Us

RN Comprehensive Predictor 2023 (Nov 2025)

No.

1 : A nurse is caring for a client who has a thoracic spine injury. Which of the following actions should the nurse take when turning the client?

2 : A nurse observes a client who is at 37 weeks of gestation and has preeclampsia with severe features having a seizure. Which Of the following actions following the seizure should the nurse take first?

3 : A nurse is planning care for an older adult client who has dementia. Which of the following interventions should the nurse include in the plan of care? (Select all that apply.)

4 : A nurse in a community clinic is caring for a client who has erythema migrans. The nurse should implement which of the following precautions?

5 : A nurse is caring for a client who has type 1 diabetes mellitus. The client reports that she is not feeling well. Which of the following findings should indicate to the nurse that the client is hypoglycemic? (Select all that apply.)

6 : A nurse is planning care for a client who has thrombocytopenia. Which of the following actions should the nurse include?

7 : A nurse is teaching a client who is at 38 weeks of gestation about a contraction stress test. Which of the following statements should the nurse include in the teaching?

🟥Incorrect Option

8 : A home health nurse is verifying a client's prescribed medications and notes that one medication dose was decreased by half. The client asks the nurse if they can cut the tablets in half. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

9 : A nurse on a mental health unit is caring for a client

Correct Answers

10 : A nurse is caring for a client in the emergency department.

Correct Answers

1 :
A nurse is caring for a client who has a thoracic spine injury. Which of the following actions should the nurse take when turning the client?

2 :
A nurse observes a client who is at 37 weeks of gestation and has preeclampsia with severe features having a seizure. Which Of the following actions following the seizure should the nurse take first?

3 :
A nurse is planning care for an older adult client who has dementia. Which of the following interventions should the nurse include in the plan of care? (Select all that apply.)

4 :
A nurse in a community clinic is caring for a client who has erythema migrans. The nurse should implement which of the following precautions?

5 :
A nurse is caring for a client who has type 1 diabetes mellitus. The client reports that she is not feeling well. Which of the following findings should indicate to the nurse that the client is hypoglycemic? (Select all that apply.)

6 :
A nurse is planning care for a client who has thrombocytopenia. Which of the following actions should the nurse include?

7 :
A nurse is teaching a client who is at 38 weeks of gestation about a contraction stress test. Which of the following statements should the nurse include in the teaching?

8 :
A home health nurse is verifying a client's prescribed medications and notes that one medication dose was decreased by half. The client asks the nurse if they can cut the tablets in half. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

9 :
A nurse on a mental health unit is caring for a client

10 :
A nurse is caring for a client in the emergency department.