Practice Question
A nurse is caring for a client who receives furosemide to treat heart failure. Which of the following laboratory values should the nurse monitor for this client due to this medication?
Answer Choices:
Correct Answer:
Potassium
Rationale:
✅ Furosemide is a loop diuretic that increases urine output by blocking sodium reabsorption in the loop of Henle, causing loss of electrolytes.
✅ A major adverse effect is hypokalemia because potassium is pulled into the urine when sodium and water are excreted aggressively.
✅ Low potassium increases risk for dangerous dysrhythmias, especially in heart failure patients who may already be electrically unstable.
✅ Hypokalemia can also cause muscle weakness, cramps, fatigue, and can worsen tolerance to activity in HF clients.
✅ Monitoring serum potassium guides nursing actions such as dietary teaching, supplementation, and provider notification to prevent complications.
Albumin.
✅Albumin reflects nutritional status/liver function and can influence fluid shifts, but it is not the key electrolyte loss caused by loop diuretics.
✅It does not directly reflect furosemide’s primary safety risk like potassium does.
Bicarbonate.
✅Furosemide can contribute to metabolic alkalosis in some cases, but this is not the most essential routine lab priority compared with potassium.
✅The immediate high-risk complication to prevent is hypokalemia-related dysrhythmia.
Cortisol.
✅Cortisol is unrelated to the pharmacologic action of furosemide and is not a standard monitoring parameter for loop diuretic therapy.
✅It would not help detect the most common and dangerous furosemide complication.
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This question is from Custom NURS2201 Final Exam 2025 – LFT which contains 74 questions.
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Question Details
- Category: RN Nursing Exam(s)
- Subcategory: ATI Exam(s)
- Domain: RN Custom Exam(s)
- Answer Choices: 4