Question

1. Three hours after being given a hypnotic, a patient is still awake. She is having major surgery in the morning. Describe the actions that you should initiate and the rationale for performing each.

2. Why should patients be cautioned against the use of alcohol when taking sedative-hypnotics?

3. An older disoriented patient remains awake at 0300; she is calling out frequently. The nurse notes the patient has a PRN order for a sedative-hypnotic. Describe nursing actions that you will use in the care of this patient. Cite nursing interventions that can be implemented as an alternative to administering a sedative-hypnotic.

4. An actress is taking a barbiturate to help with her stage fright. She has noticed spotting and breakthrough bleeding. What steps must she take for proper care of these side effects?

5. An elderly patient with chronic cardiovascular problems shows signs of confusion and speaks of hallucinations. What drug may be causing these symptoms and what steps would a healthcare provider take to correct the situation?

Answer 1

1

A)Talk to the patient and encourage to discuss the concern they have.Explain the procedure and address the cause to releive the pre operative anxiety.

B)Advise relaxation techniques like slow and deep breathing exercises to relieve the stress.

C)Provide calm environment to help patient get some sleep.

2

The function of sedative hyonotics is to help the person relax and able to fall asleep,and alcohol does much in the same way.Both are central nervous system depressant substances.It is important to explain to the patient that when both are combined, the enhanced effect can lead to potential risk factors and side effects.

3

Provide a calm and quite environment for the patient to feciliate sleep - exposure to light,noises and loud talking can deprive sleep.

Converse and comfort the patient to enhance sleep.

4

Only step to treat the side effect is the Detoxificatuon of barbiturates.Its done by the tapering of medicines which helps to adapt to lower levels and slowly normalize function without experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

5

The drugs use to trat cardiovasular disease such as digoxin, epinephrine, nor epinephrine, ACE inhibitors are known to cause CNS effect such as delirium and hallucination.It is resolved with discontinuation of the casative agent.