Question

John is a 58 years male who arrives in the emergency department (ED) complaining of chest pain and tightness, loss of feeling in his left arm, nausea, shortness of breath, and fatigue.

What questions the nurse will you ask the patient?

What is the first task nurse will complete?

What is the significance of taking John blood pressure, temperature, and pulse?

Why would you hook John up to a heart monitor/EKG machine?

Answer 1

The nurse will ask the patient following questions:

Where is your pain? ( Location)

Does it goto anywhere else? (Radiation)

When did it start ? ( Onset)

How long it is lasted ? (Duration).

How bad it is? (Severity on pain scale)

Does anything make it better or worse?

Have you taken any medication to relieve it?

What are the additional things you have experienced?

Do you have any of the following risk factors:

Prior heart diseases.

Hypertension.

Acute coronary syndrome.

Smoking history.

High cholesterol.

Diabetes.

The first task that the nurse should complete is administering the oxygen along with the medication therapy to assist with relief of symptoms.

As the patient is facing the shortness of breath,it is very important to provide the oxygen supplement therapy

Medication aspirin given at a dose of 160 mg to 325 mg immediately as soon as heart attack is recognised.

It may not stop the heart attack but it could lessen the damage by thinning the blood and breaking up blood clots.

significance of taking blood pressure, temperature and pulse :

Blood pressure, temperature and pulse are called as vital signs.

Vital signs are an objective measurements for the essential physiological functions of a living organisms.

Their measurements and assessment is the first critical step for any clinical evaluation.

Blood pressure:

Blood pressure is an important vital sign to comprehend important hemodynamic condition of the patient.

During heart attack, the blood flow to a portion of heart is blocked.

This can lead to decrease inthe blood pressure.

In some cases there may be an increase in the blood pressure.

High blood pressure can increase the risk of heart attack,heart failure and stroke.

With high blood pressure, the arteries may have an increased resistance against the flow of blood.

Infact, any blood blood pressure change occuring during heart attack are unpredictable.

pulse:

There are different sites for measuring pulse inthe body.

Parameters for the assessment of the pulse include it's rate , rhythm, amplitude, volume and rate of increase besides it's symmetry.

The rate of pulse is significant to measure for assessing physiological and pathological process affecting the body.

In cardiovascular abnormalities the measurement of pulse rate is very essential as it is useful for diagnosing arrythmias,give an information about working of heart.

Example: in sinus arrythmia, pulse rate become faster during inspiration and slows down during expiration.

Temperature:

Body temperature may be abnormal due to fever( high temperature) or hypothermia ( low temperature) .

Body temperature may fluctuate according to the noramal physiological and pathological conditions affecting the body.

Elevated manifestation of the inflammatory reaction following myocardial infraction.

john has put to a heart monitor or EKG Machine.

This is because the patient john is facing the abnormality of the heart mostly a heart attack.

The patient require a close monitor of the function of the heart.

This is the main reason for the john was put to the EKG Machine for monitoring of the heart.