Data Collection
The specific, concise explanation from the caregiver or client stating the exact reason for the current clinical visit.
What is the chief complaint?
The stage of separation anxiety characterized by loud crying, screaming, and looking frantically at the door for a caregiver.
What is protest?
The preferred and safest anatomical site for an intramuscular (IM) injection in an infant under 12 months of age.
What is the vastus lateralis muscle?
The absolute cornerstone of infection control that must be performed between seeing every single patient.
What is conscientious handwashing / hand hygiene?
The weight in kilograms (kg) of a pediatric client who weighs 44 pounds (lbs).
What is 20 kg? (44lbs/2.2)
The general rule of thumb for the order of a physical exam when dealing with a toddler or infant.
What is least invasive to most invasive? (saving the nose, mouth, and ears for last)
A major therapeutic strategy that utilizes dolls or medical toys to help hospitalized children safely express their fears and process procedures.
What is therapeutic play?
The direction to pull the pinna when administering ear drops to a 2-year-old toddler.
What is pulling the pinna down and back?
The safe sleeping position used to decrease the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in infants.
What is positioning them strictly on their backs (supine)?
The total daily milligram (mg) dose required for a child weighing 10 kg prescribed a medication at 20 mg/kg/day.
What is 200 mg? (10 kg x 20 mg)
The body system that must be reviewed in the greatest detail if a pediatric client presents with severe wheezing and a persistent cough.
What is the respiratory system?
The appropriate environment to conduct an interview with a 15-year-old adolescent regarding sensitive lifestyle choices to encourage honesty.
What is in private (without the parents standing directly at the bedside)?
The brief action a nurse performs after instilling ophthalmic drops to decrease systemic absorption of the medication.
What is applying gentle pressure on the inner canthus of the eye?
The immediate nursing action required if a feverish child begins to shiver violently during a cooling compress or tepid bath.
What is stopping the cooling method immediately? (because shivering raises core body temperature)?
The fluid status complication indicated if a pediatric client's peripheral IV site is cool to the touch, swollen, pale, and hard.
What is infiltration?
The precise measurement technique a nurse uses to find the accurate length of a 6-month-old infant.
What is straightening out the body completely and measuring from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot?
The optimal time during a pediatric client's stay when discharge planning should ideally begin.
What is early in the hospital experience / upon admission?
The mandatory safety requirement a practical nurse must fulfill before any pediatric medication calculation is administered to a patient.
What is having the computation checked separately by another qualified staff person?
The frequency with which mechanical restraints must be released to perform range-of-motion (ROM) and neurovascular checks.
What is every 2 hours?
The method used by a practical nurse to accurately measure the hourly urinary output of an infant wearing disposable diapers.
What is weighing the wet diaper and subtracting the weight of a clean, dry diaper?
By age 2, this is how a child's chest circumference should compare to their head circumference.
What is exceeding the head circumference by 2 to 3 inches?
A clinical "red flag" for potential child abuse or neglect during a clinic interview with an 8-year-old child.
What is the parents aggressively speaking over the child and refusing to let them answer simple questions?
The minimum physical developmental milestone a young child must hit before the dorsogluteal site can be safely considered for an IM injection.
What is walking independently for at least 1 to 2 years?
The reason why a nurse must never attempt a throat culture or use a tongue blade on a child with suspected epiglottitis.
What is the high risk of triggering sudden, fatal airway occlusion?
A physician orders amoxicillin 15 mg/kg/dose PO for a child who weighs 20 kg. The oral suspension on hand is 250 mg/5 mL. This is the exact number of milliliters (mL) the nurse will give per dose.
What is 6 mL? (20 kg x 15 mg = 300 mg. [300 mg / 250 mg] x 5 mL = 6 mL)