Hematopoietic Function
For the liver to get rid of the bilirubin, the bilirubin must be converted into this form.
What is conjugated bilirubin?
Make sure you understand the clinical manifestations of hyperbilirubin levels including age-related changes in red blood cells
The blood-brain barrier prevents many drugs from entering the brain. However, alcohol, nicotine, and heroin can pass through. This characteristic enables them to cross the blood-brain barrier.
What is lipid-soluble?
Alcohol, nicotine, and heroin are LIPID SOLUBLE and rapidly enter the brain. Many lipid-soluble molecules cross the lipid layers of the blood-brain barrier with ease. Most highly water-soluble compounds are excluded from the brain.
This diagnosis is marked by periods of apnea during sleep. It is caused by the obstruction of the upper airway.
What is obstructive sleep apnea?
Know risk factors and signs/symptoms
This type of hematoma is an arterial bleed in between the dura and the skull. The patient often has unconsciousness followed by a brief lucid period, followed by a rapid progression into unconsciousness again.
What is an epidural hematoma?
Know the different types of hematomas, their location descriptions, and characteristics. (p.424-425)
This is the movement of blood through the pulmonary circulation, eventually providing oxygen to every part of the body.
What is perfusion?
Know the differences between ventilation, perfusion, and diffusion.
The blood clotting process requires the presence of platelets produced in the bone marrow, vWF generated by the vessel endothelium, and clotting factors synthesized in the liver using this vitamin.
What is Vitamin K?
A client is admitted to the neurology unit with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. When they arrive, what nursing assessment would be a priority for a client with ALS?
What is a respiratory assessment?
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting nerves in brain and spinal cord. Eventually, it will affect the muscles needed to control breathing.
This is an optic neuropathy characterized by
optic disk cupping and visual field loss caused by increased intraocular pressure.
What is glaucoma?
This is the term for the band of minimally perfused cells around dying cells during an ischemic stroke.
What is a penumbra?
Know the 4 C's of ischemic stroke and treatment
This reduces the surface tension in the alveoli, thereby equalizing the retractive forces in the large and small alveoli and reducing the amount of pressure needed to inflate and hold the alveoli open.
What is surfactant?
(p. 762)
Neutrophils play a significant role in host defense. A neutrophil count less than this means the patient is susceptible to infection and must be placed on neutropenic precautions.
What is a neutrophil count less than 1500?
This principle describes the relationship between the volume of intracranial contents and pressure within the skull.
What is the Monro-Kellie principle?
Three components: Brain tissue, CSF, and blood volume - any increase in one component must be compensated by a decrease in volume in another to maintain stable pressure
This middle ear infection can spread more easily through the eustachian canal of infants who spend most of their day in the supine position.
What is acute otitis media?
In leukemia, the patient has impaired hematopoiesis. This can cause a lack of these three blood cells.
What are erythrocytes, leukocytes, and thrombocytes?
A client with a diagnosis of COVID-19 was recently intubated. During the report, the nurses state that the client has not received adequate mouth care since the intubation. The nurse knows this is a risk factor for what type of pneumonia?
What is Ventilator Associated Pneumonia?
Other risks include:
Aspiration, inappropriate body positioning, inadequate suctioning, circuit contamination
Know the difference between community-acquired, hospital-acquired, and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Secondary polycythemia is often a result of the body's physiological response to hypoxia. The kidney secretes this to stimulate the production of more red blood cells.
What is erythropoietin?
Norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine are neurotransmitters for this neurological system.
What is the SYMPATHETIC nervous system?
Know the neurotransmitters for the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system
This causes a lens opacity that interferes with the
transmission of light to the retina. It can be caused by aging, genetic influences, environmental and metabolic influences, drugs, and injury. No effective medical treatment, only surgery is used to correct vision loss.
What is a cataract?
This bacteria is neurotoxic and leads to difficulty swallowing and speaking. It can lay dormant and that is why we do not give infants honey.
What is Clostridium botulinum or Botulism?
May also be present in improperly processed food (homemade canning) and damaged or dented cans
This disease process is marked by airway inflammation manifested by inflammatory cells and damage to the bronchial epithelium. It causes episodes of airway obstruction and air trapping in the alveoli.
What is asthma?
In sickle-cell anemia, the hemoglobin takes a sickled shape and clumps together to cause a vaso-occlusive event. What triggers the hemoglobin to take the sickled shape?
What is a low oxygen level?
Know the 4 C's of sickle-cell anemia
This diagnosis is a result of auto-immune destruction of acetylcholine receptors in the neuromuscular junction. It results in muscle weakness. It can progress into a crisis causing difficulty swallowing and breathing.
What is myasthenia gravis?
Know the 4 C's of myasthenia gravis.
This is a medical emergency when the retina is separated from the choroid blood vessels behind it.
Retina cells lack oxygen, cannot make enough ATP,
stop functioning. Patients report changes in vision. Often described as a "curtain" going over vision.
What is retinal detachment?
This is often the treatment for ischemic stroke. This medication often requires a three-hour window.
What is tissue plasminogen activator (alteplase)?
Your patient has a chest tube for a pneumothorax. When assessing the patient, a large clot is noted in the tubing. In addition, the patient has a downward trend in their blood pressure. What should the nurse suspect the patient is experiencing?
What is a tension pneumothorax?
Clots in the chest tube drainage system for a pneumothorax can lead to tension pneumothorax. As the heart is compressed in the mediastinum the pressure on the heart and great vessels will impair cardiac output.