Pressure's On!
This blood pressure reading is used to diagnose hypertension.
What is ≥140/90 mmHg on two different days?
Rationale: Hypertension is diagnosed when systolic BP is ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP is ≥90 mmHg on two separate days, confirming a persistent elevation.
Two causes of secondary hypertension.
What are kidney disease and endocrine disorders?
Rationale: Secondary hypertension has an identifiable cause, with kidney and endocrine issues (like thyroid or adrenal problems) being common causes.
These three elements make up Virchow’s Triad?
What is blood stasis, vessel damage, and increased blood coagulability?
Rationale: Virchow’s Triad explains the three primary contributors to venous thrombosis: sluggish blood flow, vessel wall injury, and hypercoagulability.
A rationale for not crossing your legs.
What is because it can impair venous return and increase the risk of clot formation?
Rationale: Crossing the legs compresses blood vessels, reducing circulation and contributing to venous stasis.
This is the single most significant risk factor for developing a pressure ulcer.
What is impaired mobility?
Rationale: Impaired mobility limits the ability to shift positions, increasing pressure on bony prominences and leading to ischemia and tissue breakdown.
This is the most common type of hypertension with no identifiable cause.
What is primary (essential) hypertension?
Rationale: Primary hypertension has no known cause and is the most common form of high blood pressure. Example risk factors include age, race, gender etc.
The blood pressure level at which hypertensive emergency or malignant hypertension is diagnosed.
What is >180/120 mmHg?
Rationale: Hypertensive emergency is defined as a BP greater than 180 systolic or 120 diastolic and requires immediate intervention to prevent organ damage.
Signs and symptoms that are commonly seen with a DVT.
What is dull aching with walking, tenderness, swelling, warmth, and redness?
Rationale: These common localized symptoms are due to inflammation and obstruction of blood flow in the affected vein.
A life-threatening complication that can result from a DVT.
What is a pulmonary embolism?
Rationale: If a DVT dislodges, it can travel to the lungs, obstructing blood flow and leading to a pulmonary embolism (PE), a medical emergency.
This tool is used to assess a patient's risk for pressure ulcer development.
What is the Braden Scale?
Rationale: The Braden Scale evaluates sensory perception, moisture, activity, mobility, nutrition, and friction/shear to predict pressure injury risk.
Three modifiable risk factors for hypertension.
What is high sodium intake, obesity, and physical inactivity?
Rationale: Modifiable risk factors are lifestyle-based and include factors such as diet, weight, and activity level, all of which can directly impact blood pressure. These are just a few examples.
Minerals that help to lower blood pressure.
What is potassium, calcium, and magnesium?
Rationale: Adequate intake of these minerals is associated with blood pressure reduction by helping to regulate vascular tone and sodium balance.
The most commonly used test to diagnose a DVT.
What is an ultrasound?
Rationale: Ultrasound is a non-invasive and reliable test to visualize blood flow and detect clot formation in deep veins.
The rationale for not massaging the affected leg in a patient with DVT.
What is because it could dislodge the clot and cause a pulmonary embolism?
Rationale: Massaging the site can mobilize the clot, increasing the risk of a PE, making it a dangerous intervention.
This is one intervention nurses can perform to prevent skin trauma in at-risk patients.
What is maintaining the head of the bed at 30 degrees or less?
Rationale: Keeping the HOB low reduces shear and pressure on the sacrum, which are major contributors to skin breakdown.
The three factors that determine peripheral vascular resistance.
What is blood viscosity, vessel length, and vessel diameter?
Rationale: Peripheral resistance is influenced by how thick the blood is, how long the vessels are, and how narrow they are. All of these factors contribute to the force needed to move blood through the circulatory system.
Two nonmodifiable risk factors for hypertension.
What are age and genetic factors?
Rationale: Age and genetics cannot be changed but significantly impact one’s risk for developing hypertension.
A hormone-related factor that increases the risk of DVT.
What are oral contraceptives?
Rationale: Hormonal changes from contraceptives can increase coagulability, contributing to clot formation.
Two preventive treatments used to reduce the risk of DVT.
What are low-molecular-weight heparin and elastic compression stockings?
Rationale: Anticoagulants reduce clot formation, and compression stockings improve venous return, both are essential in preventing DVT.
This stage of pressure injury presents with intact skin that is red and non-blanchable.
What is Stage I?
Rationale: A Stage I ulcer is characterized by non-blanchable erythema of intact skin and is an early indicator of tissue damage.
Classic symptoms of a pulmonary embolism.
What is shortness of breath, pain with inspiration, and coughing up blood?
Rationale: These symptoms result from impaired gas exchange and irritation in the pulmonary vessels caused by the lodged clot.
The purpose of placing a Greenfield filter.
What is to catch clots before they travel to the lungs?
Rationale: A Greenfield filter is inserted to trap clots and prevent pulmonary embolism, especially in high-risk patients
This stage of a pressure ulcer involves full-thickness skin loss extending into subcutaneous tissue but not to muscle or bone.
What is Stage III?
Rationale: Stage III wounds penetrate through the dermis into subcutaneous fat but do not expose bone, tendon, or muscle.