GMCH Chandigarh - 2022
Medical & Surgical Nursing
Medium
Immediate nursing care activities for an unconscious patient include all of the following, except?
Appeared in: GMCH Chandigarh - 2022
Explanation
- The question asks to identify the nursing activity that is not an immediate priority for an unconscious patient.
- Maintaining nutrition is essential for recovery but is not an immediate life-saving intervention.
- Nutritional support, typically via an enteral feeding tube, is started only after the patient's airway, breathing, and circulation have been stabilized.
- According to evidence, initiating feeding within 48 hours of injury shows improved outcomes, confirming it is not an immediate action but a subsequent one.
Why Other Options Were Wrong
- Option A: Maintaining airway patency is the highest and most immediate priority for an unconscious patient to prevent hypoxia and aspiration.
- Option B: Maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance is a critical, immediate priority related to circulation (C in ABCs) to ensure adequate blood pressure and organ perfusion.
- Option D: Medication management can be an immediate priority, especially if the unconsciousness is due to a reversible cause like hypoglycemia, seizures, or an overdose that requires an urgent antidote.
Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
- Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Prioritization of nursing care for an unconscious patient to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
- A nurse's ability to prioritize care for an unconscious patient based on the ABCs is a fundamental and life-saving skill.
- Failure to secure an airway immediately can lead to irreversible brain damage or death within minutes.
- Patient Safety: Always assume a C-spine injury in an unconscious patient with an unknown mechanism of injury. Use the jaw-thrust maneuver instead of the head-tilt-chin-lift to open the airway until the spine is cleared.
How to Approach the Question
- First, identify the core of the question: It asks for the exception among immediate nursing priorities for an unconscious patient.
- Recall the standard framework for emergency care prioritization: ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation).
- Evaluate each option against the ABC framework.
- Option A (Airway patency) directly corresponds to 'A' and is the highest priority.
- Option B (Fluid balance) relates to 'C' (Circulation) and is a critical immediate action.
- Option D (Medication) is often an immediate need to treat the underlying cause.
Concept Tested & Keywords
- Concept Tested: Prioritization of nursing care for an unconscious patient.
- Stem keywords: Immediate nursing care, unconscious patient
- Lead-in keywords: except
- Negative lead-in flag: This is a negative-lead question, asking you to identify the action that is NOT an immediate priority.
Question ID
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Reference Book
E6 Nursing Brunner Adult Health 3SA Vol 2 Part 2 pp. 26-28, 23-25
Practise the full GMCH Chandigarh - 2022
Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.
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