KPSC Staff Nurse - 2015
Medical & Surgical Nursing
Medium
The assessment findings indicating successful potassium replacement for treatment of hypokalemia indicates?
Appeared in: KPSC Staff Nurse - 2015
Explanation
- Potassium is essential for maintaining the resting membrane potential of skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle cells, which is necessary for normal muscle function.
- Hypokalemia (low serum potassium) impairs neuromuscular function, leading to characteristic symptoms like muscle weakness, fatigue, and cramps.
- Therefore, a noticeable increase in muscle strength is a direct clinical sign that potassium levels are being restored and the treatment is effective.
Why Other Options Were Wrong
- Option B: While severe hypokalemia can impair insulin secretion and cause glucose intolerance, serum glucose is not a primary or direct indicator of potassium repletion.
- Option C: Vision changes are not a recognized sign or symptom of hypokalemia.
- Option D: Although hypokalemia can cause hypotension, blood pressure is influenced by many factors (like fluid volume) and is not a specific or reliable indicator of successful potassium correction compared to the direct neuromuscular effects.
Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
- Nursing practice connection: Knowing Evaluation of therapeutic response to electrolyte replacement for hypokalemia helps nurses interpret findings accurately and avoid errors in routine assessment, medication administration, and patient teaching.
- Nurses must assess muscle strength (e.g., hand grips, ability to ambulate) before and after potassium administration to evaluate treatment efficacy.
- Monitoring for the resolution of hypokalemia symptoms is as crucial as watching for signs of hyperkalemia (e.g., new-onset weakness, dysrhythmias), which can occur if replacement is too rapid.
- What if? The patient also has low magnesium (hypomagnesemia)? The nurse should anticipate that hypokalemia will be difficult to correct until the magnesium level is also normalized, as magnesium is required for renal potassium retention.
How to Approach the Question
- First, identify the core of the question: 'What shows that treatment for low potassium is working?'.
- Recall the primary function of potassium in the body. It plays a major role in muscle and nerve function.
- Connect the electrolyte's function to the symptoms of its deficiency. Low potassium (hypokalemia) causes muscle weakness.
- Deduce that successful treatment would reverse the primary symptom. Therefore, an improvement in muscle strength is the most direct indicator of success.
- Evaluate the other options to confirm they are less direct or unrelated. Glucose levels, vision, and blood pressure are not the primary markers for potassium's neuromuscular effects.
Concept Tested & Keywords
- Concept Tested: Evaluation of therapeutic response to electrolyte replacement for hypokalemia.
- Stem keywords: assessment findings, potassium replacement, hypokalemia, successful treatment
- Lead-in keywords: indicates
- Negative lead-in flag: false
Question ID
QxXwMWMK9l1nOBmpqpZS7a
Reference Book
E6 Nursing Brunner Adult Health 3SA Vol 1 Part 1 p. 150-152
E6 Pharmacology Nursing Lilley 11e Part 2 p. 172-174
E6 Nursing Fundamentals Potter Perry 12e Part 5 p. 53-55
Practise the full KPSC Staff Nurse - 2015
Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.
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