A woman who is dying of heart failure has become listless, distracted, and difficult to engage in conversation in recent days despite no obvious changes in her physiologic state.
She has admitted to feeling severely depressed and states that this sensation is something new to her. How should her care team best interpret this new onset of depression?
A) The patient should be encouraged to accept her depression and see it as a reasonable response to impending death.
B) The care team should acknowledge the patient's depression but ensure that physical needs are prioritized over emotional symptoms.
C) The team should understand that depression is a normal stage of the grieving process that precedes death and should be accepted as such.
D) The patient's depression should be actively treated and not seen as an inevitability.
Question 2
A patient, age 69, has emphysema. On assessing him, the nurse notes the presence of a barrel chest. This pathology results from a(n)
a. increase in the lateromedial area from hypertrophy of mucous glands in the bronchi.
b. increased anteroposterior diameter caused by overinflation of the alveoli.
c. decrease in anteroposterior diameter caused by chronic dilation of the bronchi.
d. widening of the sternocostal area secondary to chronic constriction of smooth muscles in the airways leading to bronchospasms.
Summation of Heart Sounds, Intensified A2, Diminished A2
Heart
Aneurysm. Photograph of the aorta, the large blood vessel arising from the heart, with a large bulge
Heart
The risk of dying before the age of 65 gets lower as family income gets higher.
Third-degree heart block.