Question

A nurse describes a client's contraction pattern as: frequency every 3 min and duration 60 sec. Which of the following responses corresponds to this description?

1) Contractions lasting 60 seconds followed by a 1-minute rest period.
2) Contractions lasting 120 seconds followed by a 2-minute rest period.
3) Contractions lasting 2 minutes followed by a 60-second rest period.
4) Contractions lasting 1 minute followed by a 120-second rest period.

Answer 1

A nurse describes a client's contraction pattern as: frequency every 3 min and duration 60 sec. Contractions lasting 1 minute followed by a 120-second rest period responses corresponds to this description, so the correct option is 4.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this question, let’s break it down step-by-step:

1. We’re given the frequency of the contractions, which is every 3 minutes. This means there is a 3-minute interval from the start of one contraction to the start of the next contraction.

2. We’re also told that the duration of each contraction is 60 seconds, which is equivalent to 1 minute.

3. To calculate the rest period, we need to determine the time between the end of one contraction and the start of the next contraction. The rest period is thus the frequency interval minus the duration of the contraction.

Here’s how to calculate it:

- The frequency interval between contractions is 3 minutes.
- Since each minute has 60 seconds, we convert the frequency interval to seconds: 3 minutes * 60 seconds/minute = 180 seconds.
- The duration of a contraction is 60 seconds.

The rest period in seconds is:
Rest Period = Frequency interval in seconds - Duration of the contraction
Rest Period = 180 seconds - 60 seconds
Rest Period = 120 seconds

Now, converting the rest period back to minutes (since some options are given in minutes and we want to compare like with like), we see that 120 seconds is equal to 2 minutes (120 seconds / 60 seconds/minute).

Now let’s compare this to the options given:

1) A 60-second rest period is incorrect because we calculated a 120-second rest period.
2) A 120-second rest period is incorrect because it states a contraction duration of 120 seconds, while we know the duration is 60 seconds.
3) A 60-second rest period following a 2-minute contraction is incorrect for the same reason as option 2.
4) A 120-second rest period after a 1-minute contraction is correct - because the contraction lasts for 60 seconds (1 minute), and the rest period is 120 seconds (2 minutes), which matches our calculation.

Therefore, the correct response is:
4) Contractions lasting 1 minute followed by a 120-second rest period.