Question

A nursing student has auscultated a patients abdomen and noted one or two bowel sounds in a 2-minute period of time. How would you tell the student to document the patients bowel sounds?

1) Normal
2) Hypoactive
3) Hyperactive
4) Paralytic ileus

Answer 1

Bowels sounds that are heard one or two times in a two-minute period should be documented as hypoactive, which indicates fewer bowel sounds than the normal range.

Step-by-step explanation:

If a nursing student has auscultated a patient's abdomen and noted one or two bowel sounds in a 2-minute period, these findings should be documented as hypoactive bowel sounds. Normal bowel sounds typically occur about every 5 to 15 seconds, which equates to approximately 5 to 30 sounds per minute. Significantly fewer sounds, such as one or two in two minutes, are considered much less frequent than normal, thus hypoactive.

The reference to the clinician placing the stethoscope on the patient's antecubital region and listening for Korotkoff sounds pertains to measuring blood pressure, not bowel sounds. This process is unrelated to auscultating bowel sounds, where the stethoscope is placed on the abdomen.