Question

A patient was recently diagnosed with pneumonia. The nurse and the patient have established a goal that the patient will not experience shortness of breath with activity in 3 days with an expected outcome of having no secretions present in the lungs in 48 hours. Which of the following is an appropriate evaluative measure demonstrating progress toward this goal?

a. Nonproductive cough present in 4 days
b. Scattered rhonchi throughout all lung fields in 2 days
c. Respirations 30/minute in 1 day
d. Lungs clear to auscultation following use of inhaler

Answer 1

A clear lung auscultation following inhaler use is an appropriate evaluative measure showing progress towards a pneumonia patient's goal of no shortness of breath. Other diagnostic tools such as spirometry and imaging studies also support the evaluation of lung health.

Step-by-step explanation:

An appropriate evaluative measure for demonstrating progress toward the patient's goal of not experiencing shortness of breath with activity would be observing that their lungs are clear to auscultation after using an inhaler. When the lungs are clear upon auscultation, it indicates that there are no abnormal sounds, such as wheezing, crackling, or other signs of secretions in the lungs. This finding would suggest that the patient's pulmonary status is improving in response to treatment and could be moving towards the achievement of the expected outcome of having no secretions present in 48 hours, as established by the nurse and the patient.

Other measures such as spirometry could be used to provide quantitative data on lung function; spirometry measures the rate at which air can be expelled from the lungs, helping in the diagnosis and tracking progress in cases of restrictive or obstructive lung diseases. Moreover, the evaluation of sputum samples and the utilization of imaging studies such as chest radiographs can help confirm the absence of infection or inflammation indicative of pneumonia.