Question

The clinic nurse wants to document the stage in the infectious process of a client with a same-day appointment. Which symptoms would lead the nurse to record that the client was in the illness‚ stage?

1) Impaired function
2) Headache
3) Pain
4) Fever
5) General malaise

Answer 1

A nurse would document a client as being in the illness stage of an infectious process when they exhibit clear signs and symptoms such as impaired function, headache, pain, fever, and general malaise, indicating the peak intensity of the disease.

Step-by-step explanation:

The illness stage of an infectious process is characterized by the most obvious and severe signs and symptoms. Symptoms that would lead a nurse to document a client as being in the illness stage include impaired function, headache, pain, fever, and general malaise. In various clinical focus scenarios, patients experiencing such symptoms are often in the illness stage of their disease, which follows the prodromal period and is succeeded by the period of decline. As these signs and symptoms are specifically indicative of the activation of the immune system due to the infection, they reliably signal the period where the disease is at its peak intensity.