Question

A nurse cares for a patient with gastrointestinal bleeding who was admitted to a medical unit 3 days ago. Today, the patient is very irritable and restless and says to the nurse, "There are roaches everywhere in this hospital, and they've been crawling on me. I'm so scared of bugs." The nursing admission assessment shows that the patient drinks socially. How does the nurse analyze this situation?

A. The patient may have minimized his/her use of alcohol and may be experiencing withdrawal.
B. The facility's infection control nurse should be consulted about the insect infestation.
C. The patient probably has dementia, which was inadequately assessed at the time of admission.
D. Caring behaviors by the nursing staff have most likely been inadequate, and the patient is lonely.

Answer 1

The nurse would analyze this situation by considering the patient's symptoms and the information from the nursing admission assessment. The patient's statement about seeing roaches everywhere and feeling scared of bugs may indicate a hallucination or delusion, which could be a symptom of alcohol withdrawal.

Step-by-step explanation:

The nurse would analyze this situation by considering the patient's symptoms and the information from the nursing admission assessment. The patient's statement about seeing roaches everywhere and feeling scared of bugs may indicate a hallucination or delusion, which could be a symptom of alcohol withdrawal. Social drinking can sometimes lead to alcohol dependence, and withdrawal symptoms can include irritability, restlessness, and hallucinations. Therefore, option A, "The patient may have minimized his/her use of alcohol and may be experiencing withdrawal," is the most likely analysis.