Final answer:
After being hit in the eye, a nurse should look for edema and loss of peripheral vision as these symptoms are indicative of possible blunt trauma to the eye and surrounding tissues.
Step-by-step explanation:
The nurse should monitor for several clinical manifestations in a patient presenting to the emergency department after being hit in the eye by a bat during a softball game. The symptoms to watch for include edema, which is fluid accumulation in tissue often associated with circulatory deficits, potentially causing swelling around the eye area. The patient may also have loss of peripheral vision, which can occur if there is damage to the structures of the eye or surrounding tissue, possibly affecting the patient's ability to see objects to their right and left. While crusty exudate could be a sign of eye injury or infection and loss of central vision might indicate serious trauma to the eye, these are not as directly associated with blunt trauma as edema and changes in peripheral vision.