Final answer:
In a patient with pneumococcal pneumonia, a nurse would expect to find increased tactile fremitus due to the consolidation of lung tissue, not hyperresonance, which is associated with air trapping conditions like COPD. Crackles may be heard, and a productive cough is typical, not a dry, nonproductive cough.
Step-by-step explanation:
During assessment of the chest in a patient with pneumococcal pneumonia, the nurse would expect to find increased tactile fremitus. This is because, in conditions like pneumonia where the lung tissue becomes consolidated by infection and filled with inflammatory cells and fluids, the sound from the voice vibrations is transmitted more effectively through the denser tissue, making the vibrations felt on the chest wall more pronounced. This is unlike vesicular breath sounds, which are normal breath sounds heard over healthy lung tissue.
Hyperresonance to percussion is typically associated with conditions that cause trapping of air, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), not pneumonia. A dry, nonproductive cough is not commonly associated with pneumococcal pneumonia, where cough is typically productive, as indicated in the provided case where sputum samples are typically greenish, indicating a productive cough. The stethoscope may pick up on abnormal sounds such as crackles or crepitation caused by the opening of small airways and alveoli that are stuck together by fluid, which is indicative of pneumonia.