STUDY GUIDE (NEWEST 2025/2026
UPDATE) ACTUAL TERMS & DETAILED
DEFINITIONS.
Colitis – stress increases exacerbations
Perhaps we should review your coping mechanisms and talk about alternatives. –
Review coping mechanisms and alternative coping patterns will promote coping
skills that can assist the client in reducing stress.
Bowel obstruction – indication of bowel perforation
Rigid abdomen – Abdominal tenderness and rigidity occur with a bowel
perforation. As fluid escapes into the peritoneal cavity, there is a reduction in
circulating blood volume. A lowered blood pressure (hypotension) results.
Hypoglycemia – client with diabetes mellitus
,Manifestations – diaphoresis, palpitations, shakiness (sympathetic nervous system
responses to hypoglycemia)
Nausea – client with NG tube who is NPO and reports nausea
Irrigate the tube with a normal saline solution to determine patency – When
caring for a client with an NG tube who develops nausea, the nurse should first
attempt to irrigate the tube to determine patency. If the tube is not patent,
gastric pressure cannot decrease, and the steady or increasing pressure can cause
nausea.
Hepatitis A – which group is at most risk of developing hepatitis A
Children and young adults - are most often affected by Hepatitis A. Virus is
contracted by fecal-oral route through poor hygiene, hand-to-mouth contact, or
another form of close contact
Dumping Syndrome – 4 days after gastric bypass surgery dietary therapy
Maintain a supine position after meals – The nurse should instruct the client to lie
supine after eating to help slow the rapid emptying of food into the small
intestine. A client who has dumping syndrome should decreased the amount of
food eaten at a time, eat small meals more frequently, and eliminate fluids at
mealtime. Fluid shifts occur in the upper gastrointestinal tract when food
contents and simple sugars exit the stomach too rapidly, attracting fluid into the
upper intestine. This makes blood volume decrease, causing the client to
experience nausea and vomiting, sweating, syncope, palpitations, increased heart
rate, and hypotension.
Constipation – nurse’s instructions
, Eat yogurt with live cultures – yogurt contains live bacterial cultures that provide
dietary probiotic that can help maintain and promote bowel function
Ostomy care – Ileostomy client instructions
Empty your ostomy pouch when it gets half full. – The nurse should instruct the
client to empty the ostomy pouch when it is a third to half full. This prevents the
ostomy from becoming too full of stool or gas and exploding.
Cholecystectomy – client postoperative discharge teaching nurse’s priority
Coughing and deep-breathing exercises – The greatest risk to this client is
respiratory compromise. Therefore, learning how to perform coughing and deep-
breathing exercises to promote lung expansion and secretion removal is the
client’s priority learning need.
Barrett’s Esophagus – scheduled for EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy)
This procedure can determine how well the lower part of your esophagus works. –
An EGD is useful in determining the function of the esophageal lining and the
extent of inflammation, potential scarring, and strictures.
Dumping Syndrome – nursing instruction
Eat a source of protein with each meal. – Eating a source of protein with each
meal because protein delays gastric emptying.
Continuous Pump Feeding – client is dehydrated, which requires nurse
intervention
The head of the bed is elevated to 20 degrees – The head of the bed should be
elevated to at least 30 degrees (semi-Fowler’s position) while the tube feeding is