The practical nurse (PN) learns that a client who is receiving chemotherapy has developed stomatitis. Which information should the PN obtain from the client during a focused assessment?

The correct answer is choiceB. Verify completion of all new prescriptions. This task is crucial to ensure patient safety and proper medication administration.

Choice A rationale:

Clean up and organize the nurses’ workstation: While maintaining an organized workstation is important for efficiency and reducing stress, it is not the highest priority task. Patient safety and care tasks take precedence over organizational tasks.

Choice B rationale:

Verify completion of all new prescriptions: This is the highest priority because verifying new prescriptions ensures that patients receive the correct medications as prescribed by their healthcare providers.This step is critical to prevent medication errors, which can have serious or even fatal consequences. Ensuring the accuracy of medication orders directly impacts patient safety and care quality.

Choice C rationale:

Calculate and record intake and output totals: Monitoring and recording intake and output is important for assessing a patient’s fluid balance and overall health status. However, this task can be delegated to another team member and does not take precedence over verifying medication orders, which is more time-sensitive and directly related to patient safety.

Choice D rationale:

Write a narrative shift summary for each client: Documenting a shift summary is essential for continuity of care and communication between healthcare providers. However, this task can be completed after ensuring that all critical patient care tasks, such as verifying new prescriptions, are addressed first.

The correct answer is choiceC. Health care proxy documentation.

Choice A rationale:

The name of the funeral home to contact is not immediately relevant during the admission assessment of a terminally ill client. This information can be collected later as part of end-of-life planning but is not critical for the initial assessment.

Choice B rationale:

While the contact information for the client’s next of kin is important for communication and support, it is not as crucial as health care proxy documentation for making immediate healthcare decisions.

Choice C rationale:

Health care proxy documentation is essential because it designates someone to make healthcare decisions on behalf of the client if they become unable to do so themselves.This ensures that the client’s healthcare preferences and decisions are respected and followed by the healthcare team.

Choice D rationale:

The client’s wishes regarding organ donation are important but are often included in the health care proxy documentation.This information is not as immediately critical as the health care proxy documentation during the admission assessment.