So tomorrow I'm taking care of my very first adult health (patho) patient! Yaay!
And one of the things my preceptor wants us to do is to go in the day before (that is, Sunday) and write down all the assigned patient's meds. And then she'll ask us what those meds have to do with the patient's diagnosis.
So my patient is post-op for right hip arthroplasty, and I kinda wanted to go over the non-PRN meds that patient is listed for.
- Lactated Ringers IV
- Sodium Chloride 0.9% IV
- Colace/Docusate Sodium PO
- Lovenox Subcut.
Let's see if I get this right...
The patient's on the lovenox because if he/she's post-op we don't want him/her to get DVTs or pulmonary emboli, and thus the lovenox is given prophylactically.
Colace is an orally ingested stool softener, and since the patient was under anesthesia for the arthroplasty, he/she may have less BM d/t the relaxed GI system. Also, the patient's stuck in bed, so that further increases the risk of him or her getting constipated.
Oxycontin (as half this Earth knows!) is a painkiller. Obviously, the patient's post-op pain is managed while on this drug. One thing I'd note is that the drug starts taking effect in about 10 to 15 minutes, and peaks a little after 1 hour, so I'd probably do an assessment of the patient at the time to check for level of consciousness. (Am I right?)
Paxil is an antidepressant. Hmm. No clue what that'd have to do with the admitting Diagnosis. I'll just say it's a home med.
Protonix is used to treat GERD. Hmm, but this patient's binder never said that he/she had GERD. I don't get it.
Okay! Hopefully that made half as much sense to you as it did to me
Sooo, my question is this:
Why would the patient be on IV Lactated Ringer's and normal saline?