NURS 365 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Myasthenia Gravis, Peripheral Nervous System, Threshold Of Pain

Which of the following laws of thermodynamics denotes temperature measurement?

A client who is experiencing facial pain comes to the primary health care clinic where you are completing a student rotation. She tells you her pain is unrelenting and unbearable. Following health history and physical assessment the primary care NP made a tentative diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia and referred her to neurology and started her on carbamazepine, an anti convulsant drug. The neurology/neurosurgery team confirmed the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia and, after an unsuccessful trial of medication, the client decided to proceed to microvascular decompression (MVD). From what you have learned so far, describe your post-operative assessment either immediately after surgery, after 24 hours, or on discharge from hospital.

During the day, while being admitted to the nursing unit from the emergency department, a patient tells the nurse "I'm having difficulty breathing" and has pain in her chest when she breathes. When she was asked by the nurse about the pain scale, she stated that it was 10. Her respiratory rate is 28 and she is coughing up yellow sputum. Her skin is hot and moist, and her temperature is 39°C. The laboratory results show white blood cell count elevation and the sputum result is pending. The patient says that coughing makes her head hurt and she aches all over. 

Based on the given scenario, what is your priority problem?