case study

Severe vs Moderate pain:

A patient put on their call light. When you go to their room to see what they need they state that they have pain. You ask them to rate it on a numeric pain scale and they report it to be a 9/10. You understand this is moderate to severe pain. When you look in their medical administration record, they have a PRN order for both 650 mg acetaminophen and 1mg morphine IV.

1. Which medication would you decide is more appropriate for this patient?
2. What will you monitor this patient for after you administer the medication?

Acetaminophen overdose:

A patient comes to the ED after her family found her at home with two empty bottles of acetaminophen and a note stating she no longer wished to live.

1. What do you anticipate will be ordered to help reverse the effects of the acetaminophen? Describe its mechanism of Action.
2. What will you monitor? Include laboratory studies and signs and symptoms of organ failure.