Managing Emergency Situations Flashcards
7 cards from real CNOR practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Managing Emergency Situations flashcards as text
A patient receiving a blood transfusion intraoperatively develops hypotension, hemoglobinuria, and back pain. The nurse should FIRST:
Answer: Stop the transfusion and maintain IV access with normal saline
These signs indicate an acute hemolytic transfusion reaction; stopping the transfusion immediately while maintaining IV access is the critical first step.
During a spine procedure in prone position, the patient develops a sudden drop in oxygen saturation and absent breath sounds on the left. The nurse anticipates:
Answer: Pneumothorax requiring chest tube insertion
Sudden unilateral absent breath sounds with desaturation in a prone patient suggests tension pneumothorax, which requires immediate decompression.
Which action is MOST important when a power outage occurs in the OR during an active surgical procedure?
Answer: Switch critical equipment to emergency battery backup and notify engineering
Switching life-support and critical equipment to emergency power and notifying facilities engineering ensures patient safety while restoring power.
A patient experiences laryngospasm during emergence from anesthesia. The FIRST nursing action is to:
Answer: Assist the anesthesia provider with jaw thrust and positive pressure ventilation
Laryngospasm is an airway emergency; the first response is supporting the anesthesia provider with jaw thrust and positive pressure ventilation to break the spasm.
Which intraoperative finding is the EARLIEST reliable indicator of malignant hyperthermia?
Answer: Rising end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2)
Rising EtCO2 is the earliest and most sensitive sign of MH because accelerated cellular metabolism produces CO2 before temperature rises significantly.
In a 'can't intubate, can't oxygenate' (CICO) airway emergency, the DEFINITIVE rescue intervention is:
Answer: Cricothyrotomy
Cricothyrotomy is the definitive surgical airway rescue procedure when all other airway management attempts have failed in a CICO emergency.
A patient develops intraoperative anaphylaxis to latex. After administering epinephrine, which intervention addresses the UNDERLYING trigger?
Answer: Switching to non-latex gloves and removing all latex from the field
Removing all latex products from the surgical field eliminates ongoing allergen exposure, which is essential to prevent continued or escalating anaphylaxis.