The nurse is assigned to a patient with chronic alcoholism and alcoholic cirrhosis. Examination of the patient is significant for dilated tortuous veins around his umbilicus and internal hemorrhoids. On the morning of his third day of the current admission, the patient acutely begins to vomit up large amounts of blood. Which describes the pathophysiology that most likely caused this event?

The patient is admitted due to concern for a cerebrovascular accident in the brainstem. Which reflexes does the nurse use to assess the integrity of the brainstem? Select all that apply.

Following an explosion at a factory, the patient is brought by ambulance to the emergency department. The patient has soot on the face and around the mouth and is coughing up black sputum. He verbalizes severe pain in his leg and his voice is noted to be a hoarse whisper. Further assessment reveals full thickness burns to the arms and hands and partial thickness burns to the legs. Shrapnel appears to have been embedded in the patient’s thigh. While moving the leg to assess the inner thigh, a piece of shrapnel shifts and the patient begins bleeding profusely from the wound. The patient cries out in pain and requests pain relief. Which action does the nurse take first?