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In the lab, the urine specimen is spread on an agar plate with antibiotic discs placed to determine antimicrobial susceptibility. Following incubation, the clear area around each disc is measured. What term describes the observed area of antimicrobial action around each disc?

You are an RN in a long-term care facility caring for a 79-year-old female. The patient has been a resident on in the facility for the past 5 years. She has been complaining of pain, burning, and tingling on her left side. Upon further assessment, you observe fluid-filled blisters wrapping around the left side of her torso in a concentrated strip. The facility physician confirms she had a previous episode of chickenpox as a child, diagnoses her with shingles and orders the appropriate isolation.

A 36-year-old female is bit by a raccoon and presents to the emergency department with mild trauma to her right lower extremity. Following a triage assessment, the patient’s wound is cleaned and dressed. The physician verbalizes concern that the patient may have been exposed to rabies from the bite. One role of the RN is to provide education to the patient regarding rabies infection and its transmission.

The patient’s mother expresses concern about her daughter’s fevers. She states that the fevers are a sign that her child is unable to fight this infection. What is a proper response to these concerns?

A 78-year-old male presents to the emergency department reporting a 2-day history of difficulty breathing, cough, and chest pain. Upon triage assessment, the patient is found to have a fever, rapid rate of breathing, low oxygen saturation, and crackles upon auscultation of the lungs. A chest X-ray reveals consolidation in the right upper lung field. The patient is diagnosed with pneumonia, initiated on oxygen therapy, and admitted for observation and treatment.

The patient’s salmonella diagnosis is a reportable disease and you contact the appropriate state agency to begin an investigation. The patient specimen will be evaluated by what method used by the CDC to identify cases in an outbreak?

You are a RN in a primary care office is caring for a 15-year-old male with severe gastrointestinal distress. The patient reports four days of diarrhea, vomiting, and intermittent fever. A stool culture was ordered in an attempt to identify a disease-causing pathogen.

If the patient develops rabies infection, the time from the bite to the appearance of symptoms is referred to as what stage of the infection?

As an RN with the infectious disease team, you are providing an education course to new graduate nurses regarding the process of infection control and prevention.

You are a RN working at an urban low-income medical clinic when a young woman enters crying. She is 19 years old and 28 weeks pregnant with her second child. The woman reports that she woke this morning to find she was leaking milky-colored fluid vaginally. Her first child was born 6 weeks early due to premature rupture of membranes and she is worried this is happening again. You reassure the patient, explain that a vaginal speculum exam will be performed, and educate her about specimens that will be collected. Once the proper specimens are obtained and appropriately labeled, the wet mount and culturette are sent to the laboratory for processing.