Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing 13th Edition by Kerry Cheever, Janice Hinkle

Exercise 4

A 21-year-old male college student with CF is admitted to your unit from theED. He obtains his routine CF care closer to his home, which is 200 miles away; he isa new patient to your hospital. He has become progressively short of breath over thepast week, and his roommate brought him to the hospital because he "looked sick." Inshort and choppy phrases, the young man tells you that he is extremely short ofbreath and that it has been getting worse; he is having paroxysms of coughing. Younote that the cough is productive, with thick, yellow sputum, and that he is febrile.His roommate says that he has not been following his usual routine of CF care(airway clearance and nebulized medications) for the past 2 weeks or so and that hethinks he has lost weight.What pathophysiology is associated with these signs andsymptoms? What medical and nursing interventions might be used to decrease oralleviate these signs and symptoms? What is the strength of the evidence thatsupports these interventions? What members of the health care team would youconsult and why?