Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse Practice Test

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Prepare for the Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse Exam with confidence. Our comprehensive quiz features multiple-choice questions paired with hints and explanations to enhance your understanding and readiness for the exam.

Practice this question and more.

What instruction should a nurse give a patient when a chest tube is being removed?

Take short quick breaths with your mouth open.
Take a deep breath and hold it.
Breathe only through your mouth.
Breathe as you normally do.

The correct answer is: Take a deep breath and hold it.

When a chest tube is being removed, the patient should be instructed to take a deep breath and hold it. This is because holding a deep breath helps to increase intrathoracic pressure, which can prevent air from being sucked into the chest when the chest tube is removed. It also minimizes the risk of a pneumothorax developing during the removal process. The other options are incorrect because taking short quick breaths with the mouth open, breathing only through the mouth, or breathing as usual can potentially lead to complications during the chest tube removal, such as air entering the pleural space and causing a pneumothorax. Therefore, the best instruction for the patient in this situation is to take a deep breath and hold it.