A nurse is caring for a client who will be having surgery. Which of the following is a nurse’s role when obtaining informed consent?

Choice A reason: Assuring the client about future pregnancies dismisses her current emotional loss, potentially invalidating grief. Stillbirth triggers complex hormonal and psychological responses, including postpartum depression risk. This approach fails to address immediate emotional needs, hindering the grieving process and emotional recovery in perinatal loss.
Choice B reason: Avoiding discussion of the newborn ignores the client’s need to process her loss. Acknowledging the baby’s existence is critical for healthy mourning, as psychological research shows verbalizing grief aids emotional integration. Silence may suppress coping, prolonging unresolved grief and complicating psychological adjustment post-stillbirth.
Choice C reason: Discouraging friends from seeing the newborn dismisses the client’s need for social support. Communal acknowledgment of loss mitigates isolation, a key factor in grief recovery. This action disrupts psychological coping by limiting social validation, potentially exacerbating feelings of loneliness and hindering emotional healing after stillbirth.
Choice D reason: Offering to take pictures acknowledges the baby’s significance, aiding the client’s grieving process. Photographs serve as tangible memories, supported by psychological research as therapeutic in perinatal loss. This intervention fosters emotional closure, validates the loss, and supports healthy mourning, aligning with compassionate care principles.

Choice A reason: Hypothermia increases metabolic demand in newborns, depleting glucose stores rapidly. Neonates have limited glycogen reserves, and cold stress accelerates glucose use for thermogenesis, risking hypoglycemia. This is critical in nurseries, as thermoregulation is essential to prevent metabolic imbalances in vulnerable infants.
Choice B reason: Thrombocytopenia, low platelet count, affects clotting, not glucose metabolism. It may occur in sepsis but does not directly cause hypoglycemia. Glucose regulation depends on liver function and insulin balance, not platelets, making this irrelevant to hypoglycemia risk in newborns.
Choice C reason: Prematurity heightens hypoglycemia risk due to immature liver glycogen stores and limited gluconeogenesis. Preterm infants have high metabolic demands and low reserves, increasing susceptibility to low blood glucose, necessitating close monitoring and early feeding to stabilize glucose levels.
Choice D reason: Anemia, low red blood cell count, impacts oxygen delivery but not glucose metabolism directly. Severe anemia may increase metabolic stress, but it is not a primary hypoglycemia cause. Glucose regulation relies on hepatic and insulin functions, not hematologic status, in newborns.
Choice E reason: Maternal diabetes causes fetal hyperinsulinemia from maternal hyperglycemia, leading to neonatal hypoglycemia post-birth. Excess insulin depletes glucose stores after umbilical cord clamping, as maternal glucose supply ceases, making this a critical risk factor requiring vigilant monitoring in newborns.