A nurse is caring for client who has difficulty swallowing medications and is prescribed enteric-coated aspirin PO once daily. The client asks the medication can be crushed to make it easier to swallow. Which of the following responses should the nurse provide?

A) Decreased peripheral pulses:
Increased body temperature typically causes vasodilation rather than vasoconstriction, leading to improved blood flow rather than decreased. As a result, peripheral pulses are more likely to be normal or even increased in response to fever. Decreased peripheral pulses would be more indicative of conditions like shock or hypoperfusion, not fever.

B) Heart rate 108/min:
Fever causes an increase in metabolic demand, which often results in a compensatory increase in heart rate (tachycardia). This phenomenon, known as "fever tachycardia," occurs as the body attempts to circulate blood more rapidly to meet the increased oxygen and nutrient demands caused by elevated body temperature. A heart rate of 108 beats per minute is a normal response to fever, particularly when the temperature reaches 39°C (102.27°F).
C) Respiratory rate 10 breaths/min:
A respiratory rate of 10 breaths per minute is considered bradypnea (abnormally slow breathing), which is typically not associated with fever. Fever usually leads to an increase in respiratory rate (tachypnea) as the body attempts to cool itself through increased evaporation of sweat and breathing. A respiratory rate of 10 breaths/min is more likely to be seen in conditions like drug overdose, head injury, or respiratory depression, rather than fever.
D) Dilated pupils:
Dilated pupils (mydriasis) are typically associated with sympathetic nervous system activation, which can be caused by certain drugs, trauma, or neurological conditions. Fever, however, generally causes only mild changes in pupil size and is more likely to lead to constricted pupils (miosis) in response to certain stress hormones. Dilated pupils are not a typical finding with fever.

A) Assessment:
Assessment involves gathering and analyzing data about the client’s health status and needs. While gathering information from the social worker and physical therapist may be part of the assessment process, the actual collaborative work in preparing the discharge plan is more aligned with the planning phase of the nursing process.

B) Planning:
Planning is the correct answer because it involves formulating goals, interventions, and expected outcomes for the client’s care, including discharge projections. In this case, the nurse, social worker, and physical therapist are working together to develop a comprehensive discharge plan tailored to the client’s needs, which is a key part of the planning phase.

C) Evaluation:
Evaluation occurs after interventions are implemented to assess whether the goals have been met and the outcomes achieved. Since the nurse is still in the process of preparing the discharge plan, evaluation has not yet occurred.

D) Analysis:
Analysis is the process of interpreting assessment data to identify problems or needs. While analysis is part of the assessment phase, it does not describe the collaborative action of creating a discharge plan, which is clearly a planning task.