A patient is admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of alcoholism.
The nurse should expect an order for:

Choice A rationale

Refusing to administer the medication without further investigation could jeopardize the client's timely treatment. While safety is paramount, the nurse's initial action should be to gather more information rather than outright refusal, which could delay necessary care.

Choice B rationale

Administering a medication that appears to be abnormally high without verifying the order is unsafe and could lead to serious adverse effects for the client. Nurses have a professional responsibility to question orders that seem incorrect or potentially harmful.

Choice C rationale

Documenting concerns is an important step in the process, but it is not the best *next* action. While documentation is crucial for legal and communication purposes, directly addressing the potentially erroneous order with the prescriber takes precedence to ensure patient safety.

Choice D rationale

Querying the physician about the order is the most appropriate immediate action. This allows the nurse to clarify the dosage, route, and rationale for the high dose. It opens a dialogue with the prescriber to confirm the order's accuracy or identify a potential error, directly addressing the safety concern.

Choice A rationale

Taking a sleeping pill at 9 pm might influence nighttime voiding indirectly by affecting sleep patterns or bladder awareness, but it doesn't directly increase urine production. Sleeping pills primarily work on the central nervous system to promote sleep and are not known to have a diuretic effect that would lead to increased nighttime urination.

Choice B rationale

Taking a diuretic at 7 pm significantly increases the risk of nocturia because diuretics promote fluid excretion by the kidneys. This increased urine production will likely occur during the night, after the medication has been absorbed and metabolized, leading to the need to wake up to urinate. The peak effect of many diuretics occurs within a few hours of administration.

Choice C rationale

Taking frequent naps during the day is unlikely to be a direct cause of nocturia. While changes in daytime activity and fluid intake patterns could indirectly influence nighttime voiding, napping itself does not have a physiological mechanism that directly increases urine production specifically at night.

Choice D rationale

Taking a diuretic at 7 am is less likely to cause nocturia compared to taking it in the evening. By 7 pm, the diuretic's effect of increased urine production will likely have subsided for most individuals, allowing for more normal bladder function during the night. The majority of the diuresis will occur during the daytime hours. .