During a gastrointestinal assessment, the nurse detects rebound tenderness in the right lower quadrant (RLQ). What does this finding most likely indicate?

Choice A reason: Taking retirement checks and limiting access to funds is financial abuse, exploiting the patient’s resources. This violates elder rights, requiring reporting and social service intervention. Accurate identification ensures protection, critical for restoring financial autonomy and preventing further exploitation, enhancing safety and well-being in vulnerable elderly patients.

Choice B reason: Emotional abuse involves psychological harm like humiliation, not directly indicated by taking retirement funds, which is financial abuse. Assuming emotional risks misclassification, delaying financial protection measures, critical for addressing exploitation and ensuring the patient’s economic security, essential for elder abuse prevention and support.

Choice C reason: Neglect involves failure to provide care, like food or medical needs, not specifically taking funds, which is financial abuse. Misidentifying as neglect risks overlooking financial exploitation, delaying interventions like legal guardianship, critical for protecting the patient’s assets and ensuring safety in elder care settings.

Choice D reason: Physical abuse involves bodily harm, not indicated by financial exploitation like taking retirement checks. Assuming physical risks missing financial abuse, delaying reporting or social services, critical for stopping exploitation, restoring financial control, and ensuring the patient’s safety and dignity in elder abuse scenarios.

Choice A reason: Difficulty initiating urination, incomplete bladder emptying, and dribbling in a 75-year-old male, with likely prostate enlargement on rectal exam, indicate benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). BPH obstructs the urethra, common in aging men. Accurate diagnosis guides treatments like alpha-blockers, preventing complications like urinary retention or kidney damage in elderly patients.

Choice B reason: Urinary tract infections cause burning or cloudy urine, not primarily dribbling or initiation issues, which suggest BPH in older males. Assuming UTI risks missing prostate issues, delaying BPH treatment. This could lead to untreated obstruction, increasing risks of retention or infection, requiring distinct diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Choice C reason: Stage 4 prostate cancer may cause urinary symptoms, but initiation difficulty and dribbling in older males typically indicate BPH, especially without systemic symptoms. Assuming cancer risks unnecessary invasive testing, delaying BPH management like medications, critical for relieving obstruction and improving quality of life in elderly patients.

Choice D reason: Renal disease causes systemic symptoms like edema or hypertension, not primarily urinary flow issues like dribbling, which point to BPH. Misdiagnosing as renal disease risks overlooking prostate obstruction, delaying treatments like tamsulosin, potentially worsening urinary retention or kidney strain in older males with BPH symptoms.