specimen collection Exam Questions And Answers

A nurse is teaching a client about collecting stool specimens for fecal occult testing. Which of the following should the nurse instruct the client to avoid before and during the testing period? Poultry Vitamin E supplements Yogurt Calcium supplements - ANS Poultry Red meat, poultry, seafood, and some raw vegetables can cause false-positive fecal occult blood testing results. A nurse is caring for a client who needs to collect a midstream urine specimens. Which of the following actions should the nurse take? Give the client a clean urine cup from the laboratory. Instruct the client to cleanse the perineal area from back to front. Have the client urinate a small amount of urine before starting the collection. Tell the client to collect about 10 mL of urine. - ANS Have the client urinate a small amount of urine before starting the collection. Urinating a small amount before the collection helps cleanse the urethral meatus of any bacteria that might be present. Midstream urine specimens must be collected in a sterile urine cup. The perineum should be cleansed from the cleanest area, the urethral meatus, to the more contaminated area, the anus, to decrease the amount of bacteria present. For a urinalysis specimen, 30 to 60 mL of urine is required. A nurse is caring for a client who has a suspected urinary tract infection (UTI). Which of the following urinalysis results should the nurse identify as a manifestation of UTI? Leukocyte esterase Trace amount of protein Specific gravity of 1.010 pH of 6.0 - ANS Leukocyte esterase Leukocyte esterase indicates the presence of a urinary tract infection. A nurse caring for a client who has diabetes mellitus is having difficulty obtaining a capillary fingerstick blood sample for point-of-care blood glucose testing. Which of the following actions should the nurse take to help increase blood flow to the client's finger? Elevate the hand on a pillow. Pierce the skin in the middle of the finger pad. Wrap the finger in a warm cloth. Firmly milk the puncture site. - ANS Wrap the finger in a warm cloth. Heat helps increase blood flow to the area to be punctured. Dangling the hand is recommended to promote blood flow to the fingers. The nurse should pierce the lateral aspect of the finger. Piercing it in the middle is more painful for the client and is unlikely to affect blood flow. Milking the puncture site to get a full blood sample is not recommended as it could lyse, or break, the blood cells and alter the test results. Gentle squeezing is permissible. A nurse is caring for a client who has a stage III pressure injury on the sacral area. Which of the following actions should the nurse take when obtaining a wound culture specimen from the pressure injury? Irrigate the wound with an antiseptic solution before collecting the specimen. Wipe the crusty area around the outside of the wound with a sterile swab. Rotate a sterile swab in the area of drainage. Collect drainage from the wound dressing. - ANS Rotate a sterile swab in the area of drainage. Rotating a swab in the center of the wound base to collect drainage is the appropriate technique for collecting a specimen for wound culture. It is important to avoid the wound's edges when collecting the specimen. Wounds should be cleansed with 0.9% sodium chloride solution or sterile water to remove skin flora prior to collecting a specimen for wound culture. The outside of the wound might be colonized with external skin flora or other micro-organisms that haven't affected the wound, thus the results are likely to be misleading. The dressing might be colonized with micro-organisms that haven't affected the wound, thus the results are likely to be inaccurate. An assistive personnel (AP) is collecting a 24-hour urine specimen from a client. Which of the following statements by the AP indicates that the specimen collection will have to be restarted? "I used a container from the lab that has a preservative in it." "The client just voided into the toilet, so the next void can be collected." "I have the container in a plastic bucket filled with ice." "The client just told me that they forgot to put the urine in the container." - ANS "The client just told me that they forgot to put the urine in the container." If the client urinates and discards the urine, the timing of the specimen must begin again with the next urination. A nurse is teaching a client about home collection of a stool specimen for fecal occult blood testing. Which of the following instructions should the nurse include? Obtain specimens from three different stools. Eat a diet low in fiber and residue. Avoid foods that are high in fat. Refrigerate the specimen card after obtaining the first sample. - ANS Obtain specimens from three different stools. The three specimens must be taken from three separate, consecutive bowel movements. Increasing water and fiber intake for a few days prior to testing facilitates the collection of multiple sequential stool specimens. A nurse is collecting a blood specimen for culture from a client. Which of the following actions should the nurse take? Keep the tourniquet in place from selection of the vein to completion of the collection. Rub the client's arm at the selected site prior to venipuncture. Elevate the client's arm above heart level for the venipuncture. Puncture the selected vein while the antiseptic solution is still visible on the skin. - ANS Rub the client's arm at the selected site prior to venipuncture.