Editing Reduction of Risk Potential (section)

== Key Takeaways ==

* Interpret every laboratory value in the context of the client's diagnosis, medications, and trend rather than in isolation.
* Potassium, calcium, and magnesium abnormalities are dangerous chiefly because of their cardiac and neuromuscular effects.
* Never give intravenous potassium by push; always dilute and infuse by pump with adequate urine output.
* Tachycardia and restlessness precede hypotension in hemorrhage and shock.
* After procedures that anesthetize the throat, keep the client nothing by mouth until the gag reflex returns.
* Perforation, hemorrhage, infection, and pneumothorax are the recurring procedural complications; learn how each one presents.
* Stop a transfusion at the first sign of a reaction and maintain the line with normal saline through new tubing.
* Pair every therapy with both the response you expect and the adverse effect you are watching for.