NCLEX Question on Succinylcholine (Nursing)

00:00 Okay, let's work on a question together.

00:03 Now the stem is pretty short.

00:04 The nurse identifies which of the following patients as being what? Most at risk for complications if succinylcholine is used.

00:14 Now, we've just talked about those.

00:17 But we know, each one of these four patients potentially could be at risk for a complication of succs.

00:25 I'm looking for who's at the biggest risk.

00:27 That's probably the thing that's going to deal with airway, breathing, circulation.

00:31 What I know the biggest risk of succs malignant hyperthermia, hyperkalemia.

00:36 So I do that gymnastic in my brain before I look at the answer choices, because I'm going to laser focus my brain before I let myself get confused and talked into some distractor type answer.

00:50 So, if I want to give somebody most of us for succs a patient with a recent history of malignant hypertension.

00:58 Okay, a patient with full thickness burns to the chest and legs.

01:04 A patient with a history of type 1 diabetes since age 14, or a patient with pneumonia who is receiving Levaquin.

01:11 Okay, pause the video.

01:14 Do what you know to do with these questions.

01:16 Eliminate the answer choices one at a time, and say why.

01:21 It come up with your answer.

01:22 Then come back and we'll talk through the correct answer.

01:29 Okay, welcome back.

01:32 Hopefully, you did the work on the question, because you're going to gain a lot more from this.

01:37 If you take the time to work through questions, and then compare it to our answers we walk through it together.

01:42 Because that's one of our goals is we want you to be stronger on exams.

01:46 So let's get back to the question.

01:48 We know who's most at risk for complications after succinylcholine is used? Well, I don't always start with A, B, C, D.

01:57 I start somewhere in the middle.

01:59 I don't know of any connection to type 1 diabetes, and problems with succinylcholine so I'm getting rid of that one.

02:07 Okay, now I have these three left.

02:10 Well, A, caught my eye and almost caught me because it says malignant hypertension until I remembered malignant hyperthermia is a problem with succinylcholine not malignant hypertension.

02:27 See, that's how distractors are written.

02:29 They put that in there so your brain would trigger "Oh, malignant hyper something. Yeah, I know, that's bad.

02:33 I'm going with that answer.

02:35 That's how distractors are written.

02:37 So you know how the game is played.

02:39 Don't let it catch you.

02:41 Get rid of A, because it's not malignant hypertension.

02:44 It's malignant hyperthermia.

02:47 Now, I'm left between B and D.

02:50 The classic final two.

02:51 Which one am I going to pick? Which one did you come up with? Even if you did not end up with these final two, picking between these two, which one would you say puts the patient most at risk from complications if succinylcholine is used? Right.

03:11 It's a patient with full thickness burns to the chest and lungs.

03:15 Remember, that's one of the major risk factors.

03:17 Trauma, burns, upper neuron injuries, demyelination, those are the risk factors we know for patient receiving succs.

03:26 So good deal if you got that one.

03:28 If you didn't, just take a look at your process.

03:31 Pause the video think about how you went through the question differently then we walked through it together.

03:36 What would you like to change about your test taking practices?