As RN working in a general medical-surgical unit you are caring for a 57-year-old female with a bladder infection. Two weeks prior to hospitalization, the patient was experiencing slight burning upon urination. She self-treated by increasing her intake of fluids, but her symptoms continued to worsen. One week later, she developed generalized abdominal pain and a fever. She presented to the hospital when the pain became unbearable and fever reached 104°F. She was admitted to the medical-surgical unit and started on multiple IV antibiotics with concern that she could be developing a kidney infection.

If the patient develops rabies infection, the time from the bite to the appearance of symptoms is referred to as what stage of the infection?

A confirmatory Western blot test will be performed. The nurse educates the patient that the Western blot test has high sensitivity and specificity. Which of the following statements by the patient demonstrates understanding of this teaching?

A woman who is 38 weeks pregnant is admitted for a scheduled cesarean section. You perform an assessment of the patient and prepares her for the surgery. Prior to the procedure, an indwelling urinary catheter is placed.

Based upon the patient’s symptoms, which of the following tests is most important to obtain a diagnosis?

You instruct the family that the transfer of genetic material can involve contact between two bacterial cells. DNA can pass from one cell to the other through a pilus during which type of horizontal gene transfer?

You would send information about this case to the local state health agency because E. coli is what type of disease? 

Neisseria meningitidis is a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen that can cause meningitis. What component of the pathogen is likely contributing to the high fever? 

The organism is found to grow throughout the entire tube of thioglycolate broth media. Which of the following terms best describes the oxygen requirement of this organism?

The multiple antibiotics were prescribed as combined therapy. What is the primary goal of combined therapy?