Which findings should receive the highest priority? If The nurse has completed an assessment on a client with a decreased cardiac output.

When the nurse had completed an assessment on a client with a decreased cardiac output, the following findings should receive the highest priority; confusion, orthopnea, and urine output. A good sign of decrement in tissue perfusion is the low output of urine. Another sign for decreased tissue perfusion is confusion; while the occurrence of orthopnea is as a result of the failure of the left side of the heart. In addition, edema, weight gain, and crackles should be closely monitored through these do not really need to be prioritized as the earlier mentioned ones -confusion, orthopnea, and urine output.

Loss of atrial kick occurs, as a result, of atrial fibrillation. Nevertheless, heart rate and blood pressure remain the same. These are the findings the nurse must put into the highest consideration after he or she must have gone through assessing the patient by inspecting color changes in the peripheral, pulses' strength, and few other processes.

There are several symptoms of decreased cardiac output, although not everyone will experience all of the possible symptoms. The symptoms could include tachycardia, which is a fast heart rate, weak, irregular pulse, confusion, clammy skin, and swelling of ankles, feet, or belly. There are necessary assessments done to check for decreased cardiac output. The assessment would include, checking pulse, measure heart rate, heart sounds, respiration, blood pressure, check for chest pain, chest x-ray, and an echocardiogram.

You should also check the oxygen saturation and pulse oximetry and edema in the feet and ankles. The pulse would be weak and irregular, heart rate more than 60 beats per minute, soft and irregular heart sounds, shallow breathing with dyspnea, low blood pressure, and chest pain. An x-ray may show fluid buildup or heart enlargement, and an echo may show enlargement of the heart with fast pumping and possibly not filling correctly.