Free BCEN CPEN Exam Flashcards

Appearance, work of breathing, and circulation to the skin; it is a rapid visual and auditory assessment before hands-on examination.

Possible impaired oxygenation, ventilation, perfusion, metabolism, or neurologic function; it can signal serious illness even with normal vital signs.

Interpret vital signs, communication, behavior, and developmental ability against age-appropriate norms rather than adult expectations.

When symptoms and exposure history suggest a transmissible infection requiring precautions before routine placement and evaluation.

Protect staff and other patients, remove the child from the source, and prevent contamination from entering the treatment area.

Rapid assessment of breathing, perfusion, mental status, and resource needs using the organization's pediatric disaster-triage method.

Credible risk of self-harm or harm to others, severe agitation, or inability to maintain safety requires observation and environmental controls.

Airway, breathing, circulation, disability, and exposure, with life threats treated as soon as they are identified.

A focused history and head-to-toe examination after immediate threats are addressed, looking for additional injury or illness.

Caregivers can identify subtle changes from the child's baseline behavior, function, intake, communication, and usual appearance.

Match language, sequence, play, privacy, positioning, and expected responses to the child's cognitive and developmental abilities.

Baseline status, communication method, devices, emergency plan, usual medications, caregiver expertise, and the specific change prompting the visit.

Use a validated observational scale such as FLACC, interpreting behaviors in context and reassessing after intervention.

When the child can understand and reliably use the scale; self-report is preferred over observer estimation when developmentally appropriate.

Timely reassessment with the same suitable scale, documentation of response and adverse effects, and adjustment if relief is inadequate.

Barking cough, hoarseness, and inspiratory stridor from upper-airway swelling; stridor at rest signals greater severity.

Agitation or throat manipulation may worsen critical airway obstruction; keep the child calm and mobilize expert airway support.

A viral lower-airway illness in infants with rhinorrhea followed by cough, wheeze or crackles, increased work of breathing, and feeding difficulty.

Exhaustion, altered mental status, poor air movement or a quiet chest, cyanosis, or worsening gas exchange despite treatment.

Compensated shock maintains blood pressure through tachycardia and vasoconstriction; hypotension is a late sign of decompensation.

Support airway, breathing, and circulation while urgently involving pediatric cardiac expertise and preparing lesion-specific stabilization.

Protect from injury, support oxygenation and ventilation, time the seizure, check glucose, and give protocol-directed therapy without restraining the child.

Headache, vomiting, altered behavior or consciousness, bulging fontanel in an infant, gaze changes, or signs of increased intracranial pressure.

It can rapidly cause caustic tissue injury and perforation; urgent localization and removal are required without inducing vomiting.

Intermittent severe abdominal pain with periods of relief, vomiting, lethargy, and sometimes bloody mucus stool.

Sudden testicular pain is a time-critical surgical emergency; evaluation must not be delayed by nonessential testing.

Orbital cellulitis may cause painful or restricted eye movement, proptosis, impaired vision, fever, and systemic illness.

Pain out of proportion, especially pain with passive stretch, followed by tense swelling and later neurovascular deficits.

They may signal invasive infection, thrombocytopenia, or another serious disorder and require rapid assessment of perfusion and systemic illness.

Rapid pain assessment and treatment while evaluating hydration, oxygenation, fever, chest symptoms, neurologic change, and other complications.

Severe infection may progress quickly with muted inflammatory signs; cultures and protocol-directed antimicrobial care are time sensitive.

Hyperglycemia with ketone production and metabolic acidosis, usually accompanied by dehydration and electrolyte deficits.

Total body potassium is depleted even when the initial serum value is normal or high, and treatment shifts potassium into cells.

Place a rigid shield without pressure, avoid manipulating the eye or checking pressure, control nausea and pain, and obtain urgent specialty care.

They have a high surface-area-to-mass ratio, limited insulation and heat production, and greater evaporative heat loss.

Very early, rapidly rising, or severe bilirubin may indicate disease and can threaten the nervous system if not treated promptly.

Maintain normal temperature, dry, position, stimulate, and clear the airway only if needed; begin ventilation promptly for apnea, gasping, or a persistent heart rate below 100/min.

Ask directly about thoughts, plan, intent, access to means, prior behavior, protective factors, and immediate ability to remain safe.

Treat urgent needs, protect the child, document objective findings, preserve evidence, and follow mandatory-reporting and multidisciplinary procedures.

Create privacy and safety, use a qualified interpreter when needed, ask nonjudgmental questions, and avoid confronting a suspected controller.

Depth, percent body surface area, location, mechanism, inhalation injury, age, associated trauma, and underlying conditions.

Standard pulse oximetry cannot reliably distinguish oxyhemoglobin from carboxyhemoglobin, so a normal reading may be misleading.

For suspected septic shock, start antimicrobials as soon as possible, ideally within 1 hour; for probable sepsis without shock, investigate rapidly and, if concern is substantiated, start them as soon as possible, ideally within 3 hours.

Rapid allergic mediator release can compromise airway, breathing, and circulation while also causing skin or gastrointestinal findings.

Symptoms, mental status, age-adjusted vital signs, lung examination, and room-air oxygenation during an appropriate observation period; avoid obsolete terms such as delayed or secondary drowning.

Continuous appropriate monitoring, trained personnel, airway and rescue readiness, medication-specific vigilance, and recovery to discharge criteria.

A parent or legal guardian, unless an emergency or applicable law permits treatment without that consent.

An appropriate medical screening examination and stabilizing treatment within the hospital's capability, without delay for payment questions.

Minimize contamination, label and seal items correctly, document collection and transfers, and maintain chain of custody under policy.

Match a stable, predictable task to a competent person, give clear directions, retain nursing accountability, and provide supervision and follow-up.