A woman at 22 weeks' gestation has right upper quadrant pain radiating to her back. she rates the pain as 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 and says that it has occurred 2 times in the last week for about 4 hours at a time. she does not associate the pain with food. which nursing measure is the highest priority for this client?

I think the nurse should first refer the client to her health care provider for testing, evaluation and treatment. This should be done so that a more definitive diagnosis may be done to identify the cause of the pain. According to the level of pain being experienced and other symptoms, the woman could be experiencing a gallbladder disease.