Final answer:
The nurse should provide a light blanket to a patient with chills as a priority action to ease discomfort. Monitoring the patient's temperature is also crucial but secondary to the immediate relief. Understanding the role of the hypothalamus in temperature regulation and immune response during a fever is essential.
Step-by-step explanation:
When the nurse notes a patient has chills related to an infection, the priority action by the nurse would be to provide a light blanket. This helps to reduce the discomfort associated with chills and can offer a sense of warmth without significantly raising the patient's core temperature. Monitoring the temperature every hour is also important, but it is not the immediate priority action.
In addition to providing a light blanket, the nurse should understand that fever and chills are part of the body's defense mechanism against infection. The hypothalamus, which helps regulate body temperature, may induce vasoconstriction and shivering to raise the body temperature during a fever to inhibit the growth of pathogens and promote the immune response.