How can a nurse promote comfort and safety for a patient with a new cast on their arm?

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: Elevating the arm with a new cast reduces swelling by aiding venous return, easing pressure inside the cast for comfort and preventing complications like compartment syndrome. Using the arm normally risks damage or delayed healing. Pressing the cast can worsen pain or shift fractures. Keeping it moist invites skin breakdown or infection casts must stay dry. Nurses use pillows for elevation, monitor circulation, and educate on care, balancing comfort with healing safety in early cast stages.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: Using a non-slip mat or surface prevents slipping on a wet floor, enhancing safety for a walker-assisted patient by providing traction underfoot. Walking quickly increases momentum, risking falls. Leaning backward unbalances, pulling against the walker's support. Removing the walker strips stability, heightening danger. Nurses ensure dry, grippy paths or add mats, guiding slowly, to secure ambulation, a practical fix for environmental hazards in mobility care.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: A walker with wheels provides stability during ambulation by offering rolling support, easing movement for patients with weakness while maintaining balance. Faster walking isn't the aim safety trumps speed. Limiting mobility contradicts its purpose; it aids, not restricts. Replacing a wheelchair doesn't fit it's for walking, not sitting. Nurses adjust height and teach use, ensuring smooth, secure steps, a practical aid for gradual mobility improvement in rehabilitation or chronic conditions.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Wearing a clean uniform, ID card, and clean socks demonstrates professionalism by signaling hygiene, role clarity, and respect for clients and workplace standards. Jewelry and perfume risk irritation or injury, long nails harbor germs and hinder tasks, and while competence is vital, it's an action, not a visible trait like attire. Health care aides' appearance reflects reliability clients trust a neat, identifiable caregiver. This choice balances practicality and perception, ensuring safety (e.g., no loose items) and trust, critical in a role where first impressions and infection control matter daily.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Life-long learning for health care aides means ongoing development of competence (skills) and confidence (assurance), ensuring they adapt to new practices or client needs over time. Family learning is unrelated professional, not personal, growth is key. Time off to study is a means, not the definition. Client safety is an outcome, not the process. Aides pursue this through training or observation, staying effective e.g., mastering new equipment maintaining quality care. It's about evolving expertise, not static knowledge, a career-long commitment to excellence.