A patient with a contaminated abdominal wound after surgery is planned for delayed primary closure. Which of the following actions by the nurse is most appropriate to facilitate healing by tertiary intention?

A. Asking open-ended questions about their feelings and actively listening to their responses: Open-ended questions encourage clients to express thoughts and emotions freely, while active listening demonstrates empathy and attentiveness. This approach fosters trust, builds rapport, and supports therapeutic communication in mental health care.

B. Discussing personal experiences to relate to the client: Sharing personal experiences may shift focus from the client to the nurse and can blur professional boundaries. Therapeutic communication prioritizes the client’s feelings and needs rather than the nurse’s own experiences.

C. Giving instructions without considering the client's emotional state: Providing instructions without acknowledging emotions can create resistance, reduce trust, and impede rapport. Therapeutic communication requires sensitivity to the client’s emotional state.

D. Providing detailed medical jargon explanations of their condition to demonstrate expertise: Using complex medical language can overwhelm or confuse the client and may hinder understanding. Rapport is best established through clear, empathetic, and client-centered communication.

A. Performing hand hygiene before administering oral medication: Hand hygiene is a key component of medical asepsis, aimed at reducing the number of microorganisms and preventing their spread. This practice protects both the patient and healthcare provider from infection.
B. Wearing a sterile gown during wound irrigation: Using a sterile gown is part of surgical or sterile technique, which is considered surgical asepsis rather than medical asepsis. It prevents contamination during invasive procedures.
C. Cleaning the surgical site with antiseptic solution: Prepping a surgical site is a sterile procedure to eliminate pathogens before invasive surgery, aligning with surgical asepsis, not medical asepsis.
D. Using sterile gloves to insert a urinary catheter: Sterile gloves are part of surgical asepsis because catheter insertion requires maintaining a sterile field to prevent infection. This is distinct from medical asepsis practices.