When should a nurse practice standard precautions by applying nonsterile gloves and other PPE?

A.Mary Nutting was a pioneer in nursing education and was the first professor of nursing in the world at Columbia University. She focused on standardized curricula and the professionalization of nursing through rigorous academic training rather than sanitation. While influential, she is not credited with the foundational establishment of modern nursing or early epidemiological documentation.

B.Lillian Wald is recognized as the founder of public health nursing and established the Henry Street Settlement in New York City. Her work focused on providing healthcare to the poor and advocating for social reform and school nursing. Although she utilized sanitation principles, her primary legacy is the expansion of nursing into community and social service sectors.

C.Clara Barton is famous for her role as the founder of the American Red Cross and her work as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War. She specialized in emergency response, disaster relief, and the distribution of supplies to wounded soldiers. Her contributions were monumental in humanitarian aid, but she did not establish the formal professional nursing philosophy.

D.Florence Nightingale is globally recognized as the founder of modern nursing due to her revolutionary work during the Crimean War. She utilized statistical analysis to demonstrate that improved sanitation, ventilation, and hygiene significantly reduced mortality rates among wounded soldiers. Her book, Notes on Nursing, established the theoretical framework for professional nursing practice and environmental health standards.

A.Monitoring blood glucose levels is a metabolic assessment primarily indicated for patients with diabetes mellitus or those receiving parenteral nutrition. Immobility does not directly cause acute fluctuations in serum glucose concentrations in the absence of underlying endocrine pathology. While stress can elevate glucose, it is not a specific indicator of gastrointestinal function or peristaltic efficiency.

B.Vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure provide critical data regarding the patient's hemodynamic stability and autonomic nervous system response. While significant gastrointestinal distress, such as a bowel perforation or severe obstruction, may eventually cause tachycardia or hypotension, these are late-stage systemic signs. They lack the specificity required to detect early-onset ileus or constipation.

C.Assessing bowel sounds via auscultation is the most direct clinical method for evaluating the mechanical effects of immobility on the digestive tract. Reduced physical activity often leads to decreased peristalsis, potentially resulting in constipation or a paralytic ileus. The presence of hypoactive or absent bowel sounds in all four quadrants specifically alerts the nurse to these common gastrointestinal complications.

D.Oxygen saturation levels reflect the efficiency of pulmonary gas exchange and peripheral tissue perfusion rather than digestive motility. Although severe abdominal distension from an obstruction can secondary impact respiratory excursion by elevating the diaphragm, it is an indirect and non-specific finding. Pulse oximetry is not a diagnostic tool for identifying primary gastrointestinal complications related to a sedentary state.