Health Promotion and Maintenance
What this domain tests
This domain covers growth and development across the lifespan, health screening and disease prevention, anticipatory guidance, and the nurse's role in promoting wellness and self-care. Expect questions on developmental milestones, immunization schedules, prenatal and postpartum teaching, nutrition, and age-specific safety counseling.
Concepts you must own
Know the major developmental theorists well enough to match a behavior to a stage: Erikson's psychosocial tasks (trust versus mistrust in infancy, autonomy versus shame in toddlerhood, initiative in preschool, industry in school age, identity in adolescence), Piaget's cognitive stages, and the broad motor, language, and social milestones of infancy and early childhood. Understand primary prevention (immunization, nutrition, safety education), secondary prevention (screening such as mammography, colonoscopy, blood pressure checks), and tertiary prevention (rehabilitation, chronic disease management).
Traps to expect
- Milestone items that describe a skill one stage early or late; anchor to the age stated, not to what "most children" do.
- Prevention-level items that mislabel a screening test as primary prevention.
- Prenatal and newborn teaching where the correct answer is a normal finding (e.g., physiologic jaundice, molding) rather than an intervention.
- Safety counseling that is age-inappropriate, such as car-seat or poison-prevention advice aimed at the wrong developmental stage.
Rule of thumb
For any growth-and-development question, first name the client's age and developmental stage; then eliminate options that require abilities the child has not yet acquired or that ignore a normal variation.
Worked example
A parent reports a 4-month-old who cannot yet sit without support. Sitting independently typically emerges around 6 to 8 months, so this is expected, not delayed. The correct response reassures the parent and provides anticipatory guidance about the next milestones rather than flagging a deficit.