Basic Nursing Skills
What this domain covers
Basic nursing skills are the hands-on technical tasks a nurse assistant performs and documents: vital signs, height and weight, intake and output, specimen collection, hot and cold applications, range-of-motion exercises, positioning, and simple dressing or catheter care. The exam tests the procedure and the judgment around it - knowing when a finding is normal, when it must be reported, and what may not be done without instruction.
Numbers to know cold
Typical adult resting ranges are pulse 60–100 beats per minute, respirations 12–20 per minute, oral temperature roughly 97.6–99.6 °F, and oxygen saturation 95% or higher. A blood pressure near 120/80 is a reference point, not the cutoff for every resident. Learn your facility's reportable parameters, because a diastolic rise of 20 points or a pulse below 60 may be reportable even when the number looks almost normal.
Traps that appear in questions
- Counting respirations after announcing it - the resident changes the rate. Keep fingers on the wrist as if still counting the pulse.
- Taking a blood pressure on an arm with an IV, a dialysis fistula, or on the side of a mastectomy.
- Recording intravenous fluid as intake on the flow sheet (the nurse counts that), or forgetting to record vomitus, wound drainage, and diarrhea as output.
- Choosing a comfortable answer such as rechecking in an hour instead of reporting an abnormal value.
Rule of thumb
Measure, record, report - do not interpret. If a value falls outside the ordered range or the resident looks different, stay with the resident, call the nurse, and chart what you saw and what you did.
Worked example
You take a blood pressure of 86/50 on a resident who says the room is spinning. Correct action: help the resident lie down, stay nearby or place the call light in reach, report the reading and the symptom to the nurse immediately, and document the reading, the symptom, and the time you reported.