The client is a 35-year-old male with no history of any medical conditions is in the clinic for an annual physical.

Exhibits

Nurse analyzes the findings.

What can the nurse do to mitigate artifacts when performing auscultation? Select all that apply.

Choice A Reason:
This option can help minimize clothing-related artifacts that may interfere with auscultation. Ensuring that the stethoscope is in direct contact with the skin allows for better transmission of sounds
Choice B Reason:
Ensuring the room is as quiet as possible is appropriate. Background noise can interfere with the clarity of auscultatory sounds. Ensuring a quiet environment helps reduce external interference and improves the nurse's ability to accurately hear and interpret the sounds.
Choice C Reason:
Keeping the examination room warm, and warm the stethoscope is appropriate. Cold temperatures can cause vasoconstriction and muscle tension, leading to increased tension in the skin and subcutaneous tissues, which may affect the quality of auscultatory sounds. Keeping the examination room warm and warming the stethoscope helps minimize this effect, ensuring clearer auscultation.
Choice D Reason:
Document the roaring and crackles is inappropriate. Documenting auscultatory findings such as roaring and crackles is important for clinical assessment and documentation but does not mitigate artifacts during auscultation. It is crucial to focus on optimizing the auscultation environment and technique to ensure accurate interpretation of sounds.
Choice E Reason:
Wetting the chest hair before auscultating is appropriate. Chest hair can create friction and produce artifacts during auscultation, particularly when using a stethoscope. Wetting the chest hair helps reduce friction and minimize artifacts, allowing for clearer auscultatory sounds.

Choice A Reason:
Giving the client an object to hold is not the most appropriate action before asking the client to flex his arms to assess muscle strength. While providing an object to hold may engage the muscles, it does not specifically target the muscles involved in arm flexion, which are primarily the biceps brachii and brachialis muscles. Therefore, it may not accurately assess muscle strength during arm flexion.
Choice B Reason:
Instructing the client to close his eyes is not the most appropriate action before asking the client to flex his arms to assess muscle strength. Instructing the client to close his eyes primarily tests proprioception and balance rather than muscle strength. While proprioception is an important aspect of overall neurological function, it is not directly related to assessing muscle strength during arm flexion.
Choice C Reason:
Applying resistance to the client's arms is the most appropriate action before asking the client to flex his arms to assess muscle strength. Applying resistance to the client's arms during flexion allows the nurse to evaluate the client's ability to generate force against resistance, providing a more accurate assessment of muscle strength in the biceps brachii and brachialis muscles.
Choice D Reason:
Palpating the client's muscle tone is not the most appropriate action before asking the client to flex his arms to assess muscle strength. While palpating muscle tone is important for assessing muscle integrity, it does not directly evaluate muscle strength during arm flexion. Muscle tone refers to the resting tension in a muscle and may not accurately reflect muscle strength during active movement.