During a health assessment of an older adult with multiple chronic health problems, the nurse practitioner is utilizing multiple assessment techniques, including percussion. What is the essential principle of percussion?
A) To assess the sound created by the body
B) To strike the abdominal wall with a soft object
C) To create sound over dead spaces in the body
D) To create vibration in a body wall
Ans: D
Feedback:
The principle of percussion is to set the chest wall or abdominal wall into vibration by striking it with a firm object. Percussion is not limited to dead spaces or the abdomen. The body does not "create" the sounds resulting from percussion; sound is referred from striking the surface of the body.
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