A patient is exhibiting a lack of coordination, clumsy movements, and an unbalanced gait. What term should the nurse use when documenting these observations?
1. flaccidity
2. paralysis
3. hemiparesis
4. ataxia
Correct Answer: 4
Ataxia is characterized by a lack of coordination, clumsy movements, and an unbalanced gait. Flaccidity is a reduction in muscle tone associated with disease or trauma of the lower motor neurons and early stroke. Paralysis and hemiparesis are abnormal conditions in which movement does not occur at all in a part or is impaired.
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