The nurse is instructing nursing assistant personnel (NAP) about caring for a patient with bilateral plaster long leg casts. Which activity can the nurse delegate to NAP?

Question

a. Use a warm blow dryer to assist in drying the cast faster.
b. Hold the bed linens away from the pa-tient's cast until it is dry.
c. Position the patient's legs above his or her heart level.
d. Teach the patient how to identify potential indicators of infection.

Answer 1

C
The patient's legs should be positioned above the level of the patient's heart. Warm air from a blow dryer dries the cast from the outside, which is counterproductive. The cast must dry from inside to outside. Linens are not placed over the cast until it is completely dry. The nurse retains responsibility for turning a patient with an incompletely dry hip spica cast because the task re-quires critical thinking and nursing judgment. While turning or repositioning the patient, the nurse must maintain proper bone and cast alignment to allow the cast to dry and provide effective therapy. The nurse instructs the NAP about clinical indicators of infection for a patient in a hip spica cast, including fever and foul odors.