Answer to Question 1
B
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A Incorrect. This is a reasonable strategy to use and should facilitate communica-tion with this man; however, the nurse's position can be irrelevant if the noise level is too high and the message is difficult to hear.
B Correct. Although the elder wears a hearing aid, the nurse speaks to the elder in a quiet location. Reducing the ambient noise facilitates communication because it can interfere with the hearing of a person with a hearing loss. In addition, some hearing aids function poorly with high levels of ambient noise.
C Incorrect. Verifying information is a reasonable strategy for a person with a hearing impairment, but if the elder simply cannot hear the message, the nurse fails in communicating effectively.
D Incorrect. This is also a reasonable strategy for an elder with a hearing impair-ment but not the most important one for this elder.
Answer to Question 2
B
With no clues about the cause of the fatigue, the nurse helps this older adult balance exercise and rest to help alleviate fatigue. The fatigue can be due to decreased physical activity that, in turn, is due to pain from the OA, in which case a balance of exercise and rest should help attenuate the effects of the pain from the OA. This older adult has no indicators of depression except for fati-gue. Although a balance of rest and exercise can help relieve depressive symptoms, exercise is not an effective therapy for severe depression. Decreasing physical exercise is likely to contribute to fatigue and deconditioning. Fatigue is an unusual characteristic of OA.
