Answer to Question 1
B, C
When communicating with the patient, the nurse should maintain a comfortable personal distance, which is typically 18 inches to 4 feet. This distance facilitates sharing of feelings or personal thoughts and communicating caring or concern. The nurse would also carefully assess verbal and nonverbal cues for indications of a language barrier. Patients having lower language comprehension or fluency might indicate understanding with nods or words of affirmation, although they might not understand all that the nurse is saying. Making direct eye contact in Western culture is widely acceptable; however, this may not be so in other cultures. Use direct eye contact only when doing so is culturally appropriate. Additionally, the nurse needs to assess for privacy concerns. During the assessment period, the nurse must consider the presence of others and patient privacy. Do not assume that because family members are present that they are privy to confidential patient information. Patients typically are most comfortable in a private setting. Abruptly changing the topic of discussion makes you seem uninterested.
Answer to Question 2
B, D, E
Effective messages are complete, clear, concise, organized, timely, and expressed in a manner that the receiver can understand. The message must be appropriate for the situation and for the developmental level, not age level, of the person receiving the message. Although the message should be clear and concise, this does not mean that it should be short and simple depending on what needs to be communicated. Nonverbal behaviors (e.g., facial expression, hand and body gestures, posture, movement, touch) emphasize and clarify the spoken word.