Key Concepts
Overview
Maintaining mobility is a core nursing function. Immobility causes rapid, devastating complications across every body system. The PN is directly responsible for: safe patient handling and transfers, range-of-motion exercises, assistive device education, and prevention of immobility complications. These topics are consistently tested on NCLEX-PN. Immobility consequences (the PN prevents ALL of these): - Musculoskeletal: muscle atrophy (2% muscle mass lost per day of bedrest), contractures, disuse osteoporosis - Cardiovascular: orthostatic hypotension, DVT (venous stasis), decreased cardiac output - Respiratory: hypostatic pneumonia, atelectasis (reduced tidal volume in supine position) - GI: constipation, paralytic ileus - GU: UTI (urinary stasis), renal calculi - Skin: pressure injuries - Psychological: depression, confusion, loss of independence On the exam, writers often pair stable-sounding options with unstable dataโnotice the mismatch before you commit. If the stem names a license or role, reread that line; scope errors are classic trap answers even when the clinical topic is familiar. Run a 60-second scan: breathing work and oxygenation, perfusion and end organs, neuro baseline, likely infection sources, and devices that can fail quietly. When two answers feel partly right,...