Editing Fundamentals of Nursing – RN Practice Questions (section)

==Question 3==
A registered nurse is writing a care plan for a patient recovering from a stroke with left sided weakness. Which statement is correctly written as an expected outcome?
# The nurse will ambulate the patient in the hallway twice daily.
# Impaired physical mobility related to left sided hemiparesis.
# The patient will transfer from bed to chair with a gait belt and one person assist by hospital day three.
# The patient will improve mobility as soon as possible.

'''Answer:''' 3. The patient will transfer from bed to chair with a gait belt and one person assist by hospital day three.

''Rationale:'' An expected outcome is patient centered, specific, measurable, realistic, and time limited. Option 3 names the patient behavior, the conditions, and a deadline. Option 1 describes a nursing intervention, not a patient outcome. Option 2 is a nursing diagnosis, which belongs to the analysis step rather than the planning step. Option 4 is not measurable and has no time frame, so it cannot be evaluated.