Category:Nursing Skills and Procedures

Nursing Skills and Procedures covers the psychomotor competencies that nurses perform at the bedside every shift: wound care and dressing changes, urinary catheterization, specimen collection, enteral tube feeding, oxygen delivery, parenteral injections, and intravenous therapy. These are the hands-on tasks that turn a plan of care into actual patient outcomes. Every skill in this category has three inseparable parts: correct technique, the clinical judgment that decides whether the skill is indicated right now, and the assessment that follows to confirm the intervention worked and caused no harm.

For licensure exam purposes, this subject is heavily weighted because it sits at the intersection of several NCLEX Client Needs categories. Safety and Infection Control governs sterile versus clean technique, personal protective equipment, and sharps handling. Reduction of Risk Potential governs recognition of procedural complications such as infiltration, aspiration, air embolism, and catheter-associated infection. Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies governs injection route, site, needle selection, and intravenous administration. Basic Care and Comfort governs elimination, nutrition, and hygiene skills. A single test item about a Foley catheter can be scored against any of these, which is why exam questions rarely ask only "what is the next step" and often ask "what does the nurse do first" or "what finding requires immediate action."

The two licensure tracks share the same foundational technique but differ in scope. Practical and vocational nurses perform straight and indwelling catheterization, routine dressing changes on established wounds, tracheostomy care, tube feeding administration, oxygen device setup, and intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intradermal injections, and they collect and reinforce data within an established plan of care. Registered nurses additionally perform initial and ongoing comprehensive assessment, peripheral intravenous insertion, central venous access device care and dressing changes, blood product administration, complex and nonhealing wound management, and the prioritization decisions that determine which patient is seen first. Both tracks are accountable for knowing the boundary between them, because failing to escalate a finding to the registered nurse or provider is itself a practice error.

The pages in this category present the shared teaching content once, then split practice questions and flashcards by track so that each student drills at the complexity level their exam actually tests.