Question

1. an elderly patient has been bedridden for several days and has developed a pressure sore on their tailbone. to relieve pressure on this area, you would avoid the ______ position and alternate between ____ and ______ positions.

Explanation:

To solve this question about patient positioning for pressure sore relief, we analyze based on nursing (a subfield of Natural Science) knowledge:

• For a patient with a tailbone (sacral) pressure sore, the supine (lying on the back) position directly places pressure on the tailbone, so it should be avoided.
• To relieve pressure, we alternate between the left lateral and right lateral positions (side - lying), which shift pressure to the hips/shoulders and away from the tailbone.

Answer:

The first blank: supine
The second blank: left lateral
The third blank: right lateral

(Note: Answers may also use “dorsal recumbent” for supine, or “lateral (left)” and “lateral (right)” for the alternating positions, depending on terminology used, but the core concept is avoiding supine and using side - lying positions.)