Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
Clinical Nursing Skills

Competency-Based Assessments

Clinical Nursing SkillsCompetency-Based Assessments

Competency-Based Assessments

1 .

Use the Braden Scale for predicting pressure sore risk to answer the following question.

Scenario: Ms. Fischer has just been admitted for rehabilitation after a stroke. She is experiencing paralysis on one side and has only begun rehab to walk again. The nurse performs her initial Braden assessment with the following findings:

  1. Sensory perception: she responds to verbal commands but cannot always tell staff when she is hurting or needs to be turned.
  2. Moisture: she sweats frequently and staff have to change her sheets regularly.
  3. Activity: she is chairfast at this time due to paralysis related to the stroke.
  4. Mobility: she is able to shift herself around in the bed or chair using unaffected arm and leg
  5. Nutrition: her appetite is good and she regularly finishes her meals plus snacks her family brings her.
  6. Friction and shear: she struggles with sliding down in the bed or chair and having difficulty righting herself; she is unable to lift her full weight when moving herself or being moved.

What is Ms. Fischer’s Braden Score? What is her level of risk?

2 .
Describe key points the nurse would teach the patient about wound management at home.
3 .
You are seeing a patient in a physician’s office one month after release from the hospital following a house fire in which the patient and one of their children were badly burned. They continue to experience psychological distress related to their burn and scarring and are worried about their child as well. Use the information about living with burn injury to identify two resources you might use to help them and provide links to the resources for your instructor.
4 .
Review the competency checklists for this chapter and have a peer or instructor assess your performance of the tasks. You can find the checklists on the Student resources tab of your book page on openstax.org.
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/clinical-nursing-skills/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/clinical-nursing-skills/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Jul 23, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.