The patient is brought to the emergency department with possible injury to his shoulder.To help determine the degree of injury,what should the nurse evaluate?

A) The patient's gait.
B) The patient's range of motion.
C) Fine motor coordination.
D) Activity tolerance.

Evaluating range of motion is one assessment technique used to determine the degree of damage or injury to a joint.Gait is the manner or style of walking;it may have little bearing on the shoulder damage.Assessing fine motor coordination would be beneficial in helping to assess the patient's ability to perform tasks but would not help in evaluating the shoulder.Activity tolerance refers to the type and amount of exercise or activity a person is able to perform.Damage to the shoulder would affect this,but this would not have a direct bearing on the amount of damage done to the shoulder.