A nurse is preparing to complete an admission assessment on a 2-year-old child. The child is sitting on the parent's lap. Which technique should the nurse implement to complete the physical exam?

A) Ask the parent to place the child in the hospital crib.
B) Take the child and parent to the exam room.
C) Perform the exam while the child is on the parent's lap.
D) Ask the child to stand by the parent while completing the exam.

The nurse should complete the exam while the child is on the parent's lap. For young children, particularly infants and toddlers, preserving parent-child contact is the best means of decreasing the need for or stress of restraint. The entire physical examination can be done in a parent's lap with the parent hugging the child for procedures such as an otoscopic examination. Placing the child in the crib, taking the child to the exam room, or asking the child to stand by the parent would separate the child from the parent and cause anxiety.