The nurse is caring for an 8-year-old child who has several bruises of varying colors (some red, some bluish-green, and some brownish-yellow) the size of a hand on the buttocks. What action should the nurse take next?

A) Notify the child's caregivers of the findings.
B) Document that the bruises appear to be caused by spanking.
C) When the child is alone, ask "How did you get these sore areas on your butt?"
D) Inform the child "You can tell me who did this to you and we will not allow them to see or hurt you again."

If a child is verbal, a history should be obtained away from the caregivers through open-ended questions or spontaneous statements. Keeping the question short and using age-appropriate language and familiar words can help enrich the history taking. Children older than 11 years can generally be expected to provide a history at the level of most adults. The nurse should not confront the caregivers, as they may be the abusers. Documentation of finding should be objective, thorough, and unbiased; thus, the nurse should not document that the bruises appear to be caused by spanking. Children, even if abused by their caregivers, are usually afraid to be separated from their caregivers or get them into trouble, so if the nurse tells the child that they will not allow the person who did this to the child to see the child again, the child is very unlikely to admit it was the caregiver(s).