The nurse cares for a patient twelve hours after left lower leg amputation. The nurse medicates the client for pain before instituting which of the following actions?

Patients with amputations need early ambulation for good post-surgical results. Encourage deep breathing more frequently than every four hours. By 12 hours, the dressing has probably already been changed at least once, and the first dressing change after surgery is always done by or directly ordered by the surgeon.