The Nurse Doing Rounds at the Beginning of a Shift

The nurse doing rounds at the beginning of a shift notices a sputum specimen in a container sitting on the bedside table in a patients room. The nurse asks the patient when he produced the sputum specimen and he states that the specimen is about 4 hours old. What action should the nurse take?

A) Immediately take the sputum specimen to the laboratory.
B) Discard the specimen and assist the patient in obtaining another specimen.
C) Refrigerate the sputum specimen and submit it once it is chilled.
D) Add a small amount of normal saline to moisten the specimen.