Final answer:
Damage to Wernicke's area results in receptive aphasia, where clients have an inability to comprehend spoken words despite being able to produce speech sounds.
Step-by-step explanation:
A client who has experienced a stroke resulting in damage to Wernicke's area is likely to exhibit receptive aphasia, which is the loss of the ability to understand received language, such as spoken or written words. Therefore, among the options provided, the clinical manifestation a nurse should monitor for is 'a. Inability to comprehend spoken words' as this is the hallmark symptom of damage to Wernicke's area.
Wernicke's area, located in the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere (which is typically the left hemisphere), is crucial for the comprehension of speech. Damage to this area does not affect the ability to produce sounds or vocalize, but it seriously affects the capacity to make sense of the words being heard or read.