Test 2 Practice Questions Flashcards
To reduce the incidence of falls in a skilled nursing unit, the nurse manager contacts the risk manager. Risk management is a process that attempts to identify potential
hazards and:
a. Compensate for previous injuries.
b. Eliminate these risks before anyone else is harmed.
c. Supersede the need for staff members to file incident reports.
d. Discipline staff members who have been involved in previous incident reports.
B: Eliminate these risks before anyone else is harmed.
A colleague asks you to give her your password access so that she can view her
partner’s healthcare record. This request violates the patient’s right to:
a. Privacy
b. Confidentiality.
c. Undue authorization of treatment.
d. Protection against slander.
A. Privacy
On your nursing unit, you employ LPNs, RNs, and advanced practice nurses.
You will need to be familiar with at least:
a. Two nursing practice acts.
b. Two nursing practice acts in most states.
c. At least one nursing practice act.
d. One nursing practice act and a medical act.
C. At least one nursing practice act
In all states, you will need to be familiar with at least one nursing practice act. In some states, there may be two nursing practice acts if RNs and LPNs/LVNs come under different licensing boards.
As a charge nurse, you counsel your RN staff member that he has satisfied his duty of care by notifying a child’s physician of his concerns about deterioration in the child’s status at 0330 hours. The physician does not come in. The child dies at 0630 hours. As the charge nurse, you could be held liable for:
a. Professional negligence.
b. Assault.
c. Avoidance.
d. Murder.
A. Professional negligence
Mr. M. complains to you that one of your staff asked him details about his sexual relationships and financial affairs. He says that these questions were probing and unnecessary to his care, but he felt that if he refused to answer, the nurse would be angry with him and would not provide him with good care. Mr. M.’s statements reflect concern with:
a. Privacy.
b. Confidentiality.
c. Veracity.
d. Informed consent.
A. Privacy
Privacy protection includes protection against unwarranted intrusion into the patient’s affairs.
To satisfy duty of care to a patient, a nurse manager is legally responsible for all
of the following except:
a. Notifying staff of changes to policies related to medication administration.
b. Scheduling and staffing to ensure safe care.
c. Delegating in accordance with practice acts.
d. Supervising the practice of the physician.
D: supervising the practice of the physician
Legally, the nurse manager is accountable to nursing practice standards, standards for nurse
administrators, and hospital policies and procedures.
While walking past a patient’s room, you overhear one of the RN staff telling a
patient that the patient has no right to refuse chemotherapy treatment because the family and the doctor think the treatment is the best option for the patient. This patient is 40 years of age and alert. When you meet later to discuss what you heard with the RN, it is important to:
a. Discuss how statute law enforces the right of the doctor, but not of families, to ensure that patients comply with recommended treatment plans.
b. Discuss that statute law provides for patient autonomy and refusal of treatment.
c. Remind the nurse to provide clearer explanations to aid in the patient’s comprehension of the treatment and compliance.
d. Acknowledge the nurse’s role in ensuring that she does not fail in her duty of care for the patient.
B: Discuss that statute law provides for patient autonomy and refusal of treatment.
With regard to nursing practice, nurse managers are held responsible for (select all that apply):
a. Practicing within legal guidelines established under state law and nurse practice acts
b. Ensuring that nursing staff under their supervision are currently licensed to practice.
c. Referring all errors in nursing judgment to state discipline boards.
d. Ensuring that physicians are properly licensed to provide care on patient care units.
A, B
Nurses are responsible for knowing and practicing under state law and nurse practice acts. Managers are responsible for monitoring staff practice and ensuring that staff hold current, valid
The risk manager informs the nurse manager of an orthopedic unit that her unit has had an increase in incident reports about patients falling during the 117 shift. The nurse manager knows that the best way to resolve the problem is to:
a. Use creativity.
b. Obtain support from the 73 shift.
c. Use institutional research.
d. Identify the problem.
D. Identify the problem
Several nurses on an adolescent psychiatric unit complain that the teens are becoming unmanageable on the 07001900 shift. To resolve this problem, the nurse manager decides that the staff should have a brainstorming session. The goal of brainstorming is to:
a. Evaluate problem solutions.
b. Critique the ideas of others.
c. Generate as many solutions as possible.
d. Identify only practical and realistic ideas.
C. Generate as many solutions as possible
During a fire drill, several psychiatric patients become agitated. The nurse manager quickly assigns a staff member to each patient. This autocratic decision style is most appropriate for:
a. Routine problems.
b. Crisis situations.
c. Managers who prefer a “telling” style.
d. Followers who cannot agree on a solution.
B: Crisis situations
After the nurses who work on an adolescent psychiatric unit have had a brainstorming session, they are ready to resolve the problem of teenagers who are unmanageable. To maximize group effectiveness in decision making and problem solving, the nurse manager has:
a. Prevented conflict.
b. Formed highly cohesive groups.
c. Used majority rule to arrive at decisions.
d. Encouraged equal participation among members.
D. Encouraged equal participation among members.
To solve a problem, the nurse manager understands that the most important problemsolving step is:
a. The implementation phase.
b. Identification of numerous solutions.
c. Accurate identification of the problem.
d. Evaluation of the effectiveness of problem resolution.
C. Accurate identification of the problem.
The nurse on the 7-7 shift is assigning a component of care to an unlicensed nursing personnel (UNP) employee. The night nurse should remain:
a. Accountable.
b. Responsible.
c. Authoritative and liable.
d. Responsible and taskoriented.
A. Accountable
The unit manager is working in a large metropolitan facility and is told that two UNPs are to be assigned to work with her. Delegation begins with:
a. Acknowledging the arrival of the second UNP on the unit.
b. Providing clear directions to both UNPs.
c. Matching tasks with qualified persons.
d. Receiving reports from the prior shift.
c. Matching tasks with qualified persons
The day shift nurse asks an LPN/LVN to complete a component of care for a client. The day shift nurse is engaging in what function?
a. Delegating
b. Assigning
c. Sharing
d. Authorizing
B. Assigning
Delegation refers to transfer of responsibility for work; the day shift nurse retains accountability for the outcomes of patient care.
With delegation, responsibility and accountability remain with the:
a. Physician.
b. Professional who delegates.
c. Individual who receives the delegation.
d. Individual who previously performed the task.
B. Professional who delegates
An RN colleague, who is a longstanding and collaborative member of your team, is performing a complex and novel dressing for the first time for the patient to whom she has been assigned. Which of the following would be the most appropriate communication with her?
a. “How do you usually do this kind of dressing?”
b. “The dressing needs to be done today and tomorrow with the supplies on this cart.”
c. “Here is what you need for the dressing, and I will show you what needs to be done”
d. “I know you know what you are doing. Let me know if you have any problems.”
C. “Here is what you need for the dressing, and I will show you what needs to be done”
Leslie, a UNP, transfers a patient while using improper technique. The patient is injured, and as a result, a suit is launched in which both Sarah (the delegator) and Leslie (the delegatee) are named. Sarah is named in the suit because she:
a. Retains accountability for the care of the patient.
b. Worked the same shift as Leslie.
c. Has passive accountability for delegation.
d. Retains accountability for the outcomes of care for the patient.
D. Retains accountability for the outcomes of care for the patient.
An example of a care activity that would likely not be delegated by an RN to a UNP is (select all that apply):
a. Teaching selfcatheterization to a patient with paraplegia who has limited English.
b. Basic care for a patient with a head injury who is rapidly deteriorating.
c. Onetoone observation with a suicidal patient.
d. Assessment of patients being admitted through the Emergency Department.
e. Basic hygienic care for a patient who is post MI and stable.
A, B, D
The nurse manager is aware that conflict is occurring on her unit; however, she is focused on preparing for a state health department visit, so she ignores the problem. A factor that can increase stress and escalate conflict is:
a. The use of avoidance.
b. An enhanced nursing workforce.
c. Accepting that some conflict is normal.
d. Managing the effects of fatigue and error.
A. The use of avoidance
Avoidance as a conflictmanagement style prolongs conflict and has a tendency to escalate conflict.
A nursing instructor is teaching a class on conflict and conflict resolution. She relates to the class that conflict in an organization is important, and that an optimal level of conflict will generate:
a. Creativity, a problemsolving atmosphere, a weak team spirit, and motivation of its workers
b. Creativity, a staid atmosphere, a weak team spirit, and motivation of its workers.
c. Creativity, a problemsolving atmosphere, a strong team spirit, and motivation for its workers
d. A bureaucratic atmosphere, a strong team spirit, and motivation for its workers.
C. Creativity, a problemsolving atmosphere, a strong team spirit, and motivation for its workers.
Factors that influence the ease with which conflict is resolved include all except
which of the following?
a. Level of interdependence of the parties
b. Interprofessional collaboration.
c. Expression of one’s own needs and ideas.
d. Avoidance of the issue or concern.
D. Avoidance of the issue or concern.
In trying to achieve MagnetTM status, the chief nursing officer establishes a shared governance model to help nurses experience job satisfaction. However, some nurses who have enjoyed working with less autonomy resist this change and begin to criticize and make rude comments about managers who embrace this model, as well as colleagues who support it. The comments are largely ignored because those who are making them are well established nurses who are often vocal about their displeasure with the organization. Organizational conflict is arising from which of the following?
a. Staffing practices
b. Increased participation in decision making
c. Allocation of resources
d. Tolerance of incivility
D. Tolerance of incivility
The education consultant for the hospital is presenting a workshop titled “Documentation: A Manager’s Responsibility.” Which of the following points would she not include in her PowerPoint presentation? Documentation:
a. Cannot be left to memory. A notation must be placed in the personnel file.
b. Should avoid discussion of the problem.
c. Should include what was done about the problem when it occurred.
d. Needs to include date, time, and place.
B. Should avoid discussion of the problem
During coffee and other breaks, Rosalie, the new RN, is shut out of conversations with the other staff. When she approaches other staff on the unit to ask questions, they turn and walk off in the other direction. The behavior of the staff is characteristic of:
a. Dislike.
b. Lack of trust in Rosalie’s abilities.
c. Horizontal violence.
d. Cultural incompetence.
C. Horizontal violence
The ability to transfer selected nursing activities in a given situation to a competent individual is known as:
a. Supervision.
b. Accountability.
c. Responsibility.
d. Legal authority
D. Legal Authority
Legal authority is the ability to transfer selected nursing activities in a given situation to a competent individual. Responsibility is the reliability, dependability, and obligation to accomplish work.