Week 3- Chapter 12- Power, Influence, Politics Flashcards
A nurse manager is encountering poor staff morale on her unit. While participating in a baccalaureate course the nurse manager learned that one of the reasons nurses lack power today is probably because of the past. In the early decades of the profession, nurses lacked power because:
a. Nurses freely chose to defer to physicians and administrators with more education.
b. Women were not socialized to exert power.
c. The first nursing licensure laws prohibited nurses from making most decisions.
d. Nurses astutely recognized the risks of grabbing too much power too soon.
B
Nurses who engage in infighting seek physician support against nursing colleagues, and avoid membership in nursing organizations:
a. Refuse to believe that they are acting like members of groups that suffer
socioeconomic oppression.
b. Do not understand how their failure to exercise power can limit the power of the whole profession.
c. Purposefully choose to exercise their power in the workplace through indirect means.
d. Suffer from learned helplessness as a result of abuse by powerful nurse executives.
ANS: B
Lack of understanding about the appropriate exercise of power affects internal and external relationships.
A nurse belongs to several professional organizations, serving on a provincial-level committee of one group and on two task forces at work. The nurse is committed to a range of health issues. This nurse exemplifies which level of political activism in nursing?
a. Gladiator.
b. Buy-in.
c. Self-interest.
d. Political sophistication.
D
A manager relies on his director of nursing (immediate supervisor) for advice about enrolling in graduate school to prepare for a career as a nurse executive. The director may exercise what kinds of power in the relationship with the manager in this advisory situation?
a. Expert, coercive, and referent.
b. Reward, connection, and information.
c. Perceived, expert, and connection.
d. Reward, referent, and connection.
ANS: C
Because the director is in a leadership role, he comes with knowledge or expertise that is required to assume a leadership role, giving him perceived and expert power. He has connection power inasmuch as an expert registered nurse (RN) he is probably well networked or connected to other professionals in the unit, facility, and organization.
During orientation of new nurse managers, the chief nursing officer stresses strategies that help nurse managers to achieve a powerful image. Which groups of behaviours best contribute to a powerful image for the nurse manager?
a. Greeting patients, families, and colleagues with a handshake and a smile; listening
carefully when problems arise.
b. For men, no facial hair, always wearing a suit and tie; for women, always wearing
a suit and high-heeled shoes.
c. Maintaining a soft voice during times of conflict; making unbroken eye contact during interactions.
d. Smiling all the time; always wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase; for women, wearing no jewellery.
ANS: A
A powerful and positive approach is communicated through confident behaviours such as greeting other people, smiling, and showing respect for the opinions of other people through listening.
Tomas, a new RN, is finding it difficult to practice because he is encountering, on a daily basis, differences between his learned ideals and what he is witnessing as nursing practice on the unit. This situation is an example of:
a. The theory-to-practice gap.
b. Transition shock.
c. An inadequately prepared nurse.
d. Ethical distress.
ANS: B
Entry into the workplace can cause a significant clash between learned ideals and actual nursing practice. Reality shock was the term originally coined, but the clash is now referred to as transition shock.
A nurse manager recognizes the need to expand her professional network as she begins a job search for a middle-management position. Which of the following actions is least likely to expand her job-searching network?
a. Reviewing her address book or card file for names and phone numbers of former
colleagues who are now in middle-management positions.
b. Making an appointment to meet with a former instructor from her graduate
program in nursing administration.
c. Making a long overdue return call to a former colleague who is now a chief nurse
executive.
d. Attending a state-level conference for nurse managers and executives and
attending informal luncheons and receptions.
ANS: C
Networking is the result of identifying, valuing, and maintaining relationships with a system of individuals who are sources of information, advice, and support. In this situation, the chief nurse executive and the nurse may not have a close or valued relationship in view of the length of time since their last communication, and so the executive may not be in the best position to provide support or advice.
A staff nurse asks the nurse manager for a few days off for personal reasons. The nurse manager turns in the request to the human resources office with a note indicating that the staff nurse has demonstrated excellent working skills and is a valued employee. The nurse manager has used the influence of her position to help this staff member. Influence is the process of:
a. Using power.
b. Empowering others.
c. Understanding power.
d. Moving past apathy.
A
- Which of the following accurately represents the concept of political activism?
a. Meghan, an emergency room supervisor, encourages staff to write letters to the local health board to protest closure of the emergency room and the loss of 30
full-time jobs.
b. Sarah refuses involvement in her professional organization, but is heavily involved
in the Little League organization to which her son belongs.
c. Because of her influential contributions to position papers on health care, Roberta
is asked to let her name stand for election as chair of the local organization of gerontology nurse practitioners who are lobbying for increased certification standards.
d. Sondra volunteers to run for office with her professional nursing association
because of her concern about the underrepresentation of expertise from her area of nursing practice.
ANS: D
In this situation, Sondra is engaged in professional activism at the provincial and/or national level, and therefore exemplifies the highest level of political activism. Roberta exhibits activism at the level of political sophistication, which involves holding office, for example, at the provincial or national level.
One day, at coffee, your coworker suggests that you and she sit with unit members of the hospital research committee. She suggests that this would be an excellent way to get to know people who share her interest in research. Her actions are an example of:
a. Mentorship.
b. Politics.
c. Networking.
d. Empowerment.
C
The workgroup on unit NU23 is marked by apathy toward the unit’s patients, high rates of absenteeism, open conflict among team members, and high turnover of personnel, including managers. The behaviours in this situation are caused by feelings of:
a. Powerlessness.
b. Anger.
c. Apathy.
d. Oppression.
A
During a unit meeting you notice that the unit manager, Vivian, presents the current scheduling problems and listens attentively when Yoon, an RN, is speaking, and offers support and advice when Yoon presents new ideas to the group that may alleviate current scheduling problems. You are surprised because Vivian has often confided that she does not like Yoon. Vivian’s behaviour is best described as:
a. Insincere.
b. Networking.
c. Politically sophisticated.
d. Facilitating participatory decision-making.
D
Which of the following interactions is most consistent with the idea of networking?
a. Meeting with the same colleagues daily to have coffee and to share concerns about
the workplace and stories about colleagues.
b. Joining an online workplace forum to gain ideas about how to handle workplace
conflict.
c. Suggesting that you and a new team member meet after work for coffee to review
unit guidelines.
d. Joining a nurse executive informal lunch meeting to meet other executives for
support and for sharing ideas of expertise.
D
Which of the following is an important component of demonstrating a positive professional attitude?
a. Knowledge.
b. Negotiation skills.
c. Powerful image.
d. Position power.
C
Amy has worked in the dialysis unit on staff for about 12 years. She is frequently consulted by other nursing staff about protocols and policies on the unit. What type of power is Amy using?
a. Position power.
b. Expert power.
c. Personal power.
d. Competency power.
ANS: B
According to the types of power described, Amy is most likely evidencing expert power in that she is being consulted about areas of knowledge and competency on the unit and is at the same level, potentially, in the hierarchy as her colleagues.
