Nokea
A care conference has been organized for a patient with complex medical and psychosocial needs. When applying the principles of critical thinking to this patients care planning, the nurse should most exemplify what characteristic?
- A. Willingness to observe behaviors
- B. A desire to utilize the nursing scope of practice fully
- C. An ability to base decisions on what has happened in the past
- D. Openness to various viewpoints
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Willingness and openness to various viewpoints are inherent in critical thinking; these allow the nurse to reflect on the current situation. An emphasis on the past, willingness to observe behaviors, and a desire to utilize the nursing scope of practice fully are not central characteristics of critical thinkers.
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A student nurse has been assigned to provide basic care for a 58-year-old man with a diagnosis of AIDS-related pneumonia. The student tells the instructor that she is unwilling to care for this patient. What key component of critical thinking is most likely missing from this students practice?
- A. Compliance with direction
- B. Respect for authority
- C. Analyzing information and situations
- D. Withholding judgment
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Key components of critical thinking behavior are withholding judgment and being open to options and explanations from one patient to another in similar circumstances. The other listed options are incorrect because they are not components of critical thinking.
An elderly patient is admitted to your unit with a diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia. During admission the patient states, I have a living will. What implication of this should the nurse recognize?
- A. This document is always honored, regardless of circumstances.
- B. This document specifies the patients wishes before hospitalization.
- C. This document that is binding for the duration of the patients life.
- D. This document has been drawn up by the patients family to determine DNR status.
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: A living will is one type of advance directive. In most situations, living wills are limited to situations in which the patients medical condition is deemed terminal. The other answers are incorrect because living wills are not always honored, they are not binding for the duration of the patients life, and they are not drawn up by the patients family.
A nurse has been using the nursing process as a framework for planning and providing patient care. What action would the nurse do during the evaluation phase of the nursing process?
- A. Have a patient provide input on the quality of care received.
- B. Remove a patients surgical staples on the scheduled postoperative day.
- C. Provide information on a follow-up appointment for a postoperative patient.
- D. Document a patients improved air entry with incentive spirometric use.
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: During the evaluation phase of the nursing process, the nurse determines the patients response to nursing interventions. An example of this is when the nurse documents whether the patients spirometry use has improved his or her condition. A patient does not do the evaluation. Removing staples and providing information on follow-up appointments are interventions, not evaluations.
A nurse has been offered a position on an obstetric unit and has learned that the unit offers therapeutic abortions, a procedure which contradicts the nurses personal beliefs. What is the nurses ethical obligation to these patients?
- A. The nurse should adhere to professional standards of practice and offer service to these patients.
- B. The nurse should make the choice to decline this position and pursue a different nursing role.
- C. The nurse should decline to care for the patients considering abortion.
- D. The nurse should express alternatives to women considering terminating their pregnancy.
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: To avoid facing ethical dilemmas, nurses can follow certain strategies. For example, when applying for a job, a nurse should ask questions regarding the patient population. If a nurse is uncomfortable with a particular situation, then not accepting the position would be the best option. The nurse is only required by law (and practice standards) to provide care to the patients the clinic accepts; the nurse may not discriminate between patients and the nurse expressing his or her own opinion and providing another option is inappropriate.
During report, a nurse finds that she has been assigned to care for a patient admitted with an opportunistic infection secondary to AIDS. The nurse informs the clinical nurse leader that she is refusing to care for him because he has AIDS. The nurse has an obligation to this patient under which legal premise?
- A. Good Samaritan Act
- B. Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC)
- C. Patient Self-Determination Act
- D. ANA Code of Ethics
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The ethical obligation to care for all patients is clearly identified in the first statement of the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses. The Good Samaritan Act relates to lay people helping others in need. The NIC is a standardized classification of nursing treatment that includes independent and collaborative interventions. The Patient Self-Determination Act encourages people to prepare advance directives in which they indicate their wishes concerning the degree of supportive care to be provided if they become incapacitated.