Nokea
A pediatric nurse is emotionally distraught by the death of a 9-year-old girl who received care on the unit over the course of many admissions spanning several years. What action is the most appropriate response to the nurses own grief?
- A. Take time off from work to mourn the death.
- B. Post mementos of the patient on the unit.
- C. Solicit emotional support from the patients family.
- D. Attend the patients memorial service.
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: In many settings, staff members organize or attend memorial services to support families and other caregivers who find comfort in joining each other to remember and celebrate the lives of patients. Taking time off should not be necessary and posting mementos would be inappropriate. It would be highly inappropriate to solicit emotional support from the patients family during their time of loss.
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A patient who is receiving care for osteosarcoma has been experiencing severe pain since being diagnosed. As a result, the patient has been receiving analgesics on both a scheduled and PRN basis. For the past several hours, however, the patients level of consciousness has declined and she is now unresponsive. How should the patients pain control regimen be affected?
- A. The patients pain control regimen should be continued.
- B. The pain control regimen should be placed on hold until the patients level of consciousness improves.
- C. IV analgesics should be withheld and replaced with transdermal analgesics.
- D. The patients analgesic dosages should be reduced by approximately one half.
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Pain should be aggressively treated, even if dying patients become unable to verbally report their pain. There is no need to forego the IV route. There is no specific need to discontinue the pain control regimen or reduce dosages.
A hospice nurse is well aware of how difficult it is to deal with others pain on a daily basis. This nurse should put healthy practices into place to guard against what outcome?
- A. Inefficiency in the provision of care
- B. Excessive weight gain
- C. Emotional exhaustion
- D. Social withdrawal
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Well before the nurse exhibits symptoms of stress or burnout, he or she should acknowledge the difficulty of coping with others pain on a daily basis and put healthy practices in place that guard against emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is more likely to have deleterious effects than inefficiency, social withdrawal, or weight gain, though these may signal emotional exhaustion.
An adult oncology patient has a diagnosis of bladder cancer with metastasis and the patient has asked the nurse about the possibility of hospice care. Which principle is central to a hospice setting?
- A. The patient and family should be viewed as a single unit of care.
- B. Persistent symptoms of terminal illness should not be treated.
- C. Each member of the interdisciplinary team should develop an individual plan of care.
- D. Terminally ill patients should die in the hospital whenever possible.
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Hospice care requires that the patient and family be viewed as a single unit of care. The other listed principles are wholly inconsistent with the principles of hospice care.
A nurse who sits on the hospitals ethics committee is reviewing a complex case that has many of the hallmarks of assisted suicide. Which of the following would be an example of assisted suicide?
- A. Administering a lethal dose of medication to a patient whose death is imminent
- B. Administering a morphine infusion without assessing for respiratory depression
- C. Granting a patients request not to initiate enteral feeding when the patient is unable to eat
- D. Neglecting to resuscitate a patient with a do not resuscitate order
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Assisted suicide refers to providing another person the means to end his or her own life. This is not to be confused with the ethically and legally supported practices of withholding or withdrawing medical treatment in accordance with the wishes of the terminally ill individual. The other listed options do not fit this accepted definition of assisted suicide.
A patient has just died following urosepsis that progressed to septic shock. The patients spouse says, I knew this was coming, but I feel so numb and hollow inside. The nurse should know that these statements are characteristic of what?
- A. Complicated grief and mourning
- B. Uncomplicated grief and mourning
- C. Depression stage of dying
- D. Acceptance stage of dying
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Uncomplicated grief and mourning are characterized by emotional feelings of sadness, anger, guilt, and numbness; physical sensations, such as hollowness in the stomach and tightness in the chest, weakness, and lack of energy; cognitions that include preoccupation with the loss and a sense of the deceased as still present; and behaviors such as crying, visiting places that are reminders of the deceased, social withdrawal, and restless overactivity. Complicated grief and mourning occur at a prolonged time after the death. The spouses statement does not clearly suggest depression or acceptance.