Achieving adequate pain management for a postoperative patient will require sophisticated critical thinking skills by the nurse. What are the potential benefits of critical thinking in nursing?
- A. Enhancing the nurses clinical decision making
- B. Identifying the patients individual preferences
- C. Planning the best nursing actions to assist the patient
- D. Increasing the accuracy of the nurses judgments
- E. Helping identify the patients priority needs
Correct Answer: A,C,D,E
Rationale: Independent judgments and decisions evolve from a sound knowledge base and the ability to synthesize information within the context in which it is presented. Critical thinking enhances clinical decision making, helping to identify patient needs and the best nursing actions that will assist patients in meeting those needs. Critical thinking does not normally focus on identify patient desires; these would be identified by asking the patient.
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A nurse has begun creating a patients plan of care shortly after the patients admission. It is important that the wording of the chosen nursing diagnoses falls within the taxonomy of nursing. Which organization is responsible for developing the taxonomy of a nursing diagnosis?
- A. American Nurses Association (ANA)
- B. NANDA
- C. National League for Nursing (NLN)
- D. Joint Commission
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: NANDA International is the official organization responsible for developing the taxonomy of nursing diagnoses and formulating nursing diagnoses acceptable for study. The ANA, NLN, and Joint Commission are not charged with the task of developing the taxonomy of nursing diagnoses.
A medical nurse has obtained a new patients health history and completed the admission assessment. The nurse has followed this by documenting the results and creating a care plan for the patient. Which of the following is most important rationale for documenting the patients care?
- A. It provides continuity of care.
- B. It creates a teaching log for the family.
- C. It verifies appropriate staffing levels.
- D. It keeps the patient fully informed.
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: This record provides a means of communication among members of the health care team and facilitates coordinated planning and continuity of care. It serves as the legal and business record for a health care agency and for the professional staff members who are responsible for the patients care. Documentation is not primarily a teaching log; it does not verify staffing; and it is not intended to provide the patient with information about treatments.
The nurse admits a patient to an oncology unit that is a site for a study on the efficacy of a new chemotherapeutic drug. The patient knows that placebos are going to be used for some participants in the study but does not know that he is receiving a placebo. When is it ethically acceptable to use placebos?
- A. Whenever the potential benefits of a study are applicable to the larger population
- B. When the patient is unaware of it and it is deemed unlikely that it would cause harm
- C. Whenever the placebo replaces an active drug
- D. When the patient knows placebos are being used and is involved in the decision-making process
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Placebos may be used in experimental research in which a patient is involved in the decision-making process and is aware that placebos are being used in the treatment regimen. Placebos may not ethically be used solely when there is a potential benefit, when the patient is unaware, or when a placebo replaces an active drug.
The physician has recommended an amniocentesis for an 18-year-old primiparous woman. The patient is 34 weeks gestation and does not want this procedure. The physician is insistent the patient have the procedure. The physician arranges for the amniocentesis to be performed. The nurse should recognize that the physician is in violation of what ethical principle?
- A. Veracity
- B. Beneficence
- C. Nonmaleficence
- D. Autonomy
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The principle of autonomy specifies that individuals have the ability to make a choice free from external constraints. The physicians actions in this case violate this principle. This action may or may not violate the principle of beneficence. Veracity centers on truth-telling and nonmaleficence is avoiding the infliction of harm.
You have just taken report for your shift and you are doing your initial assessment of your patients. One of your patients asks you if an error has been made in her medication. You know that an incident report was filed yesterday after a nurse inadvertently missed a scheduled dose of the patients antibiotic. Which of the following principles would apply if you give an accurate response?
- A. Veracity
- B. Confidentiality
- C. Respect
- D. Justice
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: The obligation to tell the truth and not deceive others is termed veracity. The other answers are incorrect because they are not obligations to tell the truth.
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