PrepU - Professional Behaviors / Professionalism
What is the nurse's role in the informed consent process for a surgical procedure?
witnessing the signed informed consent document The nurse may witness the signed informed consent document. The health care provider will explain what takes place during the procedure, and provide benefits and risks. The client grants permission for surgery to be done.
Which scenario is an example of certification?
A nurse who demonstrates advanced expertise in a content area of nursing through special testing Certification is a voluntary process whereby a person who has met criteria established by a nongovernmental association is granted special recognition in a specified practice area. Licensure is granted by the state to a graduate of a nursing education program who passes the NCLEX-RN. Accreditation is a voluntary process by which a nursing education program is recognized as having met certain standards by the NLN Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation and/or the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The Joint Commission can also accredit health care agencies.
For nursing students to be successful in their educational endeavors, they must
Be actively involved with the material in the text It is essential for a nursing student to be able to read for meaning and understanding rather than for memorization and be actively involved with the text.
As the nurse prepares to administer a medication to a preschooler, the nurse realizes that the child is extremely underweight for age. What action would the nurse take?
Measure the child's height and weight, and check whether the dose is correct for the child. Before any medicine is administered, it should be confirmed that the dose is correct for the child's weight and height because of the great variability in these areas. Medication dosages can be prescribed by body weight and by body weight and height. The child's weight is always converted to kilograms. If the medication is prescribed by body weight the nurse would need to weigh the child. This measurement allows for the drugs to be prescribed by a 24 hour period (mg/kg/day) or by the dose (mg/kg/dose). If the weight and height are needed, the drugs are calculated by body surface area (BSA). This is plotted on a nomogram. This is used most often for chemotherapeutic drugs. The nurse should not adjust the dose or call the health care provider until the weight is obtained and the correct dosage needed is verified.
While reviewing the day's charts, a nurse who's been under a great deal of personal stress realizes that the nurse forgot to administer insulin to client with diabetes mellitus. The nurse has made numerous errors in the past few weeks and is now afraid this job is in jeopardy. What is the best course of action?
Report the error, complete the proper paperwork, and meet with the unit manager. Making an error can be very stressful and a nurse may feel great pressure to hide the mistake or not follow protocol. Discussing the problem with the unit coordinator may help the nurse address some of the underlying stress that led up to making the error. Nonetheless, the nurse must still report the error and complete the proper paperwork. The nurse should contact the physician and follow their instructions, but shouldn't bypass proper protocol.
The basis for building a strong, therapeutic nurse-client relationship begins with a nurse's:
self-awareness and understanding. The nurse must be self-aware and understand personal feelings before understanding and helping others. Although wanting to help others, accepting others, and being knowledgeable of psychiatric nursing are desirable traits, self-awareness and understanding are the basis of a therapeutic nurse-client relationship.
The student nurse asks the nursing instructor why nurses must be adept at understanding normal growth and development in children when providing care. How should the nursing instructor respond?
"By knowing normal growth and development, the nurse is able to identify problems in growth and development." The nurse must understand normal growth and development in order to identify children who are not meeting milestones. A child meeting milestones does not need further intervention. Understanding normal growth and development is important in applying the assessment findings when measuring height and weight of children, but will not assure the procedure is completed properly. Administering the correct dose of medication is vital and involves accurate knowledge of the medication and dosage.
A nurse educator is preparing to discuss immunodeficiency disorders with a group of fellow nurses. What would the nurse identify as the most common secondary immunodeficiency disorder?
AIDS AIDS, the most common secondary disorder, is perhaps the best-known secondary immunodeficiency disorder. It results from infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). DAF refers to lysis of erythrocytes due to lack of decay-accelerating factor (DAF) on erythrocytes. CVID is a disorder that encompasses various defects ranging from IgA deficiency (in which only the plasma cells that produce IgA are absent) to severe hypogammaglobulinemia (in which there is a general lack of immunoglobulins in the blood). Severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) is a disorder in which both B and T cells are missing.
The nurse is getting accustomed to the role of nurse manager. What are requirements for this nursing role? Select all that apply.
Evaluating the success of the unit policies Creating schedules for the unit Introducing methods to improve staff efficiency Managing the unit's operational budget The nurse manager is responsible for managing the unit's operational budget, improving staff efficiency, creating the schedule, and evaluating the effectiveness of unit policies. Staff nurses, not the nurse manager, are responsible for setting goals for individual clients in collaboration with the clients. The nurse manager should encourage teamwork by the staff at all times, not regulate how much of it the staff use.
The nurse manager calls a staff into a unit meeting to discuss patient satisfaction. During the meeting, several staff members assume control. The nurse manager does not intervene to regain control of the group. Which type of leadership style is the nurse embodying?
Laissez-faire Laissez-faire leadership style involves the leader relinquishing power or control to the group. Democratic leadership style involves sharing the decision making process and activities with others who have an interest. Autocratic leadership style involves assuming control over the decisions and activities of the group. Quantum leadership style involves seeing an organization and members as interconnected and collaborative. This style involves change as continually unfolding, and frequently incorporates technology.
A nurse reporting for the scheduled shift finds an assignment that includes the nurse's aunt, who was admitted during the night with a fractured hip. What should the nurse do in response to the client assignment?
Notify the supervisor and provide care until another nurse can be assigned to the client. The nurse should notify the supervisor of the relationship with the client and ask to be reassigned. If no other nurse is immediately available, the nurse should provide the necessary care until another nurse can assume responsibility for the aunt's care. The other answers are incorrect because the nurse may not be able to ensure that the therapeutic nurse-client relationship can be maintained when caring for a family member.
A nurse is performing a genital examination on a male client who develops an erection. Which action is the nurse's most appropriate intervention?
Reassure the client that this is a normal response and continue with the examination Emission and ejaculation, which constitute the culmination of the male sexual act, are a function of the sympathetic nervous system. Genital stimulation can produce erection. In the flaccid or detumescent state, sympathetic discharge through alpha-adrenergic receptors maintains contraction of the arteries that supply the penis and vascular sinuses of the corpora cavernosa and corpus spongiosum. Parasympathetic stimulation produces erection by inhibiting sympathetic neurons that cause detumescence and by stimulating the release of nitric oxide to effect a rapid relaxation of the smooth muscle in the sinusoidal spaces of the corpus cavernosum.
A client admitted to the mental health unit has exhibited physical behaviors that put him and others at risk. The nurse applies four-point restraints on the client without obtaining a physician's order or the client's consent. The nurse is at risk of being accused of what?
battery Battery is intentional and wrongful physical contact with a person that entails an injury or offensive touching. Performing treatment without permission or receiving informed consent from the client might constitute both assault and battery. Judgments of battery suits have been based on the application of restraints to confused clients. The other options do not meet the definition described in the question.
A nurse is acting inappropriately and has an odor of alcohol. This behavior breaches the principle of:
ethical conduct Ethical conduct dictates that a nurse act in a professional, safe, competent manner. Drinking alcohol while at work and behaving inappropriately breaches this principle. Beneficence is acting for the good of the client. Fidelity is keeping promises. Autonomy is respecting one's right to self-determination and making decisions. Although the nurse's intoxication will likely lead to breaches in the principles of beneficence, fidelity, and autonomy, there is no evidence of such breaches in these specific principles in this case.
A nurse is preparing to enter a client's room to perform wound care. The shift report revealed that this client has a tunneling wound in the sacral area that cannot be staged. The wound was also documented as having a foul odor. The nurse is nervous because the nurse has not often performed wound care on a complex wound. Using effective intrapersonal communication, this nurse should:
tell oneself to "remain calm" and remember that the nurse was trained to perform this skill. Intrapersonal communication, or self-talk, is communication within a person. This communication is crucial because it affects the nurse's behavior and can enhance or detract from positive interactions with the client and family. Understanding the importance of intrapersonal communication can also help the nurse work with clients and families whose negative self-talk affects their health and self-care abilities. Speaking directly to the client, a UAP, or charge nurse is interpersonal communication, not intrapersonal. This duty cannot be delegated to an UAP. The nurse should not ask the charge nurse to change the assignment but could ask for help in dealing with the complex wound.
