Chapter 11: Caring, Communicating, and Managing with Technology

Test Bank

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. A nurse manager was orienting new staff members to computerized charting. To understand computerized charting, staff members must understand informatics. The three core concepts in informatics are:
a. Hardware, software, and printers.
b. Data, information, and knowledge.
c. Decision making, data gathering, and reporting.
d. Wireless technology, voice recognition, and handheld devices.

ANS: B
Informatics is the application of technology to all fields of nursing to facilitate and extend nurses’ decision-making abilities and to support nurses in the use, storage, and linkage of clinical information to provide effective and efficient patient care.

REF: Pages 208, 209 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

2. The nursing manager of a surgical unit has been asked by administration to evaluate client outcomes post cardiac catheterization. Using data about client outcomes post cardiac catheterization for the past 6 months so as to modify practice is an example of:
a. Information.
b. Cost-effective care.
c. Meeting standards.
d. Evidence-based practice.

ANS: D
Evidence-based practice is a systematic approach to clinical decision making; to provide the most consistent and best possible care to patients in this scenario, evidence is being used to support care for patients post cardiac catheterization.

REF: Page 211 TOP: AONE competency: Knowledge of Healthcare Environment
3. Mr. Cruiser has been surfing the web. He is looking for healthcare information on low back pain. He shows the clinic nurse a Webpage he thinks is great and tells her that he has been following the exercises recommended by the author. He wants to know what she thinks about the site. When the clinic nurse evaluates this site, she discovers that its author is a personal trainer. No credentials are listed. In several testimonials on the page, people (their pictures are included) say how wonderful they feel after having done these exercises. The exercises all have animated demos when you click on the pertinent highlighted text or icon. They seem easy to follow. The site was posted five years earlier and was last updated three years before. The clinic nurse advises Mr. Cruiser to:
a. Avoid this site.
b. Check with his primary healthcare provider.
c. Continue with the exercises.
d. Contact the author for additional exercise and feedback.

ANS: A
Not all information that appears on the Internet is reliable or credible, and patients need coaching as to how to use and decipher information that is available through the Internet. In this situation, the provider on the site lacks credibility because no credentials are listed, and the information is not current.

REF: Pages 219, 220 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

4. A nurse practitioner who manages his own practice offers his clients the option of contacting him via e-mail between visits. This allows his clients to request prescription renewals and educational materials and to ask nonemergency questions about their conditions. At times, this is convenient for both the clients and himself. Additionally, he should tell his clients that they:
a. Can send urgent messages.
b. Should wait up to 24 hours for a response from him.
c. Should omit sending their names because they are in the e-mail addresses.
d. Can ask about sensitive topics because no one sees the e-mails but himself.

ANS: B
The provider has a responsibility to inform the patient as to when a response might be expected.

REF: Page 208 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

5. The clinic nurse has just accessed a client’s chart on the computer. The resident comes over and asks her to stay logged on because he needs to add a note to that client’s chart. She should say:
a. “No problem. Just log me off when you’re done.”
b. “I’ll put the note in for you. What do you want to say?”
c. “Just make sure that you sign your note because it’s under my password.”
d. “I’m sorry, but you will have to enter the information using your own password.”

ANS: D
Passwords must be protected to guard against unauthorized access to patient information and intrusion of privacy.

REF: Pages 222, 223 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

6. A home health nurse has been assigned to cover a 300-square-mile area of remote Montana. Mrs. Baker has just been discharged home and will need daily contacts for the next week. Because it is not possible to visit Mrs. Baker in person every day and see all of the other clients, the nurse gives her a laptop computer with net meeting software installed. Each morning, both dial in at an agreed-upon time and discuss her progress. The home health nurse assesses whether or not the client needs to be seen that day. This type of technology is called:
a. Distance learning.
b. Knowledge software.
c. Telecommunications.
d. Biomedical technology.

ANS: C
Telecommunications facilitate clinical oversight and provision of health care at a distance via telephone, remote monitoring, and the Internet.

REF: Pages 219, 220
TOP: AONE competency: Knowledge of Healthcare Environment

7. At a newly built outpatient surgical center, an integrated information system has been purchased. The chief nursing officer creates a series of staff development classes to orient the staff to this new system. One of the advantages of an integrated information system is that client-care data from all sites can be stored in and retrieved from a:
a. Nursing information system.
b. Centralized database.
c. Nurse expert system.
d. Handheld device.

ANS: B
Patient information in a centralized database is organized, legible, and easily retrievable from a variety of sources and reflects a variety of data.

REF: Pages 201, 202 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

8. Nurses need to know how to operate a computer, compare data across time, and look for patterns in client responses to treatments. These are examples of:
a. JCAHO standards.
b. Information systems.
c. Informatics competencies.
d. Requirements for nursing licensure.

ANS: C
Nurses must utilize hospital database management, decision support, and expert system programs to access information and analyze data from disparate sources for use in planning for patient care processes and systems.

REF: Pages 208, 209 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

9. The chief nursing officer understands that to be able to compare data across client populations and sites, it is important that nurses use:
a. Similar settings.
b. Information systems.
c. Knowledge systems.
d. Structured nursing languages.

ANS: D
Structured nomenclature, such as the NANDA nursing diagnoses, enables comparison of data across patient populations and sites and is important in the retrieval of meaningful comparison data from an information system.

REF: Pages 202, 203 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills

10. Leaders in nursing must advocate for information and knowledge systems that support nursing practice. This is best accomplished by:
a. Participating in organizational information technology committees.
b. Submitting written requests for needed information systems.
c. Requesting budgetary funds needed for systems.
d. Sending staff nurses to conferences that discuss cutting-edge technologies.

ANS: A
The nurse manager must recognize the utility of nursing involvement in the planning, design, choice, and implementation of information systems in the practice environment.

REF: Pages 222, 223 TOP: AONE competency: Business Skills