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Chapter 3: Ethics, Legal Considerations, and Safety

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Chapter 3: Ethics, Legal Considerations, and Safety

10 problems · 0 figures

3-1 §3.RQ source ↗

What information is important for the nurse to recognize about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
  1. a.
    Client outcomes can be improved through the use of quality measures.
  2. b.
    Nurses are mandated to use the electronic health record in a meaningful way.
  3. c.
    Personal health information (PHI) should not be disclosed except on a need-to-know basis.
  4. d.
    This act expanded the Medicaid program by raising the federal poverty level.

Answer

C. Personal health information (PHI) should not be disclosed except on a need-to-know basis.
HIPAA set forth standards to protect sensitive health information from being disclosed without the consent or knowledge of the individual.

3-2 §3.RQ source ↗

What ethical principle refers to promoting potential benefits and decreasing potential harms when the nurse provides care to a client?
  1. a.
    Justice
  2. b.
    Nonmaleficence
  3. c.
    Autonomy
  4. d.
    Beneficence

Answer

D. Beneficence
Beneficence is the ethical principle that requires a nurse to “do good” and to act in ways that promote the health and well-being of their clients.

3-3 §3.RQ source ↗

What ethical principle is the nurse practicing when the nurse respects a client’s wish to choose a specific treatment?
  1. a.
    Justice
  2. b.
    Nonmaleficence
  3. c.
    Autonomy
  4. d.
    Beneficence

Answer

C. Autonomy
Autonomy means having the right to make one’s own health care decisions.

3-4 §3.RQ source ↗

What is a potential benefit to respecting a client’s autonomy in their health care decisions?
  1. a.
    Improves outcomes
  2. b.
    Decreases the likelihood of the client refusing treatment
  3. c.
    Removes harmful conditions
  4. d.
    Decreases the chance of the client denying their illness

Answer

A. Improves outcomes
Potential benefits of autonomy include improved outcomes, safety, decreased costs, improved self-confidence, and improved adherence to the care plan.

3-5 §3.RQ source ↗

A nurse is completing their eighth 12-hour shift in a row. Which item from the ANA Code of Ethics is the nurse at risk of violating?
  1. a.
    The nurse should practice with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of the clients.
  2. b.
    The nurse owes the same duty to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety.
  3. c.
    The nurse’s primary commitment is to the client, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population.
  4. d.
    The nurse collaborates with other health care professionals to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities.

Answer

B. The nurse owes the same duty to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety.
The nurse should own the duty of caring for self. This, in turn, will improve client safety when allowing oneself the self-care of time off.

3-6 §3.RQ source ↗

The nurse is caring for a client receiving medication for the treatment of high blood pressure. What term best describes the client’s report to the nurse of becoming dizzy and passing out after taking this medication?
  1. a.
    Anaphylaxis
  2. b.
    Allergic reaction
  3. c.
    Adverse drug reaction
  4. d.
    Adverse drug event

Answer

C. Adverse drug reaction
An adverse drug reaction is an undesired effect that occurs at normal doses of the drug.

3-7 §3.RQ source ↗

The nurse, caring for a client with a seizure disorder, was late in administering the antiseizure medication, resulting in the client having a seizure. What term best describes this event?
  1. a.
    Adverse drug reaction
  2. b.
    Allergic reaction
  3. c.
    Side effect
  4. d.
    Adverse drug event

Answer

D. Adverse drug event
An adverse drug event is client harm resulting from exposure to a drug. This is injury from a medication, a missed medication, or an inappropriately dosed medication.

3-8 §3.RQ source ↗

The nurse contacts a provider for a medication order, and the provider enters the order electronically from a remote computer. This is best described as what type of technology?
  1. a.
    Health information technology (HIT)
  2. b.
    Protected health information (PHI)
  3. c.
    Computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE)
  4. d.
    Electronic health record (EHR)

Answer

C. Computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE)
CPOE is the acronym for computerized prescriber order entry, also known as e-prescriber.

3-9 §3.RQ source ↗

The nurse recognizes that alerts have been placed into the electronic health record for what purpose?
  1. a.
    To improve the safety of the client
  2. b.
    To assist with communication with other providers
  3. c.
    To allow orders to be communicated to other departments
  4. d.
    To decrease the need for barcode scanning

Answer

A. To improve the safety of the client
Alerts (both soft alerts and hard alerts) are there to improve client safety.

3-10 §3.RQ source ↗

The nurse is reviewing orders just written by the health care provider. Which order would the nurse identify as being written correctly?
  1. a.
    Carvedilol .625 mg
  2. b.
    Carvedilol 0.625 mg daily
  3. c.
    Carvedilol 25.0 mg daily
  4. d.
    Carvedilol 1.250 mg daily

Answer

B. Carvedilol 0.625 mg daily
The correct order has a leading zero before the decimal point. A trailing zero should not be used.

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Problems and answers are adapted from Pharmacology for Nurses by Tina Barbour-Taylor, Leah Mueller (Sabato), Donna Paris and Dorie Weaver, OpenStax, and are used under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/pharmacology/pages/1-introduction. Illustrations: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This adaptation is released under the same licence, is non-commercial, and is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by OpenStax or Rice University.