Exam 4: Managerial Decision Making

Which of these concepts is key to refining clinical judgment capabilities?

A family member of a patient files a complaint that her mother's dentures were lost when the patient was transferred from one unit to another. The risk management department interviews the patient and the staff nurses who cared for the patient. Which of the following problem-solving techniques was used?

Effective managers utilize a wide array of data in making decision. Which of these techniques is used to build process improvement models?

The nurse in a medical-surgical unit is working short-staffed due to a sick call. Which of these is an example of prioritization?

The decision support department has been asked to create balanced scorecards for each nursing unit. Nurse managers work with decision support on the data elements which will be useful in assessing financial, quality, and other measures in order to improve what?

What is the definition of the process of making choices that will provide maximum benefit?

Which of these clinical decisions poses the greatest risk for committing an error?

A team consisting of preoperative, operative, and postoperative health care professionals and ancillary staff is examining the turnaround time from the preoperative area to discharge for patients having tonsillectomies. The goal is to decrease waiting times for clients. The team comes up with a solution and wants to test it on a small group of patients before rolling it out to the rest of the department. What type of decision-making tool is exhibited?

An intravenous infusion center is considering switching intravenous pumps to another vendor. A team of nurses is gathered to examine the benefits and uses and to conduct a cost analysis of various intravenous pumps. After thoroughly reviewing the data and piloting several intravenous pumps, the team votes to determine which pumps to use. The nurses selected the pump which provides them with the most safeguards for safe infusion delivery. Which type of decision-making tool was used in this process?

.The nurse manager is dealing with a situation between two nurses who disagree on patient assignments. The nurse manager decides to allow the two nurses to work out their differences between themselves because the patient needs and the needs of the unit are being met. After the situation is resolved, the nurse manager praises the two nurses for making autonomous decisions about staffing. What will be the likely outcome of praising the nurses in this situation?

A nurse manager has ordered equipment for a new unit. The company has sent two notices that the equipment is on back order. The nurse manager is debating whether to wait for the equipment on back order or to cancel the order and go with another company. She discusses this issue with another nurse manager and they determine that the equipment is urgent for patient safety in the new unit. The manager orders the necessary equipment from another company even though it is slightly more expensive. This is an example of:

A long-term care facility has been busy for several months with patients who have a very high acuity. Nurses have been working double shifts. The nurses have been given the task of determining whether they would like to implement an on-call program and determine guidelines for implementation, if most nurses believe that it is the best solution. This example depicts which type of decision-making tool?

Which of the following scenarios is an example of clinical reasoning?

What is the final step in the clinical reasoning process?

A patient has arrived at the critical care unit with a head injury. On admission, the patient is talking and is a little drowsy but oriented. Two hours later, the nurse discovers that the patient is talking at a rapid pace and keeps repeating his words. When the nurse recognizes the change and deploys the rapid response team and physician, which skill is being demonstrated?

Two cognitive processes that nurses use in clinical reasoning include: (Select all that apply.)

Utilizing the DECIDE acronym for the process of decision making, what are the first and final steps in the process? (Select all that apply.)

A multidisciplinary team makes a decision to develop a plan for the use of thrombolytics in the emergency medical service system. Questions are asked such as, "Is the client a candidate for thrombolytic therapy? Does the client have a history of gastrointestinal bleeding? Has the client ever had a stroke? Does the client have any bleeding disorders?" Which of the following decision-making strategies would work best in this situation?

A client becomes confused after surgery. He is in a room farthest away from the nurses' station. The client tries to get out of bed several times during the shift. The nurse informs the physician and obtains an order for soft restraints. In addition she moves the client close to the station and assigns a sitter to watch him. Which of the following did the nurse utilize? (Select all that apply.)

Nurses working on the intermediate care unit have had many hours of overtime in the last 6 months. Before forming a team, the nurse manager gathers data about patient condition severity, staffing ratios, educational levels of staff, and personality mixes on each shift. What level of decision making is this process?