Deck 12: Communicating With Families

Question 1

Which of the following describes the dyad family unit?

A) A father and mother with one or more children living together.
B) Second- and third-generation members related by blood or marriage but not living together.
C) Divorced, never married, separated, or widowed male or female and at least one child.
D) Husband and wife or other couple living alone without children.

Answer 1

Husband and wife or other couple living alone without children.

Question 2

When performing an assessment that focuses on a set of standardized connections to graphically record basic information about family members and their relationships over three generations, the nurse uses

A) an ecomap.
B) a gendergram.
C) family time lines.
D) a genogram.

Answer 2

a genogram.

Question 3

A family systems theory that conceptualizes the family as an interactive emotional unit in which family members assume reciprocal family roles, develop automatic communication patterns, and react to each other in predictable, connected ways, particularly when family anxiety is high, was created by

A) Evelyn Duvall.
B) Murray Bowen.
C) McCubbin & McCubbin.
D) Salvador Minuchin.

Answer 3

Murray Bowen.

Question 4

When focusing on family interrelationships and the impact a serious health alteration has on individual family members and the equilibrium of the family system, the nurse should use

A) equifinality.
B) diffuse boundaries.
C) circular questions.
D) morphostasis.

Question 5

Regardless of how uniquely they are defined, strong emotional ties and durability of membership characterize

A) family function.
B) family process.
C) family relationships.
D) family ecomap.

Question 6

The nurse is caring for a patient who is extremely dependent on the approval of others, causing them to discount their own needs. The nurse recognizes that the patient is demonstrating

A) self-differentiation.
B) emotional cutoff.
C) poor self-differentiation.
D) rigid boundaries.

Question 7

The home health nurse is visiting a family who is having difficulty coping. The family has a 2-month-old malnourished child whom they are feeding diluted formula along with rice cereal. The parents of the child are unemployed and are unable to pay their monthly expenses. The father of the child complains of not being able to find a job, while the mother of the child accuses him of not even trying to find employment. Which of the following techniques would be most helpful for the nurse to use in this situation?

A) Linear questioning
B) Interventive questioning
C) Circular questioning
D) Encouraging their coping style
E) Identifying family strengths

Question 8

When interviewing the family of a patient who is suffering from alcoholism, the communication technique used by the nurse is called circular questioning. The advantage of this technique is that it

A) examines relationships.
B) aids the nurse in establishing a diagnosis.
C) focuses on the equilibrium of the family system.
D) helps the nurse gain specific information.

Question 9

When performing an admission assessment on a patient, the nurse asks about sibling position based on the knowledge that sibling position can shape relationships and influence a person's expression of behavioral characteristics. The concept that each sibling position has its own strengths and weaknesses is based on the work of:

A) Murray Bowen.
B) Walter Toman.
C) Medalie & Cole-Kelly.
D) McCubbin & McCubbin.

Question 10

The nurse-family relationship in patient care depends on what type of relationship between the nurse and the family?

A) A dependent relationship
B) A relationship that begins informally
C) A reciprocal relationship
D) A relationship that promotes inequality between the nurse and family

Question 11

Which of the following is a true statement when comparing biological and blended families?

A) In biological families, rules are varied and complicated.
B) A blended family is born of loss.
C) In biological families, there are multiple sets of rules.
D) In blended families, traditions are shared.

Question 12

When interviewing the family of a patient newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the nurse's primary goal is to help the family members sort out their personal fears and identify family strengths through the use of

A) interventive questioning.
B) genogram.
C) ecomap.
D) offering commendations.

Question 13

When caring for patients, it is important for the nurse to understand that

A) treatment plans should be tailored around personal family goals.
B) meaningful involvement in the patient's care will be consistent among family members.
C) the nurse should listen to only immediate family members when considering implications for family involvement.
D) individual family members have different perspectives.

Question 14

The nurse is caring for a patient who reports having marital difficulties. When experiencing heightened anxiety related to his health issues, the patient chooses to discuss his feelings with a female friend rather than with his spouse. The nurse recognizes the patient's actions as a defensive way of reducing, neutralizing, or defusing heightened anxiety known as

A) systems' thinking.
B) triangles.
C) feedback loops.
D) multigenerational transmission.

Question 15

The nurse is designing therapeutic interventions for a family whose child is hospitalized with a terminal condition. The nurse recognizes that nursing actions that can be offered to the family that can promote positive change in family functioning include which of the following?

A) Encouraging the telling of illness narratives
B) Commending family on individual strengths
C) Offering information and opinions
D) Discouraging the use of respite care

Question 16

When the nurse cares for a patient with a terminal illness, a question that the nurse can ask the patient's family to elicit information about family strengths is

A) "Who best understands what the doctors have told you?"
B) "What has the family been doing so far that is helpful?"
C) "Who is most uncomfortable at the bedside?"
D) "Who is now taking care of the house?"