Deck 3: Decision-Making Process and Tools

Question 1

A nurse manager asks the staff members,"What causes low morale?" This is an example of which of the following?

A)Meditation
B)Keeping an ideas diary
C)Reverse brainstorming
D)Brainstorming

Answer 1

Reverse brainstorming

Question 2

A hospital planned to begin using a new computerized medication administration record.The hospital used an external consultant to act as a change agent and educate the staff.An advantage to using external consultants is that they:

A)Will devote more time to the problem
B)Are less costly
C)Have limited backgrounds
D)Bring new ideas and different perspectives to the situation

Answer 2

Bring new ideas and different perspectives to the situation

Question 3

The staff nurse is assessing the need for further teaching for a preoperative surgical client.Based on the steps of critical thinking,what is the nurse's first priority?

A)Identifying the problem
B)Developing a frame of reference
C)Identifying implications and consequences
D)Implementing inferences and conclusions

Answer 3

Identifying the problem

Question 4

Which of the following is an example of effective decision making?

A)Counseling an employee for taking off one sick day
B)Implementing changes before explaining them to the staff
C)Including staff from one shift to help make a decision
D)Implementing the decision that has been made

Question 5

An ad hoc committee was formed to collect data about the increase in absenteeism throughout the hospital.To ensure that this ad hoc committee functioned efficiently,the hospital limited the number of committee members to:

A)8
B)3
C)20
D)18

Question 6

The nursing home staff members were brainstorming about ways to keep one of the residents from walking into other residents' rooms uninvited.After they failed to agree on a solution,the nurse manager instructed the staff members to take a break for lunch.The nursing manager was practicing what phase of creative decision making?

A)Preparation
B)Incubation
C)Illumination
D)Verification

Question 7

Three charge nurses were assigned by the nurse manager to develop a method for keeping the crash cart stocked after each shift.What type of structure would best accomplish this assignment?

A)Task force
B)Ad hoc committee
C)Informal committee
D)Line committee

Question 8

The hospital holds weekly meetings of a nurse manager council that discuss identified problem areas and makes recommendations to a central council or administration.This is a form of:

A)Ad hoc committee
B)Informal committee
C)Shared governance council
D)Task force

Question 9

The nurse manager expected her staff to be able to log into evidence-based practice websites to update policies and procedures.This is an example of what element of reasoning?

A)Purpose or goal
B)Question at issue
C)Frame of reference
D)Empirical dimension

Question 10

Traditionally,a hospital cuts back on registered nurse staffing for budgetary reasons.The hospital chief executive officer (CEO)wanted to decrease the operating budget by reducing the number of travel nurses being used on the units.The nurse managers protested this decision loudly because they feared a resulting shortage of staff.The hospital CEO used what type of decision-making model?

A)Rational model
B)Bureaucratic model
C)Political model
D)Collegial model

Question 11

The nurse manager wants to ensure that consensus has been reached at the monthly staff meeting.Consensus occurs when the committee members agree that they can live with the decision even if it is not the decision they would prefer.One way for the nurse manager to help build consensus among the committee members is to:

A)Help them understand their responsibilities
B)Evaluate their work
C)Implement their decisions
D)Involve them in critical and creative thinking

Question 12

In the decision-making process,the nurse identifies a problem by:

A)Referring to the standards of practice
B)Using the nurse's own experience
C)Drawing on his or her education
D)Analyzing available information

Question 13

A staff nurse was asked by the nurse manager to be the charge nurse because of the staff nurse's long history of effective decision making.The staff nurse attributed her effective decision making to:

A)Minimal knowledge
B)The nurse manager's modeling of effective decision making
C)Good decision making by the physician
D)Supportive hospital personnel

Question 14

A staff nurse ridiculed another staff nurse's draft of the designs for new signs that were to be placed on the unit.The staff nurse who was ridiculing was demonstrating:

A)Objectivity
B)Ability to find problems
C)Negative attitude
D)Tolerance for complexity

Question 15

After a brainstorming session on how to implement a new staffing policy,the nurse manager decided to have the staff rank the suggestions in order of most preferred solution after considering whether each suggestion is practical,cost effective,efficient,and effective.Next,the staff prioritized the list,eliminated items,and added others.This is a form of:

A)Visual identification of relationships
B)Checklist method
C)Modeling
D)Self-interrogation checklist

Question 16

The nurse manager of the labor and delivery room sees the need to develop a new policy that allows members of the extended family into the delivery room.This policy change would have to be presented to the medical staff.What type of structure would the nurses use to develop the new policy?

A)Task force
B)Ad hoc committee
C)Formal committee
D)Line committee

Question 17

During a staff conference,the issue of mandatory in-service sessions was raised.The staff from the day shift wanted the in-service sessions to be held from 12:00 to 1:00 PM,so they could eat lunch together.Some of the newer staff members who worked nights remained silent.When it came time for the vote,the majority who worked days and evenings accepted the time for the in-service sessions.The night shift members did not promote this new schedule.This form of peer pressure is:

A)Consensus building
B)Groupthink
C)Ad hoc committee
D)Task force

Question 18

A staff nurse witnessed a hospital staff member who was finishing up the night shift stuff her pockets with extra rolls of tape.The hospital has a policy about unauthorized removal of supplies from the unit.The staff nurse reported the incident to the nurse manager.Instead of reporting the hospital staff member to the house supervisor,the nurse manager counseled the staff member in the nurse manager's office.This is an example of what type of ethical position?

A)Utilitarianism
B)Formalism
C)Egoism
D)Rule ethics

Question 19

The nurse manager put up a rotation schedule to ensure that the holidays would be covered.The manager scheduled a newly hired staff nurse for the same time slot as a nurse who had seniority.The nurse manager was demonstrating what ethical principle?

A)Autonomy
B)Fidelity
C)Justice
D)Utility

Question 20

The nurse manager at a nursing home wanted to use creative thinking to solve the problem of residents' borrowing each other's cigarettes without permission.First,the nurse manager called two licensed staff members into her office to discuss the problem.Next,she called in the nursing assistant to join the group.Finally,she called in the social worker to join the group.The nurse manager employed which technique to solve the problem?

A)Ladder of abstraction
B)Think tanks
C)Stepladder technique
D)Delphi technique

Question 21

The nurse manager formed a task force of orthopedic staff nurses to develop cost-saving standard practices for the care of clients undergoing total hip replacement.The staff nurses used which type of decision-making model to reduce costs for clients undergoing total hip replacement?

A)Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
B)Gantt chart
C)Decision trees
D)Critical path method (CPM)

Question 22

Staff nurses use individual justice to care for individual clients,but nursing leaders use what type of justice?

A)Formal justice
B)Distributive justice
C)Resourceful justice
D)Merit justice

Question 23

Computers facilitate complex decision making.When nurses use computers to track clients who were discharged based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs),they are using which type of computer system?

A)Clinical system
B)Dietary system
C)Management information system
D)Educational system

Question 24

For nurses to function in a multicultural environment,they must be aware of global ethics.Which of the following is an example of global ethics?

A)An African-American woman wants a midwife to deliver her baby.
B)The nurse treats the clients on the unit impartially.
C)Nurses and clients work interdependently to plan care.
D)Clients depend on the nurses for all of their needs.

Question 25

The client's bed linens were damp from excessive perspiration.The staff member helped the client take a bed bath,even though the client had requested that she not be bathed.The nurse's action exemplified what model of ethical relationship?

A)Priestly model
B)Engineering model
C)Contractual model
D)Collegial model