Deck 10: Conclusions

Question 1

By creating a culture of continuous improvement,nurses empower themselves to always "go the extra mile" with their patients.This attitude will foster a positive learning atmosphere and increase collegiality among staff.In turn,if staff feel recognized for their efforts and are open to accepting constructive feedback from peers,the unit milieu will generate staff:

A)Burnout
B)Turnover
C)Retention
D)Attrition

Answer 1

Retention

Question 2

Accepting being "good enough" is not achieving excellence.Effective nurse leaders must be challenged to fully grow,make changes to avoid the status quo,and:

A)Develop a mechanism to discipline staff not involved in seeking excellence
B)Create a culture of critical reflection
C)Attempt to avoid change
D)Allow for stabilization of growth for a minimum of 12 months

Answer 2

Create a culture of critical reflection

Question 3

Nursing is considered by the public,via the Gallup Poll,to be one of the most honest professions.This certainly constitutes feedback that reflects excellence.But to create a preferred future for nursing,it is necessary that nurses continue to:

A)Be themselves
B)Promote excellence and exercise leadership
C)Do exactly what we are doing now
D)Preserve this coveted reputation perceived by the public

Answer 3

Promote excellence and exercise leadership

Question 4

Mescon and Mescon describe the pursuit of excellence as being "vigorously and relentlessly" incorporated into everything we do.This includes the "little things" that most do not recognize as important nor do they reward one for doing.They advocate that individuals should do the "little things" and that this constitutes their:

A)Autograph of their work
B)Greatest contribution
C)Accomplishment of perfection in their work
D)Life's most significant contributions

Question 5

Nurses are interested in receiving constructive feedback generally from their manager and peers.But frequently,our most helpful feedback is actually a result of performing the:

A)Interview process with nurses from other hospitals to obtain feedback about our care
B)Manager's evaluation test of patient satisfaction of care
C)Mirror test when we self-evaluate our work
D)Reflective test that generates patient feedback about their care

Question 6

Staff nurses need to be recognized for their expertise and passion for their practice as nurses.This is the vision of a new Nurse Director at an acute-care hospital.She decides to implement her vision by:

A)Asking for volunteers to present their philosophy of nursing at the Executive Board for the institution's next meeting
B)Assigning staff nurses three books to read for homework regarding the significance of excellence in patient care
C)Creating a newsletter where a picture and short write-up of each nurse's accomplishments are published annually (staff need to pay cost)
D)Partnering with the university nursing faculty so that each nurse is paired with a faculty to conduct research and publish an article regarding their expertise area

Question 7

Striving for excellence in our professional lives as nurses not only affects our own reputation but also:

A)Affects our ability to empower our colleagues to be excellent
B)The ability of the overall organization in which we work to attract less ill patients
C)Influences the ability of our consumer-patients to receive cures for cancer,end-stage AIDS,and end-stage renal disease
D)Negates the ability of our organization to achieve Magnet status

Question 8

Most of the time,effective leadership is discussed in terms of one's work.However,it would behoove every individual to take responsibility for providing leadership that will help us achieve excellence in:

A)Selected professional and personal matters
B)Our lives,our institutions,and our society
C)Communicating with every individual we come in contact
D)Certain parts of our lives

Question 9

Which of the following characteristics is NOT a component of excellence according to Diers and Evans?

A)Acknowledging what we have done well or poorly and blaming no one
B)Striving to fulfill a goal or to realize a vision
C)Keeping minds open to new ideas and perspectives
D)Allowing several demands to go unmet so that another demand can be met successfully

Question 10

It has been said that only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.This validates that effective leaders striving for excellence must be:

A)Infallible
B)Geniuses
C)Risk takers
D)Perfectionists

Question 11

Nurses on one unit have started a Journal Club with a 56% participation rate of staff nurses involved during the past 10 months.The organization's annual Research Day is coming up in 4 months and the organizers have asked the Journal Club members to be involved.Only one nurse is willing to represent the group and decides the most effective way to share the Club's vision and effectively represent the group is to ask each member to:

A)Develop a PowerPoint slide depicting one of the articles the club has discussed and the representative will create a group poster presentation to be displayed at Research Day.
B)Write an abstract of some researchable clinical problem that the representative will present to the Research Day committee for funding possibilities.
C)Prepare a two-page paper explaining why the Club will not participate in Research Day planning so that the representative can tell the committee their reasons for not wanting to be involved.
D)Attend an extra Journal Club meeting so that the representative can have the Research Day committee members present their rationale for mandating that the Journal Club be involved.

Question 12

You are a nurse who dreams of working in a setting where excellent care is given.You observe,however,that more and more patients and families are complaining that no one is attending to their needs or answering their questions.Which of the following actions would be most effective in moving toward that level of excellence of which you dream?

A)Arranging for a meeting of your nursing colleagues to discuss the problem and coming to that meeting with a list of possible solutions to consider
B)Telling the patients and families that you really would like to help but that the agency has not hired enough staff to spend more time with them
C)Writing a letter to the nurse executive or agency CEO (chief executive officer)demanding that they do something to solve this problem
D)All of the above

Question 13

Which of the following phrases best illustrates the idea that achieving excellence requires an enormous investment on the part of each individual,and not merely the creation of a supportive environment by those "at the top"?

A)"The cautious seldom err." (Confucius)
B)"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it." (Anonymous)
C)"Nothing endures but change." (Heraclitus)
D)"Don't accept the dictates and little boxes that say,'This is how the world operates.'" (Martinez)

Question 14

It has been said that excellence can be attained if you:

A)Hold back when speaking up because it could get you in trouble.
B)Criticize more than others want to hear.
C)Expect more than others think is possible.
D)Wait to take action until all possible questions are answered.

Question 15

Excellence and leadership share many common characteristics.Which of the following statements best represents both excellence and leadership?

A)They can be achieved only by people in positions of authority.
B)They require a degree of comfort with change.
C)They are focused on the here and now.
D)They thrive in an environment characterized by certainty and stability.

Question 16

Excellence involves challenging ourselves.Which of the following would be considered challenging for a nurse who has been in his or her role for less than 1 year?

A)Performing a highly complicated technical skill that he or she has done a number of times before
B)Modifying the plan of care for a patient for whom he or she has cared for the past 4 days
C)Responding to a satisfaction survey sent by the school from which he or she recently graduated
D)Accepting an invitation to speak at a regional professional meeting

Question 17

According to Diers and Evans,"excellent nurses are inflamed by nursing." By "inflamed," these authors meant that excellent nurses are:

A)Outspoken and aggressive
B)Politically active
C)Passionate about their work
D)Skilled clinicians

Question 18

One can achieve excellence and develop leadership skills through active involvement in a professional organization because:

A)It exposes you to positive role models and potential mentors.
B)It offers opportunities for you to develop new skills (e.g.,advancing a health policy agenda)and take on new challenges.
C)It helps you stay "connected" with significant issues facing nursing and strategize about how to deal with those issues.
D)All of the above

Question 19

Professional nurses who strive for and expect excellence would most likely do which of the following in work situations where people seem to be satisfied with maintaining the status quo?

A)Question assumptions that underlie existing practices and report faulty ones to the person in charge.
B)Ask why things are done the way they are and offer thoughtful alternatives for doing things differently.
C)Be highly critical of the people in the setting and the procedures used.
D)Demand immediate change,regardless of the cost.

Question 20

Which of the following characterizes excellence?

A)Setting and meeting high standards for yourself and the group in which you are involved
B)Accepting a mediocre or minimally adequate performance
C)Giving in to pressure from "above" to do only what is essential
D)Doing your best only when some authority figure "pushes" you

Question 21

Deming identified 14 key principles that he suggests have relevance for people interested in pursuing excellence.He has directed these principles specifically to:

A)Health-care workers who are committed to patient-focused care
B)Teachers who want to facilitate student learning
C)Students interested in engaging in an internship to assist them in obtaining a job after graduation
D)People who are interested in transforming their business's effectiveness

Question 22

The work accomplished by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Europe and the United States was evaluated and generated five critical elements of what encompassed transforming care.These criteria include:

A)A complete restaffing so there was an all-physician staff
B)A nonprofit global vision where patients pay according to their means on a sliding scale
C)Democratic leaders,unionizing of employees,and transactional leadership culture
D)A desire to transform,commitment to quality,and staff time for problem solving

Question 23

Deming was known for his statement that "quality is never an accident." He means that to reach success,one needs to:

A)Work in a silo so that no one can breech your work but yourself,trust only yourself,and be committed to perfection in every aspect of your life
B)Be steadfast in one's focus; never changing one's original idea and quality will be the ultimate reward
C)Work hard,be sincere about one's intention,and demonstrate intelligent direction and skillful execution
D)Use multiple formative evaluations,maintain competency of staff,and use financial incentives to improve work production

Question 24

To be successful in obtaining excellence in what one does,Deming suggests that these individuals need extensive training.He specifically feels one focus of this training should include:

A)Developing courage to assist the individual to move out of the status quo
B)Having the individuals have formal mentors who give them formative and summative feedback regularly
C)A discussion on how excellence cannot be reached by some individuals
D)The need for all individuals who ascribe to being excellent in their work setting have a doctoral degree

Question 25

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offered a program,Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Healthcare Performance,between 2002 and 2007.The goal of this project was to:

A)Standardize all medical care in the United States and Europe
B)Pursue executives from for-profit organizations in health care to assist them with the maintaining the bottom line.
C)Improve patient outcomes in Europe and the United States by pursuing perfection in all major care areas
D)Collaborate with international companies to have sharing of ideas and hopefully lower costs