A community health nurse found a very small number of families in the community who were desperately in need of basic preventive health services. Which ethical approach supports expending agency resources on these few, but needy, families?

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: Each response is an accurate portrayal of a branch of ethics. Beneficence and social justice would give moral advantage to the most vulnerable. By caring for these families, the demands of utilitarianism (the most good for the largest number) would also be met as caring for the weakest supports the whole community.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: As the largest segment of health care providers, nurses are informed about the current health care system and all the problems that result from people not seeking care until they are desperately ill. Nurses, as the American Nurses Association (ANA) emphasize, usually believe that health care is a right, not a privilege. Therefore, nurses, whose work is central to our current health care delivery system, can also be instrumental in working politically to create a health care delivery system that will meet health needs.

Correct Answer: D

Rationale: Although all responses are accurate, the primary problem is the emphasis on personal choices in the Healthy People 2020 objectives. Emphasis on personal choices ignores the need for community responsibility and action that addresses environmental or cultural restraints to health.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Community health nurses work with both geopolitical and phenomenological groups. A group of persons who share a common identity and environment is the broadest and most complete definition, encompassing culture, history, and shared settings.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: The widespread increase in incidence of overweight and obesity has led to calls for population-based measures to address this issue, which also contributes to diabetes and cardiac disease.