A nurse must possess several characteristics to be successful in this profession. Secondary to critical thinking skills, which is of great value?

Correct Answer: D

Rationale: Beyond critical thinking, advocating for the client at all times is a cornerstone of nursing success, reflecting the profession's core commitment to patient welfare. This involves ensuring clients' needs, rights, and preferences are prioritized in all care decisions, fostering trust and empowerment. Good teamwork and team-building skills are valuable for collaboration but are learned and applied contextually, not as intrinsic as advocacy. A master's degree enhances expertise but isn't required for foundational success, as many nurses excel with lesser credentials. Delegation is a skill that supports efficiency, yet it's secondary to the nurse's role as a client advocate. Advocacy drives nursing's caring ethos, addressing health needs across diverse settings and populations, making it a vital characteristic that complements critical thinking in achieving optimal outcomes and upholding professional integrity.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Nursing research's primary aim is to generate knowledge to guide practice, building a scientific foundation that informs and improves care delivery. This involves studying interventions like pain management techniques or outcomes, like recovery rates, to create evidence-based guidelines that enhance safety and effectiveness. Decreasing costs, while a potential byproduct, isn't the core focus; research prioritizes quality over economics. Delegating tasks relates to workflow, not research goals, and assisting physicians, though collaborative, isn't nursing's aim its focus is autonomous advancement. This knowledge generation refines assessment, planning, and intervention, ensuring nurses address client needs with precision. For example, research on pressure ulcer prevention shapes protocols, directly impacting practice. This purpose elevates nursing as a science-driven profession, distinct from mere support roles, fostering innovation and accountability in healthcare.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: Critical appraisal in nursing research evaluates evidence quality and relevance post-literature review, ensuring findings guide practice effectively. Asking 'What were the results of each study?' identifies outcomes like reduced infection rates while 'Are the results valid and reliable?' assesses methodological rigor, checking biases or sample issues. 'Will the results improve client care?' gauges practical impact, linking evidence to real-world benefits. 'How many studies were found?' or 'Where were they conducted?' provide context but don't appraise quality. This process filters robust evidence like a study on hand hygiene reducing infections ensuring nurses apply trustworthy, applicable insights. It's a gatekeeper, preventing flawed data from skewing care, and aligns research with nursing's goal of enhancing patient outcomes through science, not just volume or geography.

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: Holistic care in nursing embraces the whole person mind, body, spirit requiring tailored approaches. Understanding and respecting each person's definition of health acknowledges their unique values, like viewing wellness as independence or spiritual peace, shaping care plans. Respecting responses to illness honors individual coping like stoicism or seeking support fostering trust. A standard health definition ignores this diversity, risking alienation, while calling health inactive contradicts its dynamic nature people actively pursue it. Holistic nursing uses models like the wellness wheel to integrate dimensions, ensuring care fits the client, not a mold. This flexibility enhances engagement, as when a nurse adapts teaching for a client valuing herbal remedies, strengthening outcomes by aligning with personal beliefs and experiences.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: In the Agent-Host-Environment Model, Staphylococcus is the agent the causative factor triggering illness, here infecting a decubitus ulcer. The client is the host, whose skin integrity and immunity determine susceptibility. The environment bedridden conditions or hygiene sets the stage for infection. The disease is the resulting pathology, like the ulcer's worsening. This model dissects causation: Staphylococcus (bacteria) invades the host (client) in a conducive environment (immobility), driving nursing interventions cleaning wounds, repositioning to disrupt the triad. Understanding the agent's role guides targeted care, like antibiotics, breaking the infection cycle. It's a practical lens for nurses, pinpointing external triggers to prevent or manage illness effectively, especially in chronic wound scenarios.