ATI RN
Nursing Care of the Elderly as a Vulnerable Population Questions
Question 1 of 4
Which is the best use of the nurse's time while en route to the client's home?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: An environmental assessment begins as the nurse leaves the agency and travels to the client's home. While driving, the nurse should observe the area surrounding the client's home. It would not be appropriate to use a computer or oral recording device while driving. Although the nurse should be conducting an environmental assessment, the nurse should be considering the needs of the client during this assessment and not his/her own needs. The nurse would not want to refer the client to another agency if the client has already selected this agency.
Question 2 of 4
A nurse shared information with a family concerning a community resource, including a brochure with telephone number. The family agreed to follow up. Which demonstrates to the nurse that the family wants to use those resources?
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, it is doubtful any agency would suddenly call to share such information with the nurse. If the family always agrees with the nurse's suggestion, it may be cultural rather than actual interest in the suggestion. Although the family may prefer the nurse do all the work of calling and setting up services, they may do so simply because they are not really that interested and they can always cancel later. However, if the family calls and sets up the service, it demonstrates commitment to the plan to use those resources.
Question 3 of 4
Which is the primary factor in how a hospice nurse makes decisions while giving care in the client's home, surrounded by the client's family?
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Although the nurse tries to do everything possible for the client, the caregiver, and the whole family, the nurse must prevent a decline in the caregiver's health. Although the dying patient is the focus of all skilled nursing care, the experienced home care nurse knows that a careful assessment of the caregiver's mental and physical health is important. The spouse, lover, children, friends, and neighbors who have made the commitment to stay until the end need the nurse's time and attention as much as, if not more than, the patient. Although the patient's wishes are important, all decisions regarding care are made considering the health of the caregivers. Encouragement of the family to grieve and confront the reality of the client being terminal would not be a primary factor in how the nurse makes decisions.
Question 4 of 4
Which statements about home health care are accurate? (Select one that doesn't apply.)
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: Home health care is typically more affordable than and just as effective as care that people receive in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. Examples of home health care services include wound care, education, IV therapy, nutrition therapy, follow-up with a patient after discharge from the hospital, and monitoring of an unstable or chronic illness. The goal of home health care is to help people get better in their own homes to regain as much independence as possible (Medicare.gov, 2016a). Hospice care focuses on caring for people facing a terminal illness when the goal is no longer curing the disease (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization [NHPCO], 2016). The goal of hospice care is that each person will die pain free and with dignity. Note: Choices E ('The goal of home health care care is for clients to die with dignity') and F ('The goal of home health care is for clients to regain as much independence as possible') were evaluated, and F is correct for home health care, while E pertains to hospice care.