Chapter 23

1. A new graduate is asked to serve on the hospital’s quality improvement (QI) committee. The nurse understands that the first step in quality improvement is to:

2. The chief executive officer asks the nurse manager of the telemetry unit to justify the disproportionately high number of registered nurses on the telemetry unit. The nurse manager explains that nursing research has validated which statement about a low nurse-to-patient ratio? The low ratio:

3. A nurse manager wants to decrease the number of medication errors that occur in her department. The manager arranges a meeting with the staff to discuss the issue. The manager conveys a total quality management philosophy by:

4. The nurse educator of the pediatric unit determines that vital signs are frequently not being documented when children return from surgery. According to quality improvement (QI), to correct the problem, the educator, in consultation with the patient care manager, would initially do which of the following?

5. A nurse is explaining the pediatric unit’s quality improvement (QI) program to a newly employed nurse. Which of the following would the nurse include as the primary purpose of QI programs?

6. Before beginning a continuous quality improvement project, a nurse should determine the minimal safety level of care by referring to the:

7. The nurse gives an inaccurate dose of medication to a patient. After assessment of the patient, the nurse completes an incident report. The nurse notifies the nursing supervisor of the medication error and calls the physician to report the occurrence. The nurse who administered the inaccurate medication understands that:

8. The nurse manager is concerned about the negative ratings her unit has received on patient satisfaction surveys. The first step in addressing this issue from the point of view of quality improvement is to:

9. With the rise of violence in the psychiatric department, the nurse manager decides that she should work with the risk manager in violence prevention. The nurse manager should:

10. A new RN staff member asks you about the difference between QA and QI. You explain the difference by giving an example of QI.

11. Healthcare organization X is committed to improving patient outcomes and, as part of the QI process, examines its executive structure and organizational design. This approach recognizes:

12. Hospital ABCD is a Magnet® hospital. One reason this designation has been applied to Hospital ABCD because it:

13. A nursing-led classification system that has led to greater reliability and standardization in data utilized for QI processes is:

14. In determining the relationship between injury-producing falls and proposed preventive measures as part of the QI process, a QI team might turn to which of the following for confirmatory evidence?

15. A method commonly used in quality assurance to monitor adherence to established standards is:

16. Hospital Magnet® decides against creating a separate department to lead and monitor quality activities because:

17. As a nurse manager, you know that the satisfaction of patients is critical in making QI decisions. You propose to circulate a questionnaire to discharged patients, asking about their experiences on your unit. Your supervisor cautions you to also consider other sources of data for decisions because:

18. An example of an effective patient outcome statement is:

19. Patient perceptions are useful in:

20. Through the QI process, the need to transform and change the admissions process across administrative and patient care units is identified. In this particular situation, what method of data organization will be most effective?

21. A nursing unit is interested in refining its self-medication processes. In beginning this process, the team is interested in how frequently errors occur with different patients. To assist with visualizing this question, which organizational tool is most appropriate?

22. The outcome statement “Patients will experience a ten percent reduction in urinary tract infections as a result of enhanced staff training related to catheterization and prompted voiding” is:

23. Your institution has identified a recent rise in postsurgical infection rates. As part of your QI analysis, you are interested in determining how your infection rates compare with those of institutions of equivalent size and patient demographics. This is known as:

24. At Hospital Alpha, there has been a 20% increase in instruments and sponges being left in patients during surgery and surgeries on the wrong limbs. These are known as:

1. Examples of sentinel events include: (Select all that apply.)