An outpatient's daughter has been using a diary to track the appearance of her mother's decubitus ulcer when the daughter performs the daily dressing change
The patient has been newly consented for participation in the trial of a new product presumed to accelerate healing and prevent infection. The researcher instructs the daughter in use of the new product and the use of a scale for tracking the ulcer's healing. Scale items are change in total area (width times depth), drainage color, surrounding tissue integrity, pain, and smell. What are the advantages of using a scale instead of a diary? (Select all that apply.)
a. It reduces all items to a Likert scale.
b. It makes wound care easier.
c. It forces a level of precision that may or may not be present in a diary.
d. It produces numerical data that the researcher can easily analyze in order to provide evidence of difference between the new method and the old method.
e. It makes sure that subjects all will have daily recordings of the variables the researcher intends to measure.
ANS: C, D, E
A rating scale allows the observer to rate the behavior or event on a scale. Scales, a form of self-report, are a more precise means of measuring phenomena than are questionnaires. The majority of scales have been developed to measure psychosocial variables. However, self-reports can be obtained on physiological variables such as pain, nausea, or functional capacity by using scaling techniques as discussed earlier in this chapter. This method provides more information for analysis than does the use of dichotomous data, which indicate only that the behavior either occurred or did not occur. Scales, another form of self-reporting, are more precise in measuring phenomena than are questionnaires and have been developed to measure psychosocial and physiological variables. The types of scales include the rating scale, Likert scale, semantic differential scale, and the visual analog scale.
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A client is seen at the clinic with the medical diagnosis of osteomalacia. When taking the client's history, what does the nurse assess for?
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The nurses do not have consistent online access to clinical practice guidelines due to a poor connection to the Internet. The novice nurse is caring for a postoperative thyroidectomy client during the night shift
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A 31-year-old female client has been taking dantrolene for several years with good effect. The client has presented to the clinic because she has just had a positive home pregnancy test. In addition to referring the client to her primary care provider, the nurse should provide what teaching?