The nursing instructor is teaching a class on nursing theory. One of the students asks, "Why do we need to know this stuff? It doesn't really affect patients." The instructor's best response would be
a. "You are correct, but we have to learn it anyway."
b. "Exposure to theories will help you later in graduate school."
c. "Theories help keep the focus of nursing narrow."
d. "Theories help explain why nurses do what they do."
ANS: D
Theories offer well-grounded rationales or reasons for how and why nurses perform specific interventions. Learning about theories is important because these theories help to describe, explain, predict, and/or prescribe nursing care measures. Although nursing theory will help the nurse in graduate school, it is also an important basis for the nurse's approach to daily patient care, and it expands scientific knowledge of the profession.
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The student nurse has been studying different cultures in relationship to nursing. She understands that transcultural nursing has been developed as a distinct discipline and can be defined as which of the following?
a. Understanding that cultural patterns are generated from predetermined criteria b. Knowing that culturally congruent care is based on health care system values c. Understanding cultural similarities and differences among groups of people d. The realization that illness and disease are the same
A client who is on antiretroviral drugs has developed neuropathy, which may be an adverse effect of the therapy. What advice should the nurse give?
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A newly admitted patient tells the nurse, "The voices are bothering me." The nurse should first
a. ignore the patient's reference to voices. b. distract the patient from the hallucinations. c. tell the patient that the voices do not exist. d. seek a description of the voices and identify themes.