Nurse Ethical Standards Quiz

Nursing Code of Ethics

• Provide ethical standards for professional behavior
• Guide the profession in self-regulation
• Remind nurses of their special responsibility to care for the sick
• Inform the public about the minimum standards of the profession
• Outline the major ethical considerations of the profession
• Practice with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual
• Primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family group, or community
• Responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice
• Determine the appropriate delegation of tasks consistent with the nurse's obligation to provide optimum patient care
• Owes the same duties to self as well as to others, including the responsibility to preserve integrity and safety
• Participate in establishing, maintaining, and improving the healthcare environment and conditions of employment

Droplet Precautions

• Use for patients known or suspected to be infected with pathogens transmitted by respiratory droplets
• Source control: put a mask on the patient
• Ensure appropriate patient placement in a single room if possible
• Use personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriately
• Don mask upon entry into the patient room or patient space
• Limit transport and movement of patients outside of the room to medically-necessary purposes

Methods of Intravenous Infusion

• Large-volume infusion
• Intermittent intravenous infusion (piggyback or tandem setups)
• Volume-controlled infusion (often used for children)
• Intravenous push (IVP) or bolus
• Intermittent injection ports (device)

Vital Signs

• Monitor functions of the body
• Should be a thoughtful, scientific assessment
• Often, someone other than a nurse measures a client's vital signs
• Safest and fastest way to monitor a patient's condition and well-being
• Helps to evaluate responses to intervention
• Subjective data
• RN's responsibility: delegate when stable, review, analyze, interpret, and report
• Assess accuracy of the equipment
• Know the usual range of vital signs
• Know a patient's medical history, therapies, and prescribed medications
• Frequency: doctor's order or institution policy
• Environmental factors
• Analyze results and verify

Pulse

• Factors affecting pulse: age, sex, exercise, fever, medications, hypovolemia/dehydration, stress, position, pathology
• Pulse site: carotid, brachial, radial/ulnar, femoral, popliteal, posterior tibial, dorsalis pedis, apical
• Characteristics of pulse:
  • Rate: correlates with the first beat felt by fingers
  • Rhythm: pattern of expansion and contraction
  • Strength of pulsation: gentle, barely, pulse force

Respirations

• Exhalation or expiration: breathing out or the movement of gases from the lungs to the atmosphere
• Costal breathing: involves the external intercostal muscles and other accessory muscles
• Diaphragmatic breathing: involves the contraction and relaxation of the diaphragm
• RR: breaths per minute
• Breathing that is normal in rate/depth: eupnea
• Abnormally slow respirations: bradypnea
• Abnormally fast respirations: tachypnea
• Apnea: absence of breathing
• Factors affecting respirations: exercise, acute pain, anxiety, smoking
• Tidal volume (TV): the amount of air that moves in or out of the lungs with each respiratory cycle
• Hyperventilation: respiratory depth is normal, deep, or shallow