1. Which action should the nurse take when using critical thinking to make clinical decisions?
Make decisions based on intuition.
Accept one established way to provide care.
Consider what is important in a given situation.
Read and follow the heath care provider’s orders.
2. Which patient scenario of a surgical patient in pain is most indicative of critical thinking?
Administering pain-relief medication according to what was given last shift
Offering pain-relief medication based on the health care provider’s orders
Asking the patient what pain-relief methods, pharmacological and nonpharmacological, have worked in the past
Explaining to the patient that self-reporting of severe pain is not consistent with the minor procedure that was performed
3. Which action indicates a registered nurse is being responsible for making clinical decisions?
Applies clear textbook solutions to patients’ problems
Takes immediate action when a patient’s condition worsens
Uses only traditional methods of providing care to patients
Formulates standardized care plans solely for groups of patients
4. A charge nurse is supervising the care of a new nurse. Which action by a new nurse indicates the charge nurse needs to intervene?
Making an ethical clinical decision
Making an informed clinical decision
Making a clinical decision in the patient’s best interest
Making a clinical decision based on previous shift assessments
5. Which action demonstrates a nurse utilizing reflection to improve clinical decision making?
Obtains data in an orderly fashion
Uses an objective approach in patient situations
Improves a plan of care while thinking back on interventions effectiveness
Provides evidence-based explanations and research for care of assigned patients
6. A nursing instructor needs to evaluate students’ abilities to synthesize data and identify relationships between nursing diagnoses. Which learning assignment is best suited for this instructor’s needs?
Reading assignment with a written summary
7. A nurse is using a critical thinking model to provide care. Which component is first that helps a nurse make clinical decisions?
8. Which action by a nurse indicates application of the critical thinking model to make the bestclinical decisions?
Drawing on past clinical experiences to formulate standardized care plans
Relying on recall of information from past lectures and textbooks
Depending on the charge nurse to determine priorities of care
Using the nursing process
9. A nurse is using the critical thinking skill of evaluation. Which action will the nurse take?
Examine the meaning of data.
Support findings and conclusions.
Review the effectiveness of nursing actions.
Search for links between the data and the nurse’s assumptions.
10. The patient appears to be in no apparent distress, but vital signs taken by assistive personnel reveal an extremely low pulse. The nurse then auscultates an apical pulse and asks the patient whether there is any history of heart problems. The nurse is utilizing which critical thinking skill?
11. A patient continues to report postsurgical incision pain at a level of 9 out of 10 after pain medicine is given. The next dose of pain medicine is not due for another hour. What should the critically thinking nurse do first?
Explore other options for pain relief.
Discuss the surgical procedure and reason for the pain.
Explain to the patient that nothing else has been ordered.
Offer to notify the health care provider after morning rounds are completed.
12. Which action should the nurse take to best develop critical thinking skills?
Study 3 hours more each night.
Attend all inservice opportunities.
Actively participate in clinical experiences.
Interview staff nurses about their nursing experiences.
13. While caring for a hospitalized older-adult female post hip surgery, the nurse is faced with the task of inserting an indwelling urinary catheter, which involves rotating the hip into a contraindicated position. Which action should the nurse take?
Postpone catheter insertion until the next shift.
Adapt the positioning technique to the situation.
Notify the health care provider for a urologist consult.
Follow textbook procedure with contraindicated position.
14. The nurse enters a room to find the patient sitting up in bed crying. How will the nurse display a critical thinking attitude in this situation?
Provide privacy and check on the patient 30 minutes later.
Set a box of tissues at the patient’s bedside before leaving the room.
Limit visitors while the patient is upset.
Ask the patient about the crying.
15. A patient is having trouble reaching the water fountain while holding on to crutches. The nurse suggests that the patient place the crutches against the wall while stabilizing him or herself with two hands on the water fountain. Which critical thinking attitude did the nurse use in this situation?
16. A nurse is pulled from the surgical unit to work on the oncology unit. Which action by the nurse displays humility and responsibility?
Asking for an orientation to the unit
Admitting lack of knowledge and going home
Assuming that patient care will be the same as on the other units
17. A nurse is using professional standards to influence clinical decisions. What is the rationale for the nurse’s actions?
Establishes minimal passing standards for testing
Utilizes evidence-based practice based on nurses’ needs
Bypasses the patient’s feelings to promote ethical standards
Uses critical thinking for the highest level of quality nursing care
18. A nurse who is caring for a patient with a pressure ulcer applies the recommended dressing according to hospital policy. Which standard is the nurse following?
Institutional practice guidelines
19. A nurse is reviewing care plans. Which finding, if identified in a plan of care, should the registered nurse revise?
Patient’s outcomes for learning
Nurse’s assumptions about hospital discharge
Identification of several actual health problems
Documentation of patient’s ability to meet the goal
1. Which findings will alert the nurse that stress is present when making a clinical decision? (Select all that apply.)
