NUR 120 - Med/Surg (Test 2) Study notes Questions with Correct
Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: What is quality?
Answer: the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of
desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge
Question 2: High-quality care involves providing patient with appropriate services in what ways?
Answer: 1. Technically competent manner 2. Good communication 3. Shared decision making 4. Culture
sensitivity
Question 3: What is quality improvement?
Answer: The systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in healthcare services
and the health status of targeted patient groups
Question 4: What is quality management?
Answer: The evaluation of medical and nursing processes for quality and effectiveness compared to
accepted standards and aims to provide cost-effective care by preventing overuse, misuse, and underuse of
medical resources
Question 5: What two reasons are most important about quality management?
Answer: 1. Correcting problems before they harm patients 2. Preventing errors in treatment
Question 6: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted to do what?
Answer: Make healthcare affordable to all Americans
Question 7: What are the 6 priorities for high-quality care?
Answer: 1. Patient safety 2. Care coordination 3. Effective prevention and treatment 4. Healthy living 5.
Affordability 6. Person and family-centered care
Question 8: What are the steps of the quality improvement process?
Answer: 1. Analyze current protocols 2. Compare to outcomes of leaders in high-quality care 3. Research
factors that contribute to better outcomes 4. Implement changes 5. Analyze patient outcomes to determine
effectiveness of change (*this identifies if more change is needed)
Page 1
,Question 9: What is benchmarking?
Answer: A process by which a company compares its performance with that of high-performing
organizations
Question 10: What is an intraprofessional assessment?
Answer: Peer review by a group of individuals with similar positions in the healthcare system
Question 11: What is an intraprofessional audit?
Answer: Focuses on one discipline
Question 12: What is a interprofessional audit?
Answer: Focuses on multiple disciplines
Question 13: When is a retrospective audit performed?
Answer: Performed after the patient's discharge
Question 14: When is a concurrent audit performed?
Answer: Performed while patient is undergoing care
Question 15: What does a retrospective audit tell us?
Answer: Any recommendations that could me made to change procedures
Question 16: What does a concurrent audit tell us?
Answer: Allows changes if need to prevent adverse events or improve patient's care
Question 17: What is outcome management used for?
Answer: Uses patient experiences to guide improvement by linking medical interventions and the health
outcomes and between health outcomes and cost of care
Question 18: What processes are used when doing a interprofessonal assessment?
Answer: 1. Peer reviews 2. Audits 3. Outcomes management
Question 19: What are standards of care?
Answer: Care based on established models of high-quality performance
Page 2
, Question 20: What are indicators?
Answer: Statistics that reflect organization's performance in specific area
Question 21: What are sentinel events?
Answer: Unexpected occurrences involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk
thereof. Serious injury includes loss of limb or function. Sentinel events indicate the need for immediate
investigation and response.
Question 22: What are root cause analysis?
Answer: Problem solving to identify root cause of faults
Question 23: Who requires a root cause analysis after sentinel events occur?
Answer: The Joint Commission
Question 24: What must be done after a sentinel event occurs?
Answer: 1. Root cause analysis 2. Pain to reduce future events 3. Improvement implementations 4.
Monitoring of effectiveness of improvements
Question 25: What is breach of care?
Answer: When a nurse deviates from the standard of care
Question 26: How can a nurse reduce risk of committing breach of care?
Answer: 1. Reporting problems to supervisor 2. Remaining current in skills/education 3. Basing all care on
nursing model, and documenting patient response
Question 27: What is risk management?
Answer: Proactive efforts to prevent adverse events related to clinical care (i.e., avoiding medical mistakes)
Question 28: What is included in risk management process?
Answer: 1. Identifying risks 2. Review systems that monitor risk 3. Analyzing frequency, severity, and
causes of past events 4. Staying up to date on healthcare-related laws 5. Identifying need for patient/staff
education
Question 29: What is an adverse drug event?
Answer: Harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication
Page 3
Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: What is quality?
Answer: the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of
desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge
Question 2: High-quality care involves providing patient with appropriate services in what ways?
Answer: 1. Technically competent manner 2. Good communication 3. Shared decision making 4. Culture
sensitivity
Question 3: What is quality improvement?
Answer: The systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in healthcare services
and the health status of targeted patient groups
Question 4: What is quality management?
Answer: The evaluation of medical and nursing processes for quality and effectiveness compared to
accepted standards and aims to provide cost-effective care by preventing overuse, misuse, and underuse of
medical resources
Question 5: What two reasons are most important about quality management?
Answer: 1. Correcting problems before they harm patients 2. Preventing errors in treatment
Question 6: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted to do what?
Answer: Make healthcare affordable to all Americans
Question 7: What are the 6 priorities for high-quality care?
Answer: 1. Patient safety 2. Care coordination 3. Effective prevention and treatment 4. Healthy living 5.
Affordability 6. Person and family-centered care
Question 8: What are the steps of the quality improvement process?
Answer: 1. Analyze current protocols 2. Compare to outcomes of leaders in high-quality care 3. Research
factors that contribute to better outcomes 4. Implement changes 5. Analyze patient outcomes to determine
effectiveness of change (*this identifies if more change is needed)
Page 1
,Question 9: What is benchmarking?
Answer: A process by which a company compares its performance with that of high-performing
organizations
Question 10: What is an intraprofessional assessment?
Answer: Peer review by a group of individuals with similar positions in the healthcare system
Question 11: What is an intraprofessional audit?
Answer: Focuses on one discipline
Question 12: What is a interprofessional audit?
Answer: Focuses on multiple disciplines
Question 13: When is a retrospective audit performed?
Answer: Performed after the patient's discharge
Question 14: When is a concurrent audit performed?
Answer: Performed while patient is undergoing care
Question 15: What does a retrospective audit tell us?
Answer: Any recommendations that could me made to change procedures
Question 16: What does a concurrent audit tell us?
Answer: Allows changes if need to prevent adverse events or improve patient's care
Question 17: What is outcome management used for?
Answer: Uses patient experiences to guide improvement by linking medical interventions and the health
outcomes and between health outcomes and cost of care
Question 18: What processes are used when doing a interprofessonal assessment?
Answer: 1. Peer reviews 2. Audits 3. Outcomes management
Question 19: What are standards of care?
Answer: Care based on established models of high-quality performance
Page 2
, Question 20: What are indicators?
Answer: Statistics that reflect organization's performance in specific area
Question 21: What are sentinel events?
Answer: Unexpected occurrences involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk
thereof. Serious injury includes loss of limb or function. Sentinel events indicate the need for immediate
investigation and response.
Question 22: What are root cause analysis?
Answer: Problem solving to identify root cause of faults
Question 23: Who requires a root cause analysis after sentinel events occur?
Answer: The Joint Commission
Question 24: What must be done after a sentinel event occurs?
Answer: 1. Root cause analysis 2. Pain to reduce future events 3. Improvement implementations 4.
Monitoring of effectiveness of improvements
Question 25: What is breach of care?
Answer: When a nurse deviates from the standard of care
Question 26: How can a nurse reduce risk of committing breach of care?
Answer: 1. Reporting problems to supervisor 2. Remaining current in skills/education 3. Basing all care on
nursing model, and documenting patient response
Question 27: What is risk management?
Answer: Proactive efforts to prevent adverse events related to clinical care (i.e., avoiding medical mistakes)
Question 28: What is included in risk management process?
Answer: 1. Identifying risks 2. Review systems that monitor risk 3. Analyzing frequency, severity, and
causes of past events 4. Staying up to date on healthcare-related laws 5. Identifying need for patient/staff
education
Question 29: What is an adverse drug event?
Answer: Harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication
Page 3
