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NURS246 Chapter 10 Practice Questions and
Answers (Expert Solutions)
Q: According to the World Health Organization, palliative care is an approach that
improves quality of life for patients and their families who face problems associated with
life-threatening illnesses. From the list below, identify the specific goals of palliative care
(select all that apply).
a. Regard dying as a normal process.
b. Minimize the financial burden on the family.
c. Provide relief from symptoms, including pain.
d. Affirm life and neither hasten nor postpone death.
e. Prolong the patient's life with aggressive new therapies.
f. Support holistic patient care and enhance quality of life.
g. Offer support to patients to live as actively as possible until death.
h. Assist the patient and family to identify and access pastoral care services.
i. Offer support to the family during the patient's illness and their own bereavement.,
🗹🗹: a, c, d, f, g, i. Table 10-1 lists the goals of palliative care. Overall, goals of palliative
care are to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for the
patient.
Q: Priority Decision: The husband and daughter of a Hispanic woman dying from
pancreatic cancer refuse to consider using hospice care. What is the first thing the nurse
should do?
a. Assess their understanding of what hospice care services are.
b. Ask them how they will care for the patient without hospice care.
c. Talk directly to the patient and family to see if she can change their minds.
d. Accept their decision since they are Hispanic and prefer to care for their own.,
🗹🗹: a. The family may not understand what hospice care is and may need information.
Some cultures and ethnic groups may underuse hospice care because of a lack of
awareness of the services offered, a desire to continue with potentially curative
therapies, and concerns about a lack of minority hospice workers.
Q: List the two criteria for admission to a hospice program.
a.
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b., 🗹🗹: a.
Patient must desire services and agree in writing that only hospice care can be used to
treat the terminal illness (palliative care)
b. Patient must meet eligibility, which is less than 6 months to live, certified initially by
two physicians
Q: For each of the following body systems, identify three physical manifestations that the
nurse would expect to see in a patient approaching death.
Respiratory
a.
b.
c.
Skin
a.
b.
c.
Gastrointestinal
a.
b.
c.
Musculoskeletal
a.
b.
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c., 🗹🗹: Respiratory
a. Cheyne-Stokes respiration
b. Death rattle (inability to cough and clear secretions)
c. Increased, then slowing, respiratory rate
(Also: irregular breathing, terminal gasping)
Skin
a. Mottling on hands, feet, and legs that progresses to the
torso
b. Cold, clammy skin
c. Cyanosis on nose, nail beds, and knees
(Also: waxlike skin when very near death) Gastrointestinal
a. Slowing of the gastrointestinal tract with accumulation
of gas and abdominal distention
b. Loss of sphincter control with incontinence
c. Bowel movement before imminent death or at time of
death
Musculoskeletal
a. Loss of muscle tone with sagging jaw
b. Difficulty speaking
c. Difficulty swallowing
(Also: loss of ability to move or maintain body position, loss of gag reflex)
Q: Priority Decision: A terminally ill patient is unresponsive and has cold, clammy skin
with mottling on the extremities. The patient's husband and two grown children are
arguing at the bedside about where the patient's funeral should be held. What should the
nurse do first?
a. Ask the family members to leave the room if they are going to argue.
b. Take the family members aside and explain that the patient may be able to hear them.
c. Tell the family members that this decision is premature because the patient has not yet
died.
NURS246 Chapter 10 Practice Questions and
Answers (Expert Solutions)
Q: According to the World Health Organization, palliative care is an approach that
improves quality of life for patients and their families who face problems associated with
life-threatening illnesses. From the list below, identify the specific goals of palliative care
(select all that apply).
a. Regard dying as a normal process.
b. Minimize the financial burden on the family.
c. Provide relief from symptoms, including pain.
d. Affirm life and neither hasten nor postpone death.
e. Prolong the patient's life with aggressive new therapies.
f. Support holistic patient care and enhance quality of life.
g. Offer support to patients to live as actively as possible until death.
h. Assist the patient and family to identify and access pastoral care services.
i. Offer support to the family during the patient's illness and their own bereavement.,
🗹🗹: a, c, d, f, g, i. Table 10-1 lists the goals of palliative care. Overall, goals of palliative
care are to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for the
patient.
Q: Priority Decision: The husband and daughter of a Hispanic woman dying from
pancreatic cancer refuse to consider using hospice care. What is the first thing the nurse
should do?
a. Assess their understanding of what hospice care services are.
b. Ask them how they will care for the patient without hospice care.
c. Talk directly to the patient and family to see if she can change their minds.
d. Accept their decision since they are Hispanic and prefer to care for their own.,
🗹🗹: a. The family may not understand what hospice care is and may need information.
Some cultures and ethnic groups may underuse hospice care because of a lack of
awareness of the services offered, a desire to continue with potentially curative
therapies, and concerns about a lack of minority hospice workers.
Q: List the two criteria for admission to a hospice program.
a.
, Page | 2
b., 🗹🗹: a.
Patient must desire services and agree in writing that only hospice care can be used to
treat the terminal illness (palliative care)
b. Patient must meet eligibility, which is less than 6 months to live, certified initially by
two physicians
Q: For each of the following body systems, identify three physical manifestations that the
nurse would expect to see in a patient approaching death.
Respiratory
a.
b.
c.
Skin
a.
b.
c.
Gastrointestinal
a.
b.
c.
Musculoskeletal
a.
b.
, Page | 3
c., 🗹🗹: Respiratory
a. Cheyne-Stokes respiration
b. Death rattle (inability to cough and clear secretions)
c. Increased, then slowing, respiratory rate
(Also: irregular breathing, terminal gasping)
Skin
a. Mottling on hands, feet, and legs that progresses to the
torso
b. Cold, clammy skin
c. Cyanosis on nose, nail beds, and knees
(Also: waxlike skin when very near death) Gastrointestinal
a. Slowing of the gastrointestinal tract with accumulation
of gas and abdominal distention
b. Loss of sphincter control with incontinence
c. Bowel movement before imminent death or at time of
death
Musculoskeletal
a. Loss of muscle tone with sagging jaw
b. Difficulty speaking
c. Difficulty swallowing
(Also: loss of ability to move or maintain body position, loss of gag reflex)
Q: Priority Decision: A terminally ill patient is unresponsive and has cold, clammy skin
with mottling on the extremities. The patient's husband and two grown children are
arguing at the bedside about where the patient's funeral should be held. What should the
nurse do first?
a. Ask the family members to leave the room if they are going to argue.
b. Take the family members aside and explain that the patient may be able to hear them.
c. Tell the family members that this decision is premature because the patient has not yet
died.
