Chapter 05: Legal and Ethical Issues

Chapter 05: Legal and Ethical Issues

Complete Chapter Questions With Answers

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The manager in the coronary care unit believes that the most important ethical considerations in performance evaluations are that they include the employee’s good qualities and that they give positive direction for professional growth. This belief is an example of:

ANS:   D

Nonmaleficence refers to “doing no harm.” By focusing only on good qualities, the manager seeks to do no harm to the employee.

REF:    Page 90           TOP:    AONE competency: Professionalism

2. A staff nurse in the area that you manage has excelled in the delivery of client education. You are considering implementing a new job description that would broaden her opportunity to teach client and orient new staff members to the value of client education. The ethical principle that you are most directly reinforcing is:

ANS:   C

Paternalism involves making decisions for others about what is best and, in this instance, what is best for the nurse and her colleagues.

REF:    Page 90           TOP:    AONE competency: Professionalism

3. A client refuses a simple procedure that you believe is in the client’s best interest. The two ethical principles that are directly in conflict in such a situation are:

ANS:   C

Autonomy refers to the freedom to make a choice (e.g., refuse a procedure), and beneficence to doing good (performing a procedure that will benefit the patient).

REF:    Pages 89, 90    TOP:    AONE competency: Professionalism

4. An applicant in a wheelchair is applying for the position of receptionist in an outpatient clinic. The nurse manager understands that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that employers:

ANS:   A

The purposes of the ADA are to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities and to provide consistent, enforceable standards to address discrimination in the workplace.

REF:    Page 85           TOP:    AONE competency: Business Skills

5. A staff nurse who was fired for reporting client abuse to the appropriate state agency files a whistleblower lawsuit against the former employer. Reasons that the court would use in upholding a valid whistleblower suit claiming retaliation include that the nurse:

ANS:   A

An employer is unable to fire an employee who, in good faith, reports what is believed to be a violation of a law, rule, or state or federal law.

REF:    Pages 87, 88

TOP:    AONE competency: Knowledge of the Healthcare Environment