Chapter 10: Power, Politics, and Influence

Chapter 10: Power, Politics, and Influence

Complete Chapter Questions With Answers

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. A nurse manager is experiencing poor staff morale on her unit. While participating in a baccalaureate course, the nurse manager had learned that one of the reasons nurses lack power today is probably because of the past. In the early decades of the profession, nurses lacked power because:

ANS:   B

Nursing mirrored the lack of legal, social, and political power that was prevalent in the early decades of the profession.

REF:    Page 176         TOP:    AONE competency: Leadership

2. Nurses who engage in in-fighting, seek physician support against nursing colleagues, and avoid membership in nursing organizations:

ANS:   B

Lack of understanding about the appropriate exercise of power affects internal and external relationships.

REF:    Pages 177, 178                        TOP:    AONE competency: Professionalism

3. A nurse belongs to several professional organizations, serving on a state-level committee of one group and on two task forces at work. The nurse is committed to a range of health issues. This nurse exemplifies which level of political activism in nursing?

ANS:   D

The nurse recognizes that influence occurs at many levels, and that public policy and politics shape what we do as nurses—from nursing practice acts that allow licensure to policies that drive reimbursement.

REF:    Pages 178        TOP:    AONE competency: Professionalism

4. A manager relies on his director (immediate supervisor) for advice about enrolling in graduate school to prepare for a career as a nurse executive. The director may exercise what kinds of power in the relationship with the manager in this advisory situation?

ANS:   C

Because the director is in a leadership role, he comes with knowledge or expertise that is required to assume a leadership role, and he has information that he is willing to share, which gives him the power of information. The employee sees him as credible and seeks his advice, which gives him referent power.

REF:    Page 179         TOP:    AONE competency: Business Skills

5. A nurse manager must implement a 2% budget cut on the nursing unit. Which approach should the manager use to most effectively empower the staff of the unit?

ANS:   A

Empowerment involves valuing the ideas and opinions of others and involving them in the decision-making process. It means releasing authority and allowing others accountability as well.

REF:    Pages 180, 181

TOP:    AONE competency: Communication and Relationship-Building