Nursing Decisions: Clinical Reasoning Quiz

Clearly stating patient Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation to the provider

Listing all recent medications and lab values without a recommended next step

Sending a vague message like 'patient not doing well' via text only

Waiting for provider to ask questions before giving any details

Assess and support airway and breathing before addressing circulation

Start discharge teaching to reduce anxiety

Call the provider and wait for orders prior to any interventions

Obtain full medication history before interventions

Explaining options, risks, benefits, and eliciting the patient's values and preferences before recommending a plan

Deferring all choices entirely to family members without patient input

Telling the patient the single best medical option without discussion

Providing extensive technical literature and expecting the patient to decide alone

Encouraging frequent small sips without supervision

Withholding all oral intake without assessing swallowing ability

Elevating the head of the bed during and after oral intake and performing swallowing precautions

Administering antacids to neutralize gastric contents

Ignore patient report and rely only on vital signs

Treat the numeric score exactly the same for every patient

Consider the score within context—baseline, trends, treatment effect, and functional impact

Always escalate to provider regardless of context

Starting the procedure quickly to reduce patient discomfort without verification

Having one team member check two items while others proceed

Doing the time‑out after anesthesia induction

Team confirms patient identity, procedure, site, allergies, and necessary equipment before starting

Give PRN antipyretic and refrain from further assessment

Document the findings but do not inform the team to avoid alarm

Wait four hours to see if symptoms worsen before acting

Promptly notify the provider and initiate sepsis protocol measures such as monitoring and IV access per facility policy

Nurses should always follow orders exactly, even if they seem harmful

Only physicians are accountable for patient safety decisions

Nurses can ignore orders they disagree with without notifying anyone

Nurses are responsible for questioning unclear, unsafe, or contraindicated orders and advocating for patient safety