Nursing 110 Chapter 4 Test Bank
1. The nursing instructor is teaching a class on nursing theory. One of the students asks, "Why do we
need to know this stuff? It doesn't really affect patients." What is the instructor's best response?
a."You are correct, but we have to learn it anyway."
b."This keeps the focus of nursing narrow."
c."Theories help explain why nurses do what they do."
d."Exposure to theories will help you later in graduate school."
ANS: C
Theories offer well-grounded rationales for how and why nurses perform specific interventions and
for predicting and/or prescribing nursing care measures. Although nursing theory will help the nurse
in graduate school, it is also an important basis for the nurse's approach to daily patient care, and it
expands scientific knowledge of the profession.
2. The nurse is caring for a patient who does not follow the prescribed regimen for diabetes
management. As a prescriber to Orem's theory, the nurse interviews the patient in an attempt to
identify the cause of the patient's "noncompliance." What is the rationale for the nurse's behavior?
a.Orem's theory is useful in designing interventions to promote self-care.
b.Orem's theory focuses on cultural issues that may affect compliance.
c.Orem's theory allows for reduction of anxiety with communication.
d.Orem's theory helps nurses manipulate the patient's environment.
ANS: A
When applying Orem's theory, a nurse continually assesses a patient's ability to perform self-care and
intervenes as needed to ensure that the patients meet physical, psychological, sociological, and
developmental needs. According to Orem, people who participate in self-care activities are more
,likely to improve their health outcomes. Leiniger's culture care theory focuses on culture diversity and
provides culturally specific nursing care. According to Peplau, nurses help patients reduce anxiety by
converting it into constructive actions, using therapeutic communication. Nightingale's grand theory is
a patient's environment can be manipulated by nurses to restore a patient to health.
3. A nurse is testing meditation for migraine headaches and the expected outcome of care when
performing this intervention. Which type of theory is the nurse using?
a.Grand
b.Prescriptive
c.Descriptive
d.Middle-range
ANS: B
A prescriptive theory details nursing interventions (meditation) for a specific phenomenon (migraine
headaches) and the expected outcome of the care. Grand theories are broad in scope and complex
and require further specification through research; it does not provide guidance for specific nursing
interventions. Descriptive theories do not direct specific nursing activities but help to explain patient
assessment. A middle-range theory tends to focus on a concept found in a specific field of nursing,
such as uncertainty, incontinence, social support, quality of life, and caring, rather than reflect on a
wide variety of nursing care situations.
4. The nurse researcher is evaluating whether holding pressure at an injection site after injecting the
anticoagulant enoxaparin will reduce bruising at the injection site. This study involves a prescriptive
theory. What is the nurse's rationale for involving a prescriptive theory?
a.It explains why bruising occurs.
b.It is broad in scope and complex.
c.It tests a specific nursing intervention.
d.It reflects a wide variety of nursing care situations.
ANS: C
, Prescriptive theories detail nursing interventions for a specific phenomenon and the expected
outcome of the care but it does not explain why. Grand theories are broad in scope and complex and
focus on a wide variety of nursing care situations.
5. A nurse is using nursing theory and the nursing process simultaneously to plan nursing care. How
will the nurse use nursing theory and the nursing process in practice?
a.Nursing theory can direct how a nurse uses the nursing process.
b.Nursing theory requires the nursing process to develop knowledge.
c.Nursing theory with the nursing process has a minor role in professional nursing.
d.Nursing theory combined with the nursing process is specific to certain ill patients.
ANS: A
Nursing theory can direct how a nurse uses the nursing process. Integration of theory into practice
(nursing process) serves as the basis for professional nursing. The nursing process provides a
systematic process for the delivery of care, not the knowledge component of the discipline. Useful
theories are adaptable to different patients and to all care settings.
6. The nurse views the patient as an open system that needs help in coping with stressors. Which
theorist is the nurse using?
a.King
b.Levine
c.Neuman
d.Johnson
ANS: C
Neuman views a patient as being an open system that is in constant energy exchange with the
environment that the nurse must help cope with stressors. King views a patient as a unique personal
system that is constantly interacting/transacting with other systems that the nurse helps with goal
attainment. Levine believes nurses promote balance between nursing interventions and patient
1. The nursing instructor is teaching a class on nursing theory. One of the students asks, "Why do we
need to know this stuff? It doesn't really affect patients." What is the instructor's best response?
a."You are correct, but we have to learn it anyway."
b."This keeps the focus of nursing narrow."
c."Theories help explain why nurses do what they do."
d."Exposure to theories will help you later in graduate school."
ANS: C
Theories offer well-grounded rationales for how and why nurses perform specific interventions and
for predicting and/or prescribing nursing care measures. Although nursing theory will help the nurse
in graduate school, it is also an important basis for the nurse's approach to daily patient care, and it
expands scientific knowledge of the profession.
2. The nurse is caring for a patient who does not follow the prescribed regimen for diabetes
management. As a prescriber to Orem's theory, the nurse interviews the patient in an attempt to
identify the cause of the patient's "noncompliance." What is the rationale for the nurse's behavior?
a.Orem's theory is useful in designing interventions to promote self-care.
b.Orem's theory focuses on cultural issues that may affect compliance.
c.Orem's theory allows for reduction of anxiety with communication.
d.Orem's theory helps nurses manipulate the patient's environment.
ANS: A
When applying Orem's theory, a nurse continually assesses a patient's ability to perform self-care and
intervenes as needed to ensure that the patients meet physical, psychological, sociological, and
developmental needs. According to Orem, people who participate in self-care activities are more
,likely to improve their health outcomes. Leiniger's culture care theory focuses on culture diversity and
provides culturally specific nursing care. According to Peplau, nurses help patients reduce anxiety by
converting it into constructive actions, using therapeutic communication. Nightingale's grand theory is
a patient's environment can be manipulated by nurses to restore a patient to health.
3. A nurse is testing meditation for migraine headaches and the expected outcome of care when
performing this intervention. Which type of theory is the nurse using?
a.Grand
b.Prescriptive
c.Descriptive
d.Middle-range
ANS: B
A prescriptive theory details nursing interventions (meditation) for a specific phenomenon (migraine
headaches) and the expected outcome of the care. Grand theories are broad in scope and complex
and require further specification through research; it does not provide guidance for specific nursing
interventions. Descriptive theories do not direct specific nursing activities but help to explain patient
assessment. A middle-range theory tends to focus on a concept found in a specific field of nursing,
such as uncertainty, incontinence, social support, quality of life, and caring, rather than reflect on a
wide variety of nursing care situations.
4. The nurse researcher is evaluating whether holding pressure at an injection site after injecting the
anticoagulant enoxaparin will reduce bruising at the injection site. This study involves a prescriptive
theory. What is the nurse's rationale for involving a prescriptive theory?
a.It explains why bruising occurs.
b.It is broad in scope and complex.
c.It tests a specific nursing intervention.
d.It reflects a wide variety of nursing care situations.
ANS: C
, Prescriptive theories detail nursing interventions for a specific phenomenon and the expected
outcome of the care but it does not explain why. Grand theories are broad in scope and complex and
focus on a wide variety of nursing care situations.
5. A nurse is using nursing theory and the nursing process simultaneously to plan nursing care. How
will the nurse use nursing theory and the nursing process in practice?
a.Nursing theory can direct how a nurse uses the nursing process.
b.Nursing theory requires the nursing process to develop knowledge.
c.Nursing theory with the nursing process has a minor role in professional nursing.
d.Nursing theory combined with the nursing process is specific to certain ill patients.
ANS: A
Nursing theory can direct how a nurse uses the nursing process. Integration of theory into practice
(nursing process) serves as the basis for professional nursing. The nursing process provides a
systematic process for the delivery of care, not the knowledge component of the discipline. Useful
theories are adaptable to different patients and to all care settings.
6. The nurse views the patient as an open system that needs help in coping with stressors. Which
theorist is the nurse using?
a.King
b.Levine
c.Neuman
d.Johnson
ANS: C
Neuman views a patient as being an open system that is in constant energy exchange with the
environment that the nurse must help cope with stressors. King views a patient as a unique personal
system that is constantly interacting/transacting with other systems that the nurse helps with goal
attainment. Levine believes nurses promote balance between nursing interventions and patient
