NCLEX practice questions and answers Patient Education
2024/2025
1. A nurse is asked about the goal of patient education. What is the nurse's best
response? The goal of educating others is to help people
a. Meet standards of the Nurse Practice Act.
b. Achieve optimal levels of health.
c. Become dependent on the health care team.
d. Provide self-care only in the hospital.
ANS: B
The goal of educating others about their health is to help individuals, families, or
communities achieve optimal levels of health. Although all state Nurse Practice Acts
acknowledge that patient teaching falls within the scope of nursing practice, this is the
nurse's standard, not the goal of education. Patient education helps patients make
informed decisions about their care and become healthier and more independent, not
dependent. Nurses provide patients with information needed for self-care to ensure
continuity of care from the hospital to the home.
2. A nurse is teaching a group of healthy adults about the benefits of flu
immunizations. Which purpose of patient education is the nurse fulfilling?
a. Restoration of health
b. Coping with impaired functions
c. Promotion of health and illness prevention
d. Health analogies
ANS: C
As a nurse, you are a visible, competent resource for patients who want to improve their
physical and psychological well-being. In the school, home, clinic, or workplace, you
promote health and prevent illness by providing information and skills that enable
patients to assume healthier behaviors. Injured and ill patients need information and
skills to help them regain or maintain their level of health; this is referred to as
restoration of health. Not all patients fully recover from illness or injury. Many have to
learn to cope with permanent health alterations; this is known as coping with impaired
functions. Analogies supplement verbal instruction with familiar images that make
complex information more real and understandable. For example, when explaining
arterial blood pressure, use an analogy of the flow of water through a hose.
3. A nurse provides teaching about coping with long-term impaired functions.
Which situation serves as the best example?
a. Teaching a family member to give medications through the patient's permanent
gastric tube
b. Teaching a woman who recently had a hysterectomy about her pathology
reports
c. Teaching expectant parents about physical and psychological changes in
childbearing women
d. Teaching a teenager with a broken leg how to use crutches
ANS: A
Not all patients fully recover from illness or injury. Many have to learn to cope with
, permanent health alterations. New knowledge and skills are often necessary for patients
and/or family members to continue activities of daily living. Teaching family members to
help the patient with health care management (e.g., giving medications through gastric
tubes, doing passive range-of-motion exercises) is an example of coping with long-term
impaired functions. Injured and ill patients need information and skills to help them
regain or maintain their levels of health. Some examples of this include teaching a
woman who recently had a hysterectomy about her pathology reports and expected
length of recovery and teaching a teenager with a broken leg how to use crutches. In
childbearing classes, you teach expectant parents about physical and psychological
changes in the woman and about fetal development; this is part of health maintenance.
4. Which statement indicates that the nurse has a good understanding of
teaching/learning?
a. "Teaching and learning can be separated."
b. "Learning is an interactive process that promotes teaching."
c. "Learning consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions designed to help
the teacher."
d. "Teaching is most effective when it responds to the learner's needs."
ANS: D
Teaching is most effective when it responds to the learner's needs. It is impossible to
separate teaching from learning. Teaching is an interactive process that promotes
learning. Teaching consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions that help individuals
gain new knowledge, change attitudes, adopt new behaviors, or perform new skills.
5. Which action best indicates that learning has occurred?
a. A nurse presents information about diabetes.
b. A patient demonstrates how to inject insulin.
c. A family member listens to a lecture on diabetes.
d. A primary care provider hands a diabetes pamphlet to the patient.
ANS: B
Learning is the purposeful acquisition of new knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills.
Complex patterns are required if the patient is to learn new skills, change existing
attitudes, transfer learning to new situations, or solve problems. A new mother exhibits
learning when she demonstrates how to bathe her newborn. A nurse presenting
information and a primary care provider handing a pamphlet to a patient are examples
of teaching. A family member listening to a lecture does not indicate that learning
occurred; a change in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and/or skills must be evident.
6. A nurse is teaching a patient about the Speak Up Initiatives. Which information
should the nurse include?
a. The nurse is the center of the health care team.
b. If you still do not understand, ask again.
c. Ask a nurse to be your advocate or supporter.
d. Inappropriate medical tests are the most common mistakes.
ANS: B
If you still do not understand, ask again is part of the S portion of the Speak Up
Initiatives. Speak up if you have questions or concerns. You (the patient) are the center
of the health care team, not the nurse. Ask a trusted family member or friend to be your
2024/2025
1. A nurse is asked about the goal of patient education. What is the nurse's best
response? The goal of educating others is to help people
a. Meet standards of the Nurse Practice Act.
b. Achieve optimal levels of health.
c. Become dependent on the health care team.
d. Provide self-care only in the hospital.
ANS: B
The goal of educating others about their health is to help individuals, families, or
communities achieve optimal levels of health. Although all state Nurse Practice Acts
acknowledge that patient teaching falls within the scope of nursing practice, this is the
nurse's standard, not the goal of education. Patient education helps patients make
informed decisions about their care and become healthier and more independent, not
dependent. Nurses provide patients with information needed for self-care to ensure
continuity of care from the hospital to the home.
2. A nurse is teaching a group of healthy adults about the benefits of flu
immunizations. Which purpose of patient education is the nurse fulfilling?
a. Restoration of health
b. Coping with impaired functions
c. Promotion of health and illness prevention
d. Health analogies
ANS: C
As a nurse, you are a visible, competent resource for patients who want to improve their
physical and psychological well-being. In the school, home, clinic, or workplace, you
promote health and prevent illness by providing information and skills that enable
patients to assume healthier behaviors. Injured and ill patients need information and
skills to help them regain or maintain their level of health; this is referred to as
restoration of health. Not all patients fully recover from illness or injury. Many have to
learn to cope with permanent health alterations; this is known as coping with impaired
functions. Analogies supplement verbal instruction with familiar images that make
complex information more real and understandable. For example, when explaining
arterial blood pressure, use an analogy of the flow of water through a hose.
3. A nurse provides teaching about coping with long-term impaired functions.
Which situation serves as the best example?
a. Teaching a family member to give medications through the patient's permanent
gastric tube
b. Teaching a woman who recently had a hysterectomy about her pathology
reports
c. Teaching expectant parents about physical and psychological changes in
childbearing women
d. Teaching a teenager with a broken leg how to use crutches
ANS: A
Not all patients fully recover from illness or injury. Many have to learn to cope with
, permanent health alterations. New knowledge and skills are often necessary for patients
and/or family members to continue activities of daily living. Teaching family members to
help the patient with health care management (e.g., giving medications through gastric
tubes, doing passive range-of-motion exercises) is an example of coping with long-term
impaired functions. Injured and ill patients need information and skills to help them
regain or maintain their levels of health. Some examples of this include teaching a
woman who recently had a hysterectomy about her pathology reports and expected
length of recovery and teaching a teenager with a broken leg how to use crutches. In
childbearing classes, you teach expectant parents about physical and psychological
changes in the woman and about fetal development; this is part of health maintenance.
4. Which statement indicates that the nurse has a good understanding of
teaching/learning?
a. "Teaching and learning can be separated."
b. "Learning is an interactive process that promotes teaching."
c. "Learning consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions designed to help
the teacher."
d. "Teaching is most effective when it responds to the learner's needs."
ANS: D
Teaching is most effective when it responds to the learner's needs. It is impossible to
separate teaching from learning. Teaching is an interactive process that promotes
learning. Teaching consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions that help individuals
gain new knowledge, change attitudes, adopt new behaviors, or perform new skills.
5. Which action best indicates that learning has occurred?
a. A nurse presents information about diabetes.
b. A patient demonstrates how to inject insulin.
c. A family member listens to a lecture on diabetes.
d. A primary care provider hands a diabetes pamphlet to the patient.
ANS: B
Learning is the purposeful acquisition of new knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills.
Complex patterns are required if the patient is to learn new skills, change existing
attitudes, transfer learning to new situations, or solve problems. A new mother exhibits
learning when she demonstrates how to bathe her newborn. A nurse presenting
information and a primary care provider handing a pamphlet to a patient are examples
of teaching. A family member listening to a lecture does not indicate that learning
occurred; a change in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and/or skills must be evident.
6. A nurse is teaching a patient about the Speak Up Initiatives. Which information
should the nurse include?
a. The nurse is the center of the health care team.
b. If you still do not understand, ask again.
c. Ask a nurse to be your advocate or supporter.
d. Inappropriate medical tests are the most common mistakes.
ANS: B
If you still do not understand, ask again is part of the S portion of the Speak Up
Initiatives. Speak up if you have questions or concerns. You (the patient) are the center
of the health care team, not the nurse. Ask a trusted family member or friend to be your
