Question 1

A community health nurse is discussing with a student nurse, the importance of engaging in assurance activities. Which statement made by the student nurse would demonstrate an understanding of assurance activities?

Accepted Answer

Assurance activities are those activities that make certain that services are provided and include focusing on the availability of necessary health services throughout the community, maintaining the ability of public health agencies and private providers to manage day-to-day operations as well as the capacity to respond to critical situations and emergencies. Assessment involves gathering and analyzing information that will affect the health of those to be served and accessing relevant data to enable the nurse to identify strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Policy development involves providing leadership in facilitating community groups.

Question 2

When fulfilling the function of assessment, which action would be most important for the community health nurse to take?

Accepted Answer

Although securing and maintaining the trust of others is pivotal to all nursing practice, it is even more critical when working in the community. Trust can afford a nurse access to client populations that are difficult to engage, to agencies, and to health care providers. As difficult as it may be for the nurse to gain the trust and respect of the community, if it is ever lost, these attributes can be difficult if not impossible to regain. Gathering information, interacting with key community leaders, and using a variety of assessment tools are important, but they can only occur after trust is established.

Question 3

The community health nurse is engaging in the core function of policy development. With which of the activity would the nurse most likely be involved?

Accepted Answer

With policy development, the community health nurse would be involved in informing, educating, and empowering people about health issues. Monitoring health status is associated with the assessment function. Linking individuals to needed personal health services and ensuring a competent public health and personal health care workforce are associated with assurance.

Question 4

A community health nurse is collaborating with local community leaders to prepare a community disaster plan. Which function is the nurse fulfilling?

Accepted Answer

Community health nurses perform the assurance function at the community level when they collaborate with community leaders in the preparation of a community disaster plan. Research is demonstrated by gaining new insights and innovative solutions to health problems. Policy development would involve client information, education and empowerment, mobilization of community partnerships, and the development of plans and policies to support community health efforts. Assessment involves monitoring health status for community health problems and diagnosing and investigating health problems and hazards in the community.

Question 5

A community health nurse has collected data for several months on the birth weights of newborns to mothers who smoked throughout their pregnancy. This nurse is acting in which role?

Accepted Answer

The nurse is assuming the role of a researcher, that is, engaging in systematic investigation that includes data collection. In the collaborator role, the nurse would work with numerous members of the health team, working jointly with others in a common endeavor. In the manager role, the nurse exercises administrative direction toward the accomplishment of specified goals. In the clinician role, the nurse ensures the provision of health care services to individuals, families, groups, and populations.

Question 6

A nurse in community health nursing setting works with police officers, social workers, health educators, and other nurses to promote the health of clients. The nurse is acting in which role?

Accepted Answer

The nurse is assuming the role of collaborator. In this role, the community health nurse works jointly with many individuals to benefit client care. In the clinician role, the nurse ensures the provision of health care services to individuals, families, groups, and populations. As an educator, the nurse is the health teacher and provides information to community clients. In the researcher role, the community health nurse engages in systematic investigation, collection, and analysis of data for solving problems and enhancing community health practice.

Question 7

A community health nurse is interviewing for employment. The interviewer describes some of the typical activities that the nurse would be involved in, such as making home visits to families, holding immunization clinics for infants and children, and setting up flu shot clinics for elders. The interviewer is describing which role?

Accepted Answer

The interviewer is describing direct care activities associated with the clinician role. As an educator, the nurse is the health teacher and provides information to community clients. In the advocate role, the nurse pleads for the clients' cause or acts on their behalf. In the manager role, the nurse exercises administrative direction toward the accomplishment of specified goals.

Question 8

A community health nurse is reviewing his or her schedule for the day. Included in his or her activities are planning client care, leading a staff conference, and supervising a new staff member. This nurse is fulfilling which role?

Accepted Answer

When functioning in the manager role, the nurse exercises administrative direction toward the accomplishment of specified goals. Overseeing client care as a case manager, supervising ancillary staff, managing caseloads, running clinics, or conducting community health needs assessment projects are examples of activities associated with the manager role. In the advocate role, the nurse pleads for the clients' cause or acts on their behalf. In the collaborator role, the nurse would work with numerous members of the health team, working jointly with others in a common endeavor. In the researcher role, the community health nurse engages in systematic investigation, collection, and analysis of data for solving problems and enhancing community health practice.

Question 9

While providing care to a family at a local center, the community health nurse contacts the local department of social services to help the family attain assistance with health insurance coverage and a list of pharmacies to get their prescriptions filled. The nurse is acting in which role?

Accepted Answer

The nurse is acting in the role of advocate, by pleading their cause and acting on their behalf. The nurse acts as an advocate by showing clients what services are available, the ones to which they are entitled, and how to obtain them. As an educator, the nurse is the health teacher and provides information to community clients. As a leader, the nurse directs, influences, or persuades others to effect change that will positively impact people's health and move them toward a goal. In the clinician role, the nurse ensures the provision of health care services to individuals, families, groups, and populations.

Question 10

Which action best exemplifies the attributes of a community health nurse in the researcher role?

Accepted Answer

Attributes of a researcher include a spirit of inquiry; careful observation; analytic skills, such as evaluating the possible cause and effect of a situation; and tenacity. Gaining the trust and respect of staff, interpreting abstract ideas, and implementing a staff development program are examples of the management skills used in the role of manager.

Question 11

Which statement about the role of educator within the framework of public health nursing functions is true?

Accepted Answer

The educator role has the potential for finding greater receptivity and providing higher-yield results. People are recognizing the value of health and are increasingly motivated to achieve higher levels of wellness. With an emphasis on populations and aggregates, the educational efforts of community health nursing are appropriately targeted to reach many people. One factor that enhances the educator role is the public's higher level of health consciousness.

Question 12

Which statement about the importance of the role of collaborator is true?

Accepted Answer

Community health nurses seldom practice in isolation. As collaborators, nurses work jointly with others in a common endeavor, cooperating as partners. Successful community health practice depends on multidisciplinary collegiality and leadership. The community health nurse's collaborator role requires skills in communicating, in interpreting the nurse's unique contribution to the team, and in acting assertively as an equal partner.

Question 13

Which statement about the community health nurse's selection and practice of each role is true?

Accepted Answer

Community health nurses wear many hats while conducting day-to-day practice. At any given time, however, one role is primary. They need someone to guide them through the complexities of the system and assure the satisfaction of their needs. This is particularly true for minorities and disadvantaged groups. Although research technically involves a complex set of activities conducted by persons with highly developed and specialized skills, research also means applying that technical study to real-practice situations. As leaders, community health nurses seek to initiate changes that positively affect people's health.

Question 14

A community health nurse is involved in education, screening, referral, and support for the individuals of a specific religious congregation. The nurse is practicing in which setting?

Accepted Answer

In faith community nursing, the practice focal point is the faith community and the religious belief system provided by the philosophical framework. It may be called church-based health promotion, parish nursing, or primary care parish nursing practice. Occupational health nursing occurs in business and industry settings. School nursing, as the name implies, involves practicing in the school system, including from preschools to colleges and universities. Residential institution nursing occurs in any facility where the clients reside such as a halfway house or continuing care center.

Question 15

Which statement is true regarding the differentiation of the home setting for community health nursing from other settings?

Accepted Answer

In the home, unlike most other health care settings, clients are on their own "turf," such that the client is the host, comfortable and secure in familiar surroundings, and the nurse is a guest. Although education may be a major component of care in the home, all community health nursing roles are performed to varying degrees. In addition, technologically advanced care in the home is increasing in demand, with the home being the most frequently used setting for community health nursing.

Question 16

After teaching a group of students about the various settings for community health nursing, the instructor determines that this teaching was successful when the students identify which facility as an example of ambulatory service setting?

Accepted Answer

Ambulatory service setting includes a variety of venues for community health nursing in which clients come for day or evening services that do not include overnight stays. One example is a family planning clinic. A local preschool would be an example of a school setting. A halfway house and continuing care center are examples of residential institutions.

Question 17

After teaching a group of students about the changing roles of the community health nurse in the occupational setting, the instructor determines that the students need additional teaching when they state:

Accepted Answer

The clinician role was primary for many years, as nurses continued to care for sick or injured employees at work. However, recognition of the need to protect employees' safety and, later, to prevent their illness led to the inclusion of health education in the occupational health nurse role. Occupational health nurses also act as employee advocates, assuring appropriate job assignments for workers and adequate treatment for job-related illness or injury. They collaborate with other health care providers and company management to offer better services to their clients. They act as leaders and managers in developing new health services in the work setting, endorsing programs such as hypertension screening and weight control.

Question 18

A community health nurse is working as a lobbyist for health legislation for AIDS research at the state capital. This nurse is practicing in which setting?

Accepted Answer

The community at large is not confined to a specific philosophy, location, or building. It serves as the setting for practice of a nurse who serves on health care planning committees, lobbies for health legislation at the state capital, runs for a school board position, or assists with flood relief in another state or country. Faith community nursing focuses on activities involving the faith community and religious belief system. Ambulatory service settings include a variety of venues in which clients come for day or evening services that do not include overnight stays. Residential institutions include any facility where clients reside.

Question 19

Which statement is true regarding the description of school nursing?

Accepted Answer

School nurses, whose primary role initially was that of clinician, are widening their practice to include more health education, interprofessional collaboration, and client advocacy.

Question 20

A community health nurse is assuming the role of a manager. Which problem-solving activity would be most important for the nurse to address first when designing a community health fair?

Accepted Answer

The management process incorporates a series of problem-solving activities or function: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and evaluating. Although these activities occur simultaneously, they are sequential with planning being the first activity.

Quiz 2: Public Health Nursing in the Community