The 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act required drug manufacturers to test drugs for harmful effects before marketing them.
Correct Answer
True
True. The 1938 law focused on safety and required testing for harmful effects, although it did not yet require proof that drugs work. Proof of effectiveness came with the Kefauver-Harris Amendments in 1962.
Category: Federal Drug Laws
Question 2
A nursing student in clinical practice is held to the same standard of care as a licensed nurse.
Correct Answer
True
True. Nursing students practice under the supervision of qualified faculty in an approved program, but they are expected to provide the same safe, competent care a licensed nurse would. This is why students must be prepared and seek help before performing unfamiliar procedures.
Category: Nursing Regulation
Question 3
A multistate licensure compact allows a nurse whose primary state of residence is a participating state to practice in the other participating states with a single license.
Correct Answer
True
True. Under a compact, one multistate license issued by the nurse's home state, the primary state of residence, allows practice in other participating states. The nurse must still follow the laws of the state where the care is provided.
Category: Nursing Regulation
Question 4
HIPAA allows protected health information to be shared without the client's authorization with providers who are treating the client.
Correct Answer
True
True. The Privacy Rule permits disclosure without authorization for treatment, payment, and health care operations, and for certain legal and public health purposes, such as reporting abuse. Other disclosures generally need the client's authorization, and staff share only the minimum necessary.
Category: Privacy and Confidentiality
Question 5
The abbreviation MS is on The Joint Commission's Do Not Use list because it can be read as either morphine sulfate or magnesium sulfate.
Correct Answer
True
True. Because MS and MSO4 can be confused with MgSO4, the drug name must be written out. Confusing these two drugs could cause serious harm.
Category: Safe Documentation
Question 6
An adverse drug event can occur even when no medication error has been made.
Correct Answer
True
True. An adverse drug event is any harm a client experiences from exposure to a drug. Some result from preventable errors, but others, such as an adverse drug reaction to a correctly given drug, involve no error at all.
Category: Drug Reactions
Question 7
Look-alike, sound-alike drug names, such as dopamine and dobutamine, are a recognized cause of medication errors.
Correct Answer
True
True. Drug names that look or sound similar are easily confused when ordering, dispensing, or giving drugs. The ISMP keeps a list of confused drug names to help prevent these errors.
Category: Error Prevention
Question 8
Medication reconciliation compares the medications a client is already taking with newly ordered medications at a transition of care.
Correct Answer
True
True. At admission, transfer, and discharge, the nurse compares the client's current medication list with new orders and resolves any differences with the client, provider, and pharmacist. This catches omitted drugs, duplicates, and dosing discrepancies before they cause harm.
Category: Transitions of Care
Question 9
Documentation of client teaching should include how the client responded and how learning was evaluated.
Correct Answer
True
True. Teaching notes record the topic, the date, who taught, the client's response, and how learning was evaluated, such as by teach-back. This lets other team members see what still needs reinforcement.
Category: Safe Documentation
Question 10
In a culture of safety, staff are encouraged to report errors and near misses so that underlying system problems can be found and fixed.
Correct Answer
True
True. A culture of safety values openness, and a just culture focuses on improving processes rather than blaming individuals. Errors that are reported can be studied and the underlying system weaknesses corrected, while reckless conduct is still held accountable.
Category: Culture of Safety
Question 11
Nurses should document a medication as given before administering it, to save time during a busy shift.
Correct Answer
False
False. A medication is documented at the time it is given or shortly after, never before. Charting in advance creates a false legal record if the drug is then withheld, refused, or delayed.
Category: Safe Documentation
Question 12
Schedule I controlled substances have the lowest potential for abuse.
Correct Answer
False
False. Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in the United States. Abuse potential decreases as the schedule number rises, so Schedule V drugs have the lowest.
Category: Federal Drug Laws
Question 13
Nonmaleficence is the ethical duty to be truthful with clients.
Correct Answer
False
False. Nonmaleficence is the duty to avoid causing harm to clients and to protect them from it. Truthfulness is the principle of veracity.
Category: Ethical Principles
Question 14
An adverse drug reaction occurs only when a drug is given at an incorrect dose.
Correct Answer
False
False. An adverse drug reaction is a harmful, unintended response that occurs at doses normally used for treatment. It can happen even when the drug is prescribed, dispensed, and given correctly.
Category: Drug Reactions
Question 15
A soft-stop alert prevents the user from continuing until the problem is corrected.
Correct Answer
False
False. A soft-stop alert can be acknowledged, and the user may then proceed. An alert that blocks the user until an action is taken is a hard stop.
Category: Health Informatics
Question 16
Alert fatigue makes clinicians more attentive to each electronic warning they receive.
Correct Answer
False
False. Alert fatigue happens when frequent alerts interrupt work so often that clinicians begin to ignore or override them. It reduces, rather than increases, the effectiveness of each warning.
Category: Health Informatics
Question 17
The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects health information only when it is stored electronically.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Privacy Rule protects individually identifiable health information in any form, whether oral, written, or electronic. A separate Security Rule adds protections specific to electronic records.
Category: Privacy and Confidentiality
Question 18
A nurse who cannot read a handwritten medication order should give the drug based on the most likely reading.
Correct Answer
False
False. The nurse must contact the prescriber to clarify an illegible order before giving the drug. Guessing at an order is a common path to wrong-drug and wrong-dose errors.
Category: Error Prevention
Question 19
Informed consent requires only that the client be told the benefits of a treatment.
Correct Answer
False
False. Informed consent requires a full, understandable explanation of the reasons for a treatment, its risks and benefits, and its alternatives. The client then decides whether to accept or refuse it.
Category: Ethical Principles
Question 20
Medication errors can occur only at the stage when the nurse gives the drug to the client.
Correct Answer
False
False. Errors can occur at any step, from prescribing and transcribing to dispensing and administering. The nurse is often the last checkpoint before a drug reaches the client, which is why bedside checks matter.
Category: Medication Errors