Exam 15: Loss, Grief, and End-of-Life Care

A patient admitted to the nursing home for terminal care is determined that he should not receive extraordinary measures such as resuscitation or the use of a ventilator if he stops breathing, or intravenous (IV) fluids or a feeding tube if he is unable to eat or drink. The nurse explains that these desires can best be honored by:

When the parents of a child who is on life support ask what indicates brain death, the nurse responds that brain death occurs when:

The nurse can assess Cheyne-Stokes respiration by its characteristics of respirations that are:

An oncologist has recommended that a hospice patient receives palliative radiation to reduce the pain of bony metastases. The patient reacts with anger, saying, "I don't want any more treatments that don't cure my cancer!" The hospice nurse tells the patient that the use of radiation:

A 33-year-old patient has been told that her disease is terminal. The patient is crying and states, "I will just be a dependent drain on my family. I hate being a burden to them." The nurse can best respond:

The nurse who adopts the Maciejewski theory of grief assesses for the reduction of grief after a period of ________ months.

A terminal patient in a skilled nursing home has stated that he does not want to get out of bed, because he is too tired and weak to sit in a chair. He sleeps on and off all day and night, his position is changed every 2 hours, and he is comfortable on his pain regimen. The next day the nurse will:

A patient who was admitted to hospice for comfort care of end-stage respiratory disease is asked what his hope is for his remaining life. He says, "I'm hoping for a miracle-that I will wake up one of these mornings and be able to breathe like when I was 20." The nurse would best respond:

When the patient says, "I can die happily if I can live long enough to see my first grandchild that will be born next month." The nurse assesses that this patient is experiencing Kübler Ross's stage of:

A terminally ill patient and his family have requested hospice care. The nurse clarifies hospice care philosophy as:

The nurse discusses the grief theory of Maciejewski, which outlines the stages of grief as including: (Select all that apply.)

A terminally ill patient is experiencing a great deal of dyspnea and noisy, "rattling," rapid respirations. The nurse administers morphine in a very small liquid or intramuscular dose. The purpose of this is to:

The culturally sensitive nurse would delay a discussion relative to a patient's terminal illness if that patient were a: