Cardiac Vascular Nursing Exam Quality Control & Assurance 2

Question 1

A cardiovascular unit is implementing a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle to reduce door-to-balloon times. Which phase involves analyzing collected data to determine if the change was effective?

Accepted Answer

Study

Answer

The Study phase involves analyzing data collected during the Do phase to evaluate whether the intervention achieved the desired improvement.

Question 2

A nurse notices that the anticoagulation protocol for STEMI patients is being inconsistently applied across shifts. Which quality improvement tool best identifies the root cause of this variation?

Accepted Answer

Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram

Answer

A fishbone diagram systematically categorizes potential root causes (people, process, equipment, environment) contributing to a problem.

Question 3

Which metric is considered the gold standard for measuring quality of care in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) management?

Accepted Answer

Door-to-balloon time under 90 minutes

Answer

Door-to-balloon (DTB) time ≤90 minutes is the ACC/AHA benchmark quality indicator for primary PCI in STEMI patients.

Question 4

A cardiac cath lab reviews its radiation dose records as part of quality assurance. A patient's cumulative fluoroscopy time appears unusually high. What is the most appropriate next QA step?

Accepted Answer

Compare the case against established dose reference levels and conduct peer review

Answer

Comparing doses against diagnostic reference levels and conducting structured peer review determines whether the dose was clinically justified before escalating.

Question 5

In the context of cardiac nursing quality metrics, what does 'failure to rescue' measure?

Accepted Answer

Death rate among patients who develop a serious complication

Answer

Failure to rescue is a quality indicator measuring mortality among patients who develop a major complication, reflecting nurses' ability to detect and act on deterioration.

Cardiac Vascular Nursing Exam Practice Test

Cardiac Vascular Nursing Exam Practice Test

Cardiac Vascular Nursing Exam Quality Control & Assurance 2