MCQ Practice Flashcards
7 cards from real CHPN practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 MCQ Practice flashcards as text
A hospice patient with end-stage heart failure develops refractory ascites causing severe discomfort. The most appropriate palliative intervention is:
Answer: Perform therapeutic paracentesis for symptom relief
Therapeutic paracentesis provides rapid relief of discomfort caused by refractory ascites when other measures are insufficient in palliative care.
Which medication is MOST appropriate for managing death rattle (terminal secretions) in a dying patient?
Answer: Glycopyrrolate or hyoscine hydrobromide
Anticholinergic agents such as glycopyrrolate or hyoscine (scopolamine) dry secretions and are the pharmacological treatment of choice for terminal respiratory secretions.
A palliative care nurse documents a Karnofsky Performance Scale score of 30 for a patient. This score indicates the patient is:
Answer: Severely disabled, hospitalization indicated
A Karnofsky score of 30 indicates severe disability, unable to care for self, requiring hospitalization or equivalent institutional care.
Which of the following is the primary goal when managing pain in a patient who is actively dying and no longer able to swallow?
Answer: Convert to an equivalent subcutaneous or IV continuous infusion
When a patient can no longer swallow, maintaining comfort requires converting opioids to an equivalent parenteral or subcutaneous route to ensure continuous pain control.
A nurse caring for a patient of a different cultural background notices the family is making all medical decisions without consulting the patient. The nurse should first:
Answer: Explore the patient's own wishes and preferences regarding decision-making roles
Culturally competent care requires assessing the patient's own preferences about family-centered decision-making before assuming Western autonomy norms apply.
Which scale is specifically designed and validated to assess pain in non-communicative patients with dementia?
Answer: PAINAD (Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia)
The PAINAD scale assesses pain in non-verbal dementia patients by observing breathing, vocalization, facial expression, body language, and consolability.
A patient taking fentanyl patches is switched to oral morphine. The nurse should understand that equianalgesic conversion requires:
Answer: Starting at 50% of the calculated equianalgesic dose to account for incomplete cross-tolerance
When rotating opioids, it is standard practice to reduce the calculated equianalgesic dose by 25–50% to account for incomplete cross-tolerance and individual variation.