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Patient Assessment and Planning 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 Patient Assessment and Planning flashcards as text
  1. Which component of the nursing assessment MOST directly informs the appropriateness of hospice eligibility for a non-cancer diagnosis?

    Answer: Disease-specific decline criteria and functional status

    For non-cancer diagnoses, hospice eligibility is determined by disease-specific LCD (Local Coverage Determination) criteria combined with evidence of functional decline.

  2. A palliative nurse uses the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS). What distinguishes MSAS from simpler symptom tools?

    Answer: It captures frequency, severity, and distress for 32 symptoms

    MSAS is a multidimensional tool that assesses 32 symptoms across three dimensions—frequency, severity, and distress—giving a comprehensive symptom burden profile.

  3. A hospice nurse is assessing a patient's caregiver for burnout. Which finding is MOST indicative of caregiver strain?

    Answer: Caregiver reports sleep deprivation, resentment, and social isolation

    Sleep deprivation, resentment, and social isolation are hallmark signs of caregiver strain and burnout, requiring targeted support interventions.

  4. When performing a spiritual assessment using the FICA framework, the 'I' stands for:

    Answer: Importance and Influence

    In the FICA Spiritual Assessment Tool, 'I' represents Importance and Influence—asking how important spirituality is to the patient and how it influences their health decisions.

  5. A dying patient's wife asks the hospice nurse why her husband's hands and feet are mottled and cold. The nurse's BEST response explains that this occurs because:

    Answer: Circulation is withdrawing to vital organs as the body shuts down

    Mottling and cool extremities occur as circulation centralizes to perfuse vital organs in the final stages of dying, not from cold environment or pain.

  6. Which assessment finding in a hospice patient with heart failure MOST strongly predicts short-term mortality and warrants urgent care plan revision?

    Answer: Resting dyspnea unrelieved by diuretics with SpO2 below 85%

    Resting dyspnea refractory to diuretics combined with SpO2 below 85% indicates severely decompensated heart failure with high short-term mortality risk, requiring immediate care plan adjustment.

  7. A nurse documents the patient's appetite using a validated tool. The Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) predicts which outcome in palliative patients?

    Answer: Significant weight loss and nutritional decline

    SNAQ is validated to predict significant weight loss (≥5% in 6 months) in community-dwelling and palliative patients, guiding nutritional intervention decisions.

Patient Assessment and Planning Flashcards — CHPN Study Cards with Answers