CNE Risk Assessment & Mitigation 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CNE is updating the nursing program's clinical policies after a sentinel event. Which step in risk management should occur first?
- Implement new policies immediately
- Conduct a root cause analysis (RCA) (Correct answer)
- Notify accreditation bodies
- Suspend the involved clinical faculty
Correct answer: Conduct a root cause analysis (RCA)
RCA must precede policy changes to ensure that interventions address the true underlying causes of the sentinel event rather than surface symptoms.
Question 2: Which ethical principle most directly guides a nurse educator's responsibility to minimize harm to students during high-risk skill labs?
- Justice
- Nonmaleficence (Correct answer)
- Autonomy
- Fidelity
Correct answer: Nonmaleficence
Nonmaleficence — the duty to do no harm — obligates educators to create safe learning environments and mitigate risks in skills labs.
Question 3: Students in a clinical site report feeling pressured to perform procedures beyond their competency level. How should the CNE respond to this risk?
- Encourage students to comply with staff requests to gain experience
- Immediately address the site's practices and reinforce scope of practice boundaries (Correct answer)
- Transfer students to a different site without investigating
- Document the concern and take no further action
Correct answer: Immediately address the site's practices and reinforce scope of practice boundaries
The CNE is responsible for student safety and must intervene when clinical sites create situations where students are asked to exceed their competency boundaries.
Question 4: When teaching nursing students about fall prevention, which risk stratification tool is most commonly used in US acute care settings?
- Braden Scale
- Morse Fall Scale (Correct answer)
- Glasgow Coma Scale
- CAGE Questionnaire
Correct answer: Morse Fall Scale
The Morse Fall Scale is the most widely validated and used fall risk assessment tool in US acute care environments.
Question 5: A nursing program receives an accreditation concern about inadequate preparation for disaster nursing. Which curricular addition best mitigates this risk?
- Add a lecture on historical disasters
- Incorporate tabletop disaster drills and mass casualty triage simulations (Correct answer)
- Require students to read FEMA guidelines independently
- Increase the number of community health clinical hours
Correct answer: Incorporate tabletop disaster drills and mass casualty triage simulations
Active participation in tabletop drills and mass casualty triage simulations provides experiential learning that directly prepares students for disaster response.
Question 6: In risk management, what does 'risk transfer' mean in the context of a nursing education program?
- Moving a risky course to another semester
- Shifting financial liability through malpractice insurance or clinical contracts (Correct answer)
- Assigning at-risk students to easier clinical placements
- Transferring responsibility for risk to individual students
Correct answer: Shifting financial liability through malpractice insurance or clinical contracts
Risk transfer involves shifting the financial or legal burden of a risk to another party, such as requiring malpractice insurance or having clinical site contracts that define liability.
Question 7: A CNE observes that nursing students frequently skip hand hygiene steps during simulation. Which behavior change strategy is most effective for this risk?
- Post hand hygiene posters in the lab
- Embed structured hand hygiene checkpoints with immediate feedback into every simulation scenario (Correct answer)
- Require an essay on infection control
- Show a documentary about hospital-acquired infections
Correct answer: Embed structured hand hygiene checkpoints with immediate feedback into every simulation scenario
Integrating mandatory hand hygiene checkpoints with immediate corrective feedback directly shapes behavior through practice and reinforcement.
CNE Risk Assessment & Mitigation 3
A CNE is updating the nursing program's clinical policies after a sentinel event.
Which step in risk management should occur first?