COCN COCN Palliative and End-of-Life Care

Question 1

Palliative care differs from hospice care in that palliative care:

Accepted Answer

Can be provided at any stage of cancer alongside curative treatment

Answer

Is only provided in the final weeks of life

Answer

Is exclusively for patients who have stopped treatment

Answer

Requires a prognosis of less than 6 months

Question 2

A patient with terminal cancer refuses further treatment and asks about hospice. Medicare hospice benefit requires a physician-certified prognosis of life expectancy of:

Accepted Answer

6 months or less if the disease runs its normal course

Answer

3 months or less

Answer

12 months or less

Answer

1 month or less

Question 3

Which ethical principle underlies a patient's right to refuse cancer treatment, including life-sustaining measures?

Accepted Answer

Autonomy

Answer

Beneficence

Answer

Justice

Answer

Non-maleficence

Question 4

The nursing concept of 'total pain' in palliative care encompasses which dimensions?

Accepted Answer

Physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering

Answer

Physical pain only

Answer

Nociceptive and neuropathic pain only

Answer

Acute and chronic physical pain

Question 5

Which scale is most widely used by oncology nurses to assess pain intensity in cognitively intact adult patients?

Accepted Answer

Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) 0–10

Answer

Wong-Baker FACES scale

Answer

FLACC scale

Answer

Abbey pain scale

Question 6

A dying patient develops the 'death rattle' (noisy breathing). The most appropriate nursing intervention is:

Accepted Answer

Repositioning and anticholinergic medications to reduce secretions

Answer

Aggressive suctioning to clear secretions

Answer

Increasing IV fluid rates to thin secretions

Answer

Placing the patient in Trendelenburg position