COHN ABOHN 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which ABOHN competency domain encompasses conducting pre-placement physical examinations and fitness-for-duty evaluations?
- Health promotion and education
- Worker and workplace health assessment and surveillance (Correct answer)
- Environmental health management
- Business and financial management
Correct answer: Worker and workplace health assessment and surveillance
Pre-placement physicals and fitness-for-duty evaluations are assessment activities that fall within the worker and workplace health assessment and surveillance competency domain.
Question 2: A COHN-certified nurse is developing a hearing conservation program. Which OSHA standard is most directly applicable to her work?
- 29 CFR 1910.134 – Respiratory Protection
- 29 CFR 1910.95 – Occupational Noise Exposure (Correct answer)
- 29 CFR 1910.1200 – Hazard Communication
- 29 CFR 1910.146 – Permit-Required Confined Spaces
Correct answer: 29 CFR 1910.95 – Occupational Noise Exposure
29 CFR 1910.95 governs occupational noise exposure requirements, including audiometric testing and hearing conservation program elements that occupational health nurses administer.
Question 3: In the context of ABOHN's case management subspecialty, 'disability duration guidelines' are used primarily to:
- Determine an employee's eligibility for workers' compensation benefits
- Establish expected recovery time benchmarks to guide return-to-work planning (Correct answer)
- Calculate an employer's insurance premium adjustments
- Set legal limits on the length of modified-duty assignments
Correct answer: Establish expected recovery time benchmarks to guide return-to-work planning
Disability duration guidelines provide evidence-based recovery time benchmarks that help occupational health case managers set realistic return-to-work targets and coordinate care.
Question 4: Which principle guides the occupational health nurse when balancing confidentiality of an employee's medical record with the employer's need for workplace safety information?
- Full medical disclosure whenever the employer requests it
- Sharing only functional limitations and work restrictions, not diagnoses (Correct answer)
- Informing the employee before any information is shared and obtaining written consent
- Providing all information to OSHA but limiting disclosure to the employer
Correct answer: Sharing only functional limitations and work restrictions, not diagnoses
Occupational health nurses protect medical confidentiality by communicating functional limitations and work restrictions to management rather than disclosing underlying diagnoses.
Question 5: An ABOHN-certified nurse implements a worksite health promotion program targeting cardiovascular risk. This action reflects which function of occupational health nursing?
- Regulatory compliance monitoring
- Primary prevention through health promotion (Correct answer)
- Tertiary prevention through rehabilitation
- Secondary prevention through screening
Correct answer: Primary prevention through health promotion
Worksite wellness programs targeting risk factors before disease develops represent primary prevention, a core occupational health nursing function.
Question 6: What is the most critical reason for maintaining accurate OSHA 300 logs as part of occupational health nursing recordkeeping?
- Calculating workers' compensation insurance premiums
- Tracking injury and illness trends to identify hazards and drive prevention (Correct answer)
- Satisfying mandatory disclosure requirements for employee unions only
- Documenting individual employee medical histories
Correct answer: Tracking injury and illness trends to identify hazards and drive prevention
OSHA 300 logs enable systematic analysis of workplace injury and illness trends, helping occupational health nurses and safety teams identify hazards and target prevention efforts.
Question 7: An occupational health nurse applying ABOHN's ethical framework encounters a situation where a manager pressures her to clear an injured worker for full duty prematurely. Her ethically correct response is to:
- Clear the worker to maintain positive employer relations
- Base the return-to-work decision solely on clinical and functional assessment findings (Correct answer)
- Defer the decision to the company's legal department
- Immediately report the manager's behavior to OSHA
Correct answer: Base the return-to-work decision solely on clinical and functional assessment findings
Ethical occupational health nursing requires that return-to-work decisions be grounded in objective clinical and functional data, independent of managerial pressure.
COHN ABOHN 5
Which ABOHN competency domain encompasses conducting pre-placement physical examinations and fitness-for-duty evaluations?