CPC Patient-Centered Care Planning 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A community paramedic uses motivational interviewing during care planning. Which statement BEST reflects this approach?
- 'You need to quit smoking or your condition will worsen.'
- 'Tell me what concerns you most about making changes to your diet.' (Correct answer)
- 'I'll create a meal plan for you to follow strictly.'
- 'Your doctor says you must exercise — are you going to do it?'
Correct answer: 'Tell me what concerns you most about making changes to your diet.'
Motivational interviewing uses open-ended, reflective questions to elicit the patient's own motivation for change.
Question 2: During care plan review, a patient with COPD states his top priority is attending his grandson's baseball games, not pulmonary rehab. The paramedic should:
- Insist pulmonary rehab is medically necessary and non-negotiable
- Explore how improving his respiratory function could help him achieve his goal of attending games (Correct answer)
- Remove pulmonary rehab from the care plan entirely
- Refer the patient back to his physician for counseling
Correct answer: Explore how improving his respiratory function could help him achieve his goal of attending games
Connecting clinical interventions to what the patient values creates intrinsic motivation and improves engagement.
Question 3: Which tool is commonly used by community paramedics to assess a patient's readiness to change a health behavior?
- Glasgow Coma Scale
- Stages of Change (Transtheoretical) Model (Correct answer)
- AVPU scale
- OPQRST assessment
Correct answer: Stages of Change (Transtheoretical) Model
The Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change) helps clinicians tailor interventions to the patient's current readiness level.
Question 4: A community paramedic is completing a comprehensive needs assessment for a newly enrolled patient. Which domain should NOT be excluded from the assessment?
- Medication management only
- Social support, mental health, functional status, and environmental safety in addition to physical health (Correct answer)
- Primary diagnosis and vital signs only
- Insurance status and billing codes
Correct answer: Social support, mental health, functional status, and environmental safety in addition to physical health
Comprehensive community paramedic assessments address physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains to create holistic care plans.
Question 5: A care plan for a post-discharge heart failure patient should PRIMARILY aim to:
- Replicate hospital-level care in the home setting
- Prevent readmission by addressing both clinical needs and the patient's ability to self-manage at home (Correct answer)
- Replace all outpatient follow-up appointments
- Focus solely on medication reconciliation
Correct answer: Prevent readmission by addressing both clinical needs and the patient's ability to self-manage at home
Reducing readmissions through clinical support and self-management education is the core goal of post-discharge community paramedic care plans.
Question 6: Shared decision-making in care planning requires that the community paramedic:
- Present only the option the physician recommends
- Present evidence-based options, explain risks and benefits, and incorporate patient preferences into the final decision (Correct answer)
- Make decisions on behalf of cognitively impaired patients without family input
- Defer all decisions to the supervising physician without patient input
Correct answer: Present evidence-based options, explain risks and benefits, and incorporate patient preferences into the final decision
Shared decision-making is a collaborative process that respects patient autonomy while providing evidence-based guidance.
Question 7: A community paramedic finds that a patient's care plan has not been updated in 6 months despite significant changes in his condition. This BEST illustrates a failure of:
- Medical direction oversight
- Care plan reassessment and dynamic updating processes (Correct answer)
- Patient adherence monitoring
- Initial intake documentation
Correct answer: Care plan reassessment and dynamic updating processes
Care plans must be regularly reassessed and updated to reflect changes in the patient's condition, goals, and circumstances.
CPC Patient-Centered Care Planning 3
A community paramedic uses motivational interviewing during care planning.
Which statement BEST reflects this approach?