DHA DHA Nursing Practice & Standards 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under DHA regulations, what is the mandatory action when a nurse witnesses a colleague committing a medication error that has not yet harmed the patient?
- Ignore it if no harm occurred
- Report it through the facility's incident reporting system (Correct answer)
- Confront the colleague privately and take no further action
- Wait to see if harm develops before reporting
Correct answer: Report it through the facility's incident reporting system
DHA mandates reporting all medication errors, including near-misses, through the facility's incident reporting system to prevent future harm.
Question 2: A patient in a Dubai hospital refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds. Which DHA-aligned nursing action is most appropriate?
- Administer the transfusion because it is life-saving
- Document the refusal, notify the physician, and respect the patient's autonomy (Correct answer)
- Seek a court order to override the patient's decision
- Convince the patient's family to consent on the patient's behalf
Correct answer: Document the refusal, notify the physician, and respect the patient's autonomy
DHA standards uphold patient autonomy; nurses must document informed refusal, inform the treating physician, and respect the patient's decision.
Question 3: According to DHA nursing scope of practice, which task may a registered nurse delegate to an unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP)?
- Administering oral medications
- Performing a focused neurological assessment
- Assisting a stable patient with ambulation (Correct answer)
- Interpreting telemetry rhythms
Correct answer: Assisting a stable patient with ambulation
Assisting stable patients with ambulation is within UAP scope; assessment, medication administration, and rhythm interpretation require licensed nursing judgment.
Question 4: DHA requires nurses to complete continuing professional development (CPD) hours for license renewal. What is the minimum CPD requirement per renewal cycle?
- 10 hours
- 20 hours
- 30 hours (Correct answer)
- 50 hours
Correct answer: 30 hours
DHA mandates a minimum of 30 CPD hours per two-year renewal cycle to maintain nursing licensure.
Question 5: A nurse caring for a post-operative patient notices sudden respiratory distress and decreasing SpO₂. What is the priority nursing action under DHA standards?
- Document findings and wait for the physician's next scheduled round
- Initiate the rapid response team (RRT) or escalate immediately per facility protocol (Correct answer)
- Administer supplemental oxygen and monitor for 30 minutes before escalating
- Reassure the patient and recheck vitals in one hour
Correct answer: Initiate the rapid response team (RRT) or escalate immediately per facility protocol
DHA patient safety standards require immediate escalation via RRT or chain-of-response for acute deterioration to prevent adverse outcomes.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes DHA's position on nurse-to-patient ratios in general medical-surgical units?
- DHA sets a fixed universal ratio of 1:3 for all ward types
- DHA provides staffing guidelines based on patient acuity and recommends ratios, but facilities adjust based on context (Correct answer)
- DHA has no staffing guidelines and leaves ratios entirely to hospital discretion
- DHA mandates a 1:1 ratio for all inpatient settings
Correct answer: DHA provides staffing guidelines based on patient acuity and recommends ratios, but facilities adjust based on context
DHA issues acuity-based staffing guidance rather than rigid universal mandates, requiring facilities to justify ratios through documented workload analysis.
Question 7: A nurse in a DHA-licensed facility discovers a patient's advance directive (living will) that conflicts with the family's wishes. What should the nurse do?
- Follow the family's wishes since they are present and the patient cannot speak
- Honor the patient's advance directive and notify the healthcare team and ethics committee if needed (Correct answer)
- Disregard the advance directive until a physician reviews the family conflict
- Follow whichever decision is less medically aggressive
Correct answer: Honor the patient's advance directive and notify the healthcare team and ethics committee if needed
DHA upholds advance directives as legally valid expressions of patient autonomy; the nurse must honor them and escalate family conflicts to the ethics committee.
DHA DHA Nursing Practice & Standards 4
Under DHA regulations, what is the mandatory action when a nurse witnesses a colleague committing a medication error that has not yet harmed the patient?