Orthopaedic Nurse Test Communication & Stakeholder Relations 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An orthopaedic nurse is preparing to communicate a critical lab value (low hemoglobin post-operatively) to the on-call physician by phone. Which approach is safest?
- Leave a voicemail with the lab value and await callback
- Use SBAR, read back orders received, and document the call with time, recipient, and response (Correct answer)
- Text the value to the physician and document it was sent
- Ask the charge nurse to make the call
Correct answer: Use SBAR, read back orders received, and document the call with time, recipient, and response
Structured SBAR communication with read-back verification and documentation is the standard for safe critical value communication.
Question 2: A newly hired orthopaedic nurse is unsure how to communicate a clinical concern to the attending physician. Which resource best supports safe communication?
- Personal judgment about when concerns are serious enough to report
- Unit-specific communication protocols and mentorship from experienced staff (Correct answer)
- Texting the concern informally to the team
- Waiting until the next physician rounding to raise all concerns at once
Correct answer: Unit-specific communication protocols and mentorship from experienced staff
Unit protocols and mentorship provide new nurses with safe, structured pathways for communicating clinical concerns appropriately.
Question 3: A patient is upset because they were not informed about a change in their surgery time. The nurse's best initial response is to:
- Explain that scheduling changes are common and unavoidable
- Apologize for the lapse in communication, provide current accurate information, and address the patient's immediate concerns (Correct answer)
- Investigate who failed to notify the patient before responding
- Redirect the patient's frustration toward the scheduling department
Correct answer: Apologize for the lapse in communication, provide current accurate information, and address the patient's immediate concerns
Acknowledging the failure, apologizing, and correcting the information gap immediately restores trust and addresses the patient's immediate need.
Question 4: Which nursing behavior best promotes psychological safety on an orthopaedic unit?
- Maintaining strict hierarchy so junior staff always defer to senior nurses
- Actively inviting input from all team members and responding non-defensively to concerns (Correct answer)
- Keeping communication formal and task-focused during high-stress periods
- Limiting team discussions to prevent information overload
Correct answer: Actively inviting input from all team members and responding non-defensively to concerns
Psychological safety is built when team members feel their input is welcomed and that raising concerns will not lead to punishment or ridicule.
Question 5: A patient post-total knee replacement tells the nurse they feel the physiotherapist is 'pushing too hard' and causing pain. The nurse should:
- Tell the patient that post-operative therapy is supposed to be uncomfortable
- Assess the patient's pain, discuss findings with the physical therapist, and adjust the plan collaboratively (Correct answer)
- Advise the patient to refuse therapy if it hurts too much
- Report the physical therapist to nursing management
Correct answer: Assess the patient's pain, discuss findings with the physical therapist, and adjust the plan collaboratively
Assessing pain and collaborating with the PT to individualize the therapy plan addresses patient safety while maintaining interdisciplinary respect.
Question 6: During a shift, a nurse notices that important post-operative instructions were not communicated to the patient by the previous shift. The best action is to:
- Document that the previous nurse failed to provide teaching
- Provide the missing education now, document what was taught and when, and raise the gap at the next huddle (Correct answer)
- Wait for the physician to re-order the teaching
- Assume the patient was taught verbally even if undocumented
Correct answer: Provide the missing education now, document what was taught and when, and raise the gap at the next huddle
Immediate provision of missing education protects patient safety, while documentation and reporting the gap at huddle prevents recurrence.
Question 7: A patient asks the orthopaedic nurse to keep a conversation about medication side effects private from their spouse. The nurse should:
- Inform the spouse anyway since they are the primary caregiver
- Respect the patient's confidentiality request, as patients have the right to control their own health information (Correct answer)
- Consult the ethics team before agreeing to confidentiality
- Document that the patient is withholding information from family
Correct answer: Respect the patient's confidentiality request, as patients have the right to control their own health information
HIPAA protects each patient's right to determine who receives their health information, regardless of relationship to the patient.
Orthopaedic Nurse Test Communication & Stakeholder Relations 5
An orthopaedic nurse is preparing to communicate a critical lab value (low hemoglobin post-operatively) to the on-call physician by phone.
Which approach is safest?