Supervision, prioritization help

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When as a charge nurse a patient complains that the staff nurses are ignoring his requests for pain medicine what is the best first action, I thought that investigating the MAR and the nurse's notes for that patient was the priority, but my review materials state that holding a conference with the nurses in question should be the first action of the charge nurse. To my understanding, with most NCLEX priority questions you implement the nursing process: assess, diagnose, outcome, plan, implement, and eval. Why would you hold a conference rather than assess first?

and also what's the difference between assess and investigate; and a charge nurse and a nurse manager?

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Prior to reading Kaplan 2012-2013 Strategies, Reviews and Rationales....I chose the same answer as you did. NCLEX is ivory tower nursing...textbook nursing. Therefore, you have all the time in the world to gather the facts by having a conference and conducting an open discussion with those directly involved in patient care instead of just relying on MAR...it is a form of direct objective assessment (charge nurse can measure and quantify promptly what's needed, given the situation). Thereby, resolving the issue timely. Hope this makes sense.

When answering questions, I struggled with what I thought was the correct answer versus the NCLEX answer. Most NCLEX review books talks about how the NCLEX is written, how to answer NCLEX questions, breaking down the question and understanding the core of the question, etc....which I skipped reading when I took exam in 2010 (I did not pass then). I had to shift my thought process to that of the NCLEX way and passed with 88 questions in Dec 2012.

PDA by LaCharity is an excellent resource for prioritization questions, as well.

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I have the PDA book to but I still don't understand the rationale. could I email you about the question?

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I have the PDA book to but I still don't understand the rationale. could I email you about the question?
sure! Send me a PM.
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sure! Send me a PM.

What is PM

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What is PM
private message
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sure! Send me a PM.

I just did. thanks so much!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
What is PM
private message that you will have access to after 15 "quality posts.
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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I just did. thanks so much!
I saw the question earlier....This is where nursing expereince doesn't help you. IMHO.... As a manager, supervisor, or charge nurse you should gather as much information as possible first before beginning any dialogue. So the rationale in the first question about the manager is the rationale I agree with. I would have gotten question #2 wrong as well.
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I saw the question earlier....This is where nursing expereince doesn't help you. IMHO.... As a manager, supervisor, or charge nurse you should gather as much information as possible first before beginning any dialogue. So the rationale in the first question about the manager is the rationale I agree with. I would have gotten question #2 wrong as well.

seee?! that scares me. what if I get a question like that on the actual test. I would be confused. I want to assess before i implement but the 2nd question threw off my groove.... ):

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I go with assess the situation first....whether it is a patient or a situation. You can't make an educated decision without the proper assessment of the situation.

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