The Nurse Is Caring for a Patient with Advanced Cancer

question 16

Multiple Choice

The nurse is caring for a patient with advanced cancer who has decided to discontinue chemotherapy treatment and try an alternative therapy that has not been proved effective. The nurse, whose mother recently died of the same type of cancer, strongly disagrees with the patient's choice. The patient asks the nurse's opinion about the therapy. Which response is best?

• A)"I'm sorry, but I don't feel prepared to answer your question. I would prefer you ask your physician that question."
• B)"My mother died recently with the same type of cancer you have. I would be very careful before stopping the therapy."
• C)"As a nurse, I am obligated to encourage you to seek the best treatment possible. I cannot in good conscience advise you to have the alternative treatment."
• D)"Because your disease is so advanced and traditional treatments have failed, I think trying the alternative treatment can do no harm."

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Definitions:

Intellectualization

A defense mechanism where reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress, where thinking is used to avoid feeling.

Toilet Training

The process of teaching a young child to control their bladder and bowel movements and to use the toilet for elimination.

Anal Stage

The Anal Stage is the second stage in Freud's psychosexual development theory, occurring from about 18 months to 3 years of age, where children find pleasure in controlling bladder and bowel movements.

Latency Stage

In Freudian theory, a period during childhood development following the phallic stage, where sexual urges are repressed and dormant as children focus on other aspects of life.