A Patient Is Admitted to a Skilled Nursing Facility with a Closed

question 12

Multiple Choice

A patient is admitted to a skilled nursing facility with a closed head injury. The nurse believes that the patient has been pocketing food in his cheeks during the noon meal although she has not found any food pocketed. The nurse refers the patient to the speech therapist for a swallowing evaluation. The nurse is using which critical-thinking component in making this decision?

• A) Inference
• B) Deductive reasoning
• C) Intuition
• D) Inductive reasoning