Test Bank Maternal-Child Nursing Care Womens Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley
Test Bank Maternal-Child Nursing Care Womens Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley
Test Bank Maternal-Child Nursing Care Womens Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley
Test Bank Maternal-Child Nursing Care Womens Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley
Test Bank Maternal-Child Nursing Care Womens Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley
1.
Test Bank Maternal-ChildNursing Care Womens
Health 2nd Edition Ward Hisley download
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-maternal-child-
nursing-care-womens-health-2nd-edition-ward-hisley/
Find test banks or solution manuals at testbankmall.com today!
2.
Here are somerecommended products for you. Click the link to
download, or explore more at testbankmall.com
Test Bank for Maternal-Child Nursing Care with The Women’s
Health Companion: Optimizing Outcomes for Mothers,
Children, and Families, 2nd Edition, Susan L. Ward,
Shelton M. Hisley 665-1
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-maternal-child-nursing-
care-with-the-womens-health-companion-optimizing-outcomes-for-mothers-
children-and-families-2nd-edition-susan-l-ward-shelton-m-hisley-665-1/
Maternal-Child Nursing Care, 1st Edition Test Bank
https://testbankmall.com/product/maternal-child-nursing-care-1st-
edition-test-bank/
Maternal Child Nursing Care Perry 4th Edition Test Bank
https://testbankmall.com/product/maternal-child-nursing-care-
perry-4th-edition-test-bank/
Test Bank for World Regions in Global Context: Peoples,
Places, and Environments 6th Edition
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-world-regions-in-
global-context-peoples-places-and-environments-6th-edition/
3.
General Chemistry 11thEdition Ebbing Solutions Manual
https://testbankmall.com/product/general-chemistry-11th-edition-
ebbing-solutions-manual/
Test Bank for Management, 12th Edition Ricky W. Griffin
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-management-12th-
edition-ricky-w-griffin/
Solution Manual for International Economics, 15th Edition
https://testbankmall.com/product/solution-manual-for-international-
economics-15th-edition/
Test Bank for Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind,
Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition E. Bruce
Goldstein
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-cognitive-psychology-
connecting-mind-research-and-everyday-experience-3rd-edition-e-bruce-
goldstein/
Test Bank for Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big
Ideas To Guide Effective Teaching (Subscription), 5th
Edition
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-essentials-of-
educational-psychology-big-ideas-to-guide-effective-teaching-
subscription-5th-edition/
4.
Test Bank forBusiness in Action, 6th Edition: Bovee
https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-business-in-action-6th-
edition-bovee/
5.
Ethnocentrism is theview that the beliefs, values, and behaviors of one culture are superior to
those of other cultures. Ethnocentrism is dangerous in health care because it is blind to the
possibilities of other solutions and viewpoints and alienates people in need of health care. The
nurse manager would be wise to assess the clinic’s staff and procedures for ethnocentrism.
Meeting with a community leader is always a good idea to learn the viewpoints of the
community, but unless ethnocentric behaviors change, it is unlikely that the refugee
community will increase its use of the clinic. Flyers and incentives may also be helpful in
some cases, but not as helpful as reducing the barriers imposed by ethnocentrism.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
3. The nursing faculty explains to students that ethnopluralism is an important force shaping
health care today. What concept is most important in understanding this trend?
A. The decreased need for cultural competency
B. The growth in one ethnic group in a single area
C. The increased impact of diverse cultures on health care
D. The percentage increase of the non-Caucasian population
ANS: C
Ethnopluralism means diverse cultures. As the population of different ethnic
(non-Euro-Caucasian) groups grows, their impact on health care will increase exponentially.
Ethnopluralism is not just the growth of one ethnic group in one location. It is also more than
just the percentage change in the non-Euro-Caucasian population, although that is part of the
phenomenon. As ethnopluralism continues to impact health care, providers will need to be
more, not less, culturally competent.
Cognitive Level: Knowledge/Remembering
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
4. A nursing faculty member is explaining recent shifts in nursing practice. What change has
been important in applying the nursing process?
A. A change to a spiral or circular process
B. A focus on more independent nursing actions
C. A return to the nurse-as-expert model of care
D. An emphasis on attaining a disease-free state
ANS: A
6.
The nursing processhas recently changed from a linear one to a spiral or circular process in
which the patient/family is motivated toward promotion, maintenance, and restoration of
health. The focus has not changed to include more independent actions, a return to the
nurse-as-expert model, or an emphasis on attaining a disease-free state of being.
Cognitive Level: Comprehension/Understanding
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Easy
PTS: 1
5. A nurse is working in an urban clinic with a diverse population. What action by the nurse is
most important?
A. Determine patients’ definitions of health and desired outcomes of health care.
B. Explain policies such as appointment cancellations to ensure compliance.
C. Learn to speak one or two common languages of the patients in the clinic.
D. Read about different folk remedies common among the populations seen.
ANS: A
Divergent populations enter the health-care system with differing beliefs about health care and
wellness and differing expectations for the outcomes of such experiences. Understanding
these expectations will help the nurse plan care that has a better chance of meeting these
expectations. Learning languages and becoming familiar with folk remedies is helpful as well,
but these two solutions are very limited in scope and a nurse cannot hope to become proficient
in all the languages/behaviors of every population seen, leaving some patients with a lessened
experience. Explaining policies is important too, but simply telling someone the rules does not
take his or her cultural norms into account and may not be successful.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Nursing Process: Assessment
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
6. A nurse is working with a minority group that has a high incidence of cardiovascular disease,
including hypertension and stroke. When participating in a community health fair with this
group, what action by the nurse will be most effective?
A. Educate the participants about weight loss and a low-sodium, low-fat diet.
B. Explain the genetic basis for the high incidence of cardiovascular disease in the
group.
C. Help participants make lifestyle changes that are culturally congruent.
D. Present statistics on the mortality and morbidity of cardiovascular disease.
ANS: C
7.
The ever-increasing culturallydiverse population interacting with the health-care system
brings its own beliefs, values, and health-related practices that impact health and well-being.
In order to help people make healthy lifestyle changes, the changes must be culturally
congruent and acceptable. Forcing an incongruent practice makes it highly unlikely to
succeed. Education is important, but it must be done in a culturally congruent way.
Pathophysiology and statistical knowledge, by itself, is not likely to be beneficial.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
7. What does the practicing nurse understand to be the most important influence on
interdependent, assertive nursing practice today?
A. Higher education of registered nurses
B. Improved working conditions and salaries
C. Increased numbers of female physicians
D. Use of the nursing process for patient care
ANS: D
Nurses were passive, deferential, and compliant to the knowledge and orders of mostly male
physicians until the late 20th century. The nursing process changed that. The nursing process
is a framework for systematic problem solving and implementation of both independent and
dependent nursing actions. The nursing process allows nurses to make decisions regarding
patient care based on critical thinking and clinical judgment. The other options listed were not
vital in creating a nursing practice that is interdependent and assertive.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Nursing Process
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
8. A child who has been hospitalized for a long time is preparing to go home, where care will be
continued. Which action by the nurse is most beneficial to assist the family in this transition?
A. Advise the family to call the local visiting nurses association for home visits.
B. Call the child’s school to inquire about requirements for returning to school.
C. Consult a social worker to help evaluate insurance coverage and transportation.
D. Give the family brochures for the local support group for chronically ill children.
ANS: C
8.
Preparing a familyfor home-based care, or other community-based care, involves ensuring
that the family is able to provide the care needed by the child at home or in another setting.
This can include discussing specialized equipment in the home, health insurance coverage,
transportation, and/or returning to school. If the family needs or desires visiting nurses, the
nursing staff or social worker at the hospital should arrange this for the family. Calling the
school to get information about the child’s return to school yields helpful information, but
may not be needed yet, and is too limited in scope to be the best answer. Simply giving
parents brochures for support groups may or may not be helpful; the parents may not be
literate or may not understand the benefit without discussion.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Communication and Documentation
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
9. A nurse manager wants to make the pediatric clinic a more family-centered health-care
setting. Which of the following actions by the nursing staff would best meet this goal?
A. Encourage family members to be present in the exam room and to ask questions.
B. Incorporate the use of a community health map for all new patients in the clinic.
C. Recognize family members as experts on their child and incorporate them in
decision making.
D. Use evidence-based practice to develop policies and procedures used in the clinic.
ANS: C
The role of the family-centered nurse is to facilitate and assist the family in making informed
choices that lead to the outcome the patient and family desire. This requires the nurse to give
up the paternalistic role of authority on health care. The family knows the child best and
should be assumed to make decisions that are in the best interests of both child and family.
The other options are all good interventions, but are too limited in scope to be the best way to
create a family-centered environment.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
10. A clinic nurse is explaining to a student nurse the function of the community health map in
assessing families. Which description of this assessment tool is most accurate?
A. It assesses how the family interacts with outside social systems.
B. It locates health-care settings in, or close to, their neighborhood.
C. It outlines family problems and social resources to help with them.
D. It shows how the health of the community impacts each family.
ANS: A
9.
A community healthmap is an assessment tool for family structure, function, and support
networks. It displays significant related data and helps the nurse focus on the family as it
interacts with the social systems within and around the family. Its purpose is not to locate
local health-care settings. The focus is on family health and past successes and current
strengths, not on family problems. Correlations can be made between the health of the
community and the health of those living in that community, but this is not the purpose of the
community health map.
Cognitive Level: Comprehension/Understanding
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
11. A nurse wishes to improve his or her cultural sensitivity while working with patients. Which
action by the nurse would best indicate progress toward this goal?
A. Demonstrate good knowledge of different cultural health beliefs
B. Effectively respond to the needs of people of different cultures
C. Interact respectfully with patients who have differing health beliefs
D. Recognizes that he or she will never be the expert in other cultures
ANS: C
Cultural sensitivity is a way of approaching people who hold health beliefs different from
one’s own. A nurse with this characteristic is respectful of and open to others. Cultural
competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and requires a
certain level of knowledge about those cultures. Cultural humility is the recognition that one
will never master all information about another culture.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
12. A nurse manager is evaluating staff members on their cultural competence. Which action best
demonstrates this characteristic?
A. Attends workshops on cultural diversity and health practices
B. Participates in community health events with minority populations
C. Plans care with the family members within their cultural beliefs
D. Uses family members as interpreters to make them feel important
ANS: C
10.
The culturally sensitivenurse is able to understand and respond to the needs of individuals
and families from different cultures. This nurse plans interventions with a solid knowledge of
the values and practices of the members of the culture. Being open, listening to the family,
and involving them in care demonstrates respect, unifies the nurse–patient relationship, and
will motivate the patient (and family) to make positive health changes. Attending workshops
is a good way to learn about diverse cultures and attending community events with diverse
populations can increase cultural knowledge, but these actions are too limited in scope to
demonstrate cultural competence. Nurses should use professional interpreters when needed.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
13. A nurse is incorporating a cultural assessment into nursing care. Which assessment question
by the nurse leads the supervisor to conclude that this nurse needs further education on
cultural assessment?
A. What customs and traditions are important to you?
B. What kind of insurance coverage do you have?
C. When you are stressed or worried, what comforts you?
D. Who in your family is important for support?
ANS: B
Cultural influences include family support systems, religious and spiritual beliefs, customs
and traditions, communication patterns, coping strategies, and problem-solving techniques.
Asking about insurance coverage is not directly related to culture, although this can give
information about the patient/family’s living environment and ability to access resources.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Communication and Documentation
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
14. A nurse is working with a cultural group that has many proscriptions against women seeking
health care. What action by women in this community would indicate that they have
successfully negotiated a new role in seeking care?
A. Are able to make and keep medical appointments
B. Can afford to pay for desired health-care services
C. Follow their traditional roles and responsibilities
D. Seek health-care advice from family members
ANS: A
11.
Cultural proscriptions arebeliefs, practices, and values of a group that tell women and
children what they should not do. In many traditional cultures, women do not have
permission, decision-making power, or means to access the health-care system. If the women
from such a culture successfully negotiate their roles regarding health care, they can access
the health-care system on their own. The ability to afford services is not related, although
cultural proscriptions might forbid women from making such a transaction. If they follow
their traditional roles or seek health care from family members, they have not demonstrated a
successful negotiation of a new role.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
15. A patient wishes to use complementary therapy when managing a chronic health condition.
Which action by the nurse is most appropriate?
A. Advise the patient that stopping medical treatment may cause it to worsen.
B. Inform the patient that there are no complementary therapies for this condition.
C. Investigate herbs that can be substituted for prescription drugs.
D. Suggest the patient add massage therapy to the medical regimen.
ANS: D
Complementary therapy is nontraditional treatment that is used in addition to traditional
medical care. Alternative therapies are used in place of traditional therapies. Adding massage
to the medical regimen is an example of using complementary therapy. Substituting herbs for
prescription medication is an example of alternative therapy. Because the patient is asking
about complementary therapy, there is no need to warn him or her of the effects of stopping
treatment. There are always complementary therapies that can be added to a medical regimen.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
16. A nurse is working with a family that uses multiple complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) modalities. What action by the nurse is best?
A. Allow the family to continue these practices as desired.
B. Assess how these practices reflect religious beliefs.
C. Inform the family that most of these practices do not work.
D. Provide evidence-based information about the therapies.
ANS: D
12.
The nurse workingwith individuals or families who use CAM practices should respect the
beliefs, values, and desires of the patient. The nurse should encourage families to make
decisions regarding CAM practices based on evidence and research into their effects. The
nurse can best assist in this by providing and discussing information. Although the nurse
cannot stop the family from using CAM, he or she should not pass up the teaching
opportunity. Many CAM practices have demonstrated benefit, so telling the family they don’t
work is false information. A culturally competent nurse will assess how religious and spiritual
beliefs affect health-care practices, but the nurse needs to advocate for the patient/family by
providing solid information.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
17. A nurse acting in the role of teacher is determining learning outcomes. Which action will
produce the best outcomes for teaching?
A. Collaborate with the discharge planner on outcomes.
B. Determine the teaching priority, then establish the outcome.
C. Develop outcomes mutually agreed on with the patient.
D. Enlist other staff members to help prioritize outcomes.
ANS: C
The best nursing care (including teaching) is a collaborative effort between nurse and patient.
Each participant has knowledge and shares the power of determining what is to be learned.
The best outcomes result in patient cooperation, because the patient was instrumental in
developing them. The other actions might be helpful in specific situations, but involving the
patient (or family) is always appropriate and vital.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
18. A nurse uses Nightingale’s theory of nursing to pattern care for patients. Which action by the
nurse is most consistent with this theory?
A. Does for the patient what he or she is unable to do for self
B. Focuses patient interactions on caring, healing, and wholeness
C. Keeps patient’s room clean and ensures good nutrition
D. Incorporates culturally relevant actions in a caring encounter
ANS: C
13.
Nightingale focused onthe spiritual, physical/environmental, emotional, mental, and social
needs of the patient. A major area of emphasis was on improving the patient’s environment
(internal and external). For this theorist, the base of nursing practice centered around
observation, knowledge of sanitation, nutrition, caring, and compassion. The action most
closely associated with Nightingale would be keeping the patient’s room clean and ensuring
the patient gets good nutrition. A focus on caring, healing, and wholeness-centered
interactions is reflective of Jean Watson’s theory. Incorporation of culture into nursing care
reflects the theory of Leininger. Although not mentioned in the text, doing for others what
they would do for themselves, if able, is the basis of Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Nursing Process: Implementation
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
19. An inpatient nursing unit uses Madeleine Leininger’s theory to organize nursing care. The
manager would conclude that a new nurse has successfully integrated this theory into practice
when the nurse does which of the following actions?
A. Emphasizes caring over curing in nursing actions
B. Establishes trusting relationships with patients
C. Knows the cultural practices of many different groups
D. Organizes environmental factors for the patient’s benefit
ANS: B
Establishing a trusting nurse–patient relationship is at the core of Leininger’s theory. In order
to understand another person’s cultural beliefs, values, methods of providing or showing
caring, causes of illness, and how wellness is achieved, the nurse must first establish a trusting
relationship with the patient so the patient feels free to share. This is an ongoing process. The
emphasis on caring over curing is part of Watson’s theory. Knowing the practices of several
different cultural groups would be a valuable asset, but is not required for Leininger’s theory.
Organizing the environment to benefit the patient is part of Nightingale’s theory.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
20. A nurse uses Watson’s theory as a framework for nursing practice. Which nursing action best
demonstrates the use of this theory?
A. Actively clarifies the patient’s health beliefs and practices
B. Allows children to visit an ill parent despite visitation restrictions
C. Assesses both the physical and spiritual dimensions of the patient
D. Ensures the patient is neither too warm nor too hot for comfort
ANS: C
14.
Jean Watson contendsthat caring as a nurse requires the nurse to pay attention to both the
physical and spiritual dimensions of the patient. Clarifying health beliefs and practices is more
related to Leininger’s theory. Allowing children to visit despite restrictions is a caring action,
but is not tied to a specific theory. Manipulating the environment for patient comfort and
well-being is a core component of Nightingale’s theory.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
21. A nursing manager wants to increase the staff’s attention to patients’ spirituality. Which
action by a nurse would best demonstrate this concept?
A. Asked about the patient’s religion
B. Assessed the patient’s meaning of life
C. Consulted a chaplain for a patient case
D. Inquired about religious rituals in health
ANS: B
Spirituality does not necessarily equate with religion; it is more a concept related to a person’s
beliefs about the meaning of life. Although all actions might be incorporated in a
comprehensive discussion of spirituality, the best demonstration of attention to this
characteristic is inquiring about the meaning the patient ascribes to life.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
22. A nurse is demonstrating the professional role of provider of care to a nursing student. Which
action by the nurse is most relevant to this professional role?
A. Assesses the patient’s priority physical needs
B. Gives the patient a bath instead of delegating it
C. Supervises unlicensed assistive personnel
D. Uses monitoring and IV equipment correctly
ANS: D
One of the major responsibilities of the nurse as provider of care is to maintain competency in
using monitoring and therapeutic equipment. This is a vital safety measure for the patient. The
nurse as provider of care should assess all of the patient’s physical, psychosocial, and spiritual
needs, not just the priority physical needs. Supervising other personnel may or may not be part
of a nurse’s job description. Choosing to delegate an activity is not a core role of the provider
of care.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
15.
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
PatientNeeds: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Safety and Infection Control
Integrated Process: Nursing Process: Implementation
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
23. A nurse is caring for a patient from a culture with which the nurse is totally unfamiliar. What
action by the nurse will best promote effective communication?
A. Call for a professional interpreter to translate information.
B. Pattern voice tone and eye contact after the patient’s behaviors.
C. Talk slowly and deliberately using simple language and cues.
D. Use nonverbal communication as much as possible with the patient.
ANS: B
In the situation where the nurse is unfamiliar with the patient’s culture, the nurse should
pattern verbal and nonverbal communication after the patient’s own style. There is no
indication that this patient does not speak English, so using an interpreter, talking slowly
using simple language, and using mostly nonverbal communication is inappropriate.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Communication and Documentation
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
24. A nurse has been teaching a patient who seems impatient and does not retain much of what is
taught. What action by the nurse would be best to facilitate the patient’s learning?
A. Assess for unmet personal needs such as pain or hunger.
B. Determine why the patient is being uncooperative.
C. Give information in writing and let the patient read it.
D. Stop the teaching session and return at a later time.
ANS: A
Learning is not likely to be effective if the patient has unmet basic human needs such as
hunger, pain, a full bladder, or fear. The nurse should assess for those needs and meet them
before continuing. Labeling a patient as uncooperative is counterproductive and judgmental
and does nothing to enlist the patient’s cooperation. Written information (if the patient is
literate) is always a good idea, but doing nothing more than that will not improve the patient’s
learning when basic needs are unmet. Returning at a later time also does not meet the patient’s
needs.
Cognitive Level: Applying/Application
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Physiological Integrity: Basic Care and Comfort
Integrated Process: Nursing Process: Assessment
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
16.
25. A nursemanager expects all employees to be patient advocates. Which nursing action best
demonstrates this nursing role?
A. Arranging a family–physician conference to clarify treatment plans
B. Encouraging treatment options based on personal beliefs and values
C. Giving contact information for governmental assistance agencies
D. Working on a political campaign to reduce poverty in the state
ANS: A
In the advocate role, the nurse should promote patient-/family-centered care and work to
provide the patient with more control, power, and self-determination in the health-care setting.
The nurse who arranges a family–physician conference to clarify treatment plans is
advocating for the patient. Giving contact information for assistance agencies and working on
political campaigns are also ways of demonstrating advocacy, but are too limited in scope to
be the best answer. The nurse advocate must ensure he or she is speaking for the patient and
the patient’s desires, not inserting personal values and beliefs into the process.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
26. A nurse is describing the use of evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines to a nursing
student. Which explanation of EBP is most accurate?
A. Includes clinical experience and patient preferences
B. MEDLINE used as the primary source for EBP information
C. Requires the staff to be active participants in research
D. Uses research findings to plan interventions for care
ANS: A
EBP combines investigational guidelines and scientifically sound interventions with clinical
expertise and the patient’s values and preferences. MEDLINE is one of three primary sources
for EBP information; the other two are the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Library
and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The staff members do not have to be
actively involved in research to use EBP. Using research findings to plan interventions is part,
but not all, of the EBP process.
Cognitive Level: Comprehension/Understanding
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
27. A nurse uses evidence-based practice (EBP) to plan and implement nursing care. What action
by the nurse best demonstrates this process?
A. Assesses, plans, implements, and evaluates nursing interventions
17.
B. Incorporates specificresearch findings into the nursing care plan
C. Predicts and assesses for potential problems based on research
D. Uses a concept map for nursing care instead of a nursing care plan
ANS: C
The nurse who has incorporated EBP into nursing care is able to predict, and assess for,
potential problems and complications because of knowledge of relevant research. Assessment,
planning, implementation, and evaluating are steps in the traditional nursing process. Specific
research findings do not need to be specifically incorporated into a nursing care plan and, in
fact, without including clinical expertise and patient preferences, scientific findings are
incomplete. A concept map is an alternative to the traditional nursing care plan.
Cognitive Level: Analysis/Analyzing
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Nursing Process: Assessment
Difficulty: Difficult
PTS: 1
28. A patient and family have the nursing diagnosis of impaired verbal communication secondary
to a language barrier. What action by the patient/family would best indicate that short-term
goals for this diagnosis have been met?
A. Able to communicate long-term desires for health of the patient
B. Demonstrates comprehension by head nodding and saying “yes”
C. States understanding of condition and treatment via an interpreter
D. Understands how nonverbal communication varies between cultures
ANS: C
For a language barrier, using a professional interpreter is not only the best way to manage
communication, it is also legally required. The best short-term goal for the patient and family
is to obtain understanding of the patient’s illness and treatment and state, through the
interpreter, that this is the case. Communicating long-term desires is a better long-term
outcome for this diagnosis. Nodding the head and saying “yes” do not always indicate
agreement, understanding, or approval. In some cultures this behavior signifies respect.
Understanding the differences in nonverbal communication between cultures is not an
appropriate short-term goal.
Cognitive Level: Evaluation/Evaluating
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Communication and Documentation
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
MULTIPLE RESPONSE
1. The perinatal nurse is aware of changes in women’s and children’s health-care settings that
affect family care. What factors do these changes include? (Select all that apply.)
18.
A. A decreasedpediatric patient population
B. A redesign of policies to include families
C. Development of alternative care sites
D. Increased liberalization of visiting policies
E. Increased patient acuity across all settings
ANS: B, C, D, E
Many changes have occurred across health-care settings that have affected family care.
Hospitals have redesigned their policies to be family-friendly and have liberalized visiting
policies to decrease stress on the family. Alternative care settings have been developed in part
to combat escalating medical costs, and patients have high-acuity illnesses and needs across
all of these settings. There has been no decrease in the population of pediatric patients.
Cognitive Level: Knowledge/Remembering
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Easy
PTS: 1
2. A nurse wishes to improve critical thinking skills. Which of the following actions would be
helpful for this nurse? (Select all that apply.)
A. Developing checklists for care activities
B. Listening intently for true understanding
C. Practicing new skills
D. Remaining nonobjective in patient encounters
E. Searching the literature for new information
ANS: B, C, D, E
Critical thinking evolves from experience, seeking knowledge, practicing skills,
self-reflection, open-mindedness, calculated risk-taking, and devotion to listening with a goal
of true comprehension and understanding. Making checklists is not part of critical thinking.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Safe and Effective Care Environment: Management of Care
Integrated Process: Caring
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
3. To be effective when providing information to a patient, the nurse should assess the patient
for which of the following? (Select all that apply.)
A. Cultural beliefs and values
B. Information desired
C. Preferred learning style
D. Level of understanding
E. Past medical history
ANS: A, B, C, D
19.
An effective teachershould assess the patient’s cultural beliefs and values, information
desired, preferred learning style, and level of current understanding before planning and
implementing teaching. The patient’s past medical history is not essential information for
teaching.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Health Promotion and Maintenance
Integrated Process: Teaching/Learning
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
4. The nurse listens to a mother and her 4-year-old child as they communicate with each other
primarily to determine which of the following? (Select all that apply.)
A. Communication styles that need improvement
B. The child’s level of language development
C. The family’s culture and its influences
D. The family’s personal and group values
E. The family’s understanding of health care
ANS: B, C, D
Listening to the cultural voices and experiences of family and patients affirms their value and
is critically important to unifying the nurse–patient relationship. This method of interaction
allows the nurse to understand family values, family developmental aspects, and the family’s
cultural aspects. It also motivates patient movement toward positive health-promoting
activities. It is not primarily to determine areas for improvement, although the nurse may be
able to role model better communication for a patient/family. Listening to communication is
also not primarily to determine the family’s understanding of health care.
Cognitive Level: Application/Applying
Content Area: Pediatrics/Maternity
Patient Needs: Psychosocial Integrity
Integrated Process: Communication and Documentation
Difficulty: Moderate
PTS: 1
5. The nurse mentor explains to the new nurse that multiple societal changes have given families
greater power in health care. What changes have contributed to this shift? (Select all that
apply.)
A. Alternative community-based care sites
B. Costs of obtaining health care
C. Decreased health-care regulations
D. Multimedia information
E. Science and technology
ANS: A, B, D, E
as it went.The troll went near to him and took a look. And the fox
went on watching him, for the fox watches all things.
He had come back lately to those dewy fields from slinking by
night along the boundary of twilight that lies between here and
Elfland. He even prowls inside the very boundary, walking amongst
the twilight; and it is in the mystery of that heavy twilight that lies
between here and there that there clings to him some of that
glamour that he brings with him to our fields.
"Well, Noman's Dog," said the troll. For they know the fox in
Elfland, from seeing him often go dimly along their borders; and this
is the name they give him.
"Well, Thing-over-the-Border," said the fox when he answered at
all. For he knew troll-talk.
"Are the haunts of men near here?" said the troll.
The fox moved his whiskers by slightly wrinkling his lip. Like all
liars he reflected before he spoke, and sometimes even let wise
silences do better than speech.
"Men live here and men live there," said the fox.
"I want their haunts," said the troll.
"What for?" said the fox.
"I have a message from the King of Elfland."
The fox showed no respect or fear at the mention of that dread
name, but slightly moved his head and eyes to conceal the awe that
he felt.
"If it is a message," he said, "their haunts are over there." And
he pointed with his long thin nose towards Erl.
"How shall I know when I get there?" said the troll.
"By the smell," said the fox. "It is a big haunt of men, and the
smell is dreadful."
22.
"Thanks, Noman's Dog,"said the troll. And he seldom thanked
anyone.
"I should never go near them," said the fox, "but for ..." And he
paused and reflected silently.
"But for what?" said the troll.
"But for their poultry." And he fell into a grave silence.
"Good-bye, Noman's Dog," said the troll and turned head-over-
heels, and was off on his way to Erl.
Passing over the buttercups all through the dewy morning the
troll was far on his way by the afternoon, and saw before evening
the smoke and the towers of Erl. It was all sunk in a hollow; and
gables and chimneys and towers peered over the lip of the valley,
and smoke hung over them on the dreamy air. "The haunts of men,"
said the troll. Then he sat down amongst the grasses and looked at
it.
Presently he went nearer and looked at it again. He did not like
the look of the smoke and that crowd of gables: certainly it smelt
dreadfully. There had been some legend in Elfland of the wisdom of
Man; and whatever respect that legend had gained for us in the light
mind of the troll now all blew lightly away as he looked at the
crowded houses. And as he looked at them there passed a child of
four, a small girl on a footpath over the fields, going home in the
evening to Erl. They looked at each other with round eyes.
"Hullo," said the child.
"Hullo, Child of Men," said the troll.
He was not speaking troll-talk now, but the language of Elfland,
that grander tongue that he had had to speak when he was before
the King: for he knew the language of Elfland although it was never
used in the homes of the trolls, who preferred troll-talk. This
language was spoken in those days also by men, for there were
fewer languages then, and the elves and the people of Erl both used
the same.
23.
"What are you?"said the child.
"A troll of Elfland," answered the troll.
"So I thought," said the child.
"Where are you going, child of men?" the troll asked.
"To the houses," the child replied.
"We don't want to go there," said the troll.
"N-no," said the child.
"Come to Elfland," the troll said.
The child thought for awhile. Other children had gone, and the
elves always sent a changeling in their place, so that nobody quite
missed them and nobody really knew. She thought awhile of the
wonder and wildness of Elfland, and then of her own home.
"N-no," said the child.
"Why not?" said the troll.
"Mother made a jam roll this morning," said the child. And she
walked on gravely home. Had it not been for that chance jam roll
she had gone to Elfland.
"Jam!" said the troll contemptuously and thought of the tarns of
Elfland, the great lily-leaves lying flat upon their solemn waters, the
huge blue lilies towering into the elf-light above the green deep
tarns: for jam this child had forsaken them!
Then he thought of his duty again, the roll of parchment and the
Elf King's rune for his daughter. He had carried the parchment in his
left hand when he ran, in his mouth when he somersaulted over the
buttercups. Was the Princess here he thought? Or were there other
haunts of men? As evening drew in he crept nearer and nearer the
homes, to hear without being seen.
24.
CHAPTER VIII
The Arrivalof the Rune
On a sunny May morning in Erl the witch Ziroonderel sat in the
castle nursery by the fire, cooking a meal for the baby. The boy was
now three years old, and still Lirazel had not named him; for she
feared lest some jealous spirit of Earth or air should hear the name,
and if so she would not say what she feared then. And Alveric had
said he must be named.
And the boy could bowl a hoop; for the witch had gone one misty
night to her hill and had brought him a moon-halo which she got by
enchantment at moonrise, and had hammered it into a hoop, and
had made him a little rod of thunderbolt-iron with which to beat it
along.
And now the boy was waiting for his breakfast; and there was a
spell across the threshold to keep the nursery snug, which
Ziroonderel had put there with a wave of her ebon stick, and it kept
out rats and mice and dogs, nor could bats sail across it, and the
watchful nursery cat it kept at home: no lock that blacksmiths made
was any stronger.
Suddenly over the threshold and over the spell the troll jumped
somersaulting through the air and came down sitting. The crude
wooden nursery-clock hanging over the fire stopped its loud tick as
he came; for he bore with him a little charm against time, with
strange grass round one of his fingers, that he might not be
withered away in the fields we know. For well the Elf King knew the
flight of our hours: four years had swept over these fields of ours
while he had boomed down his brazen steps and sent for his troll
and given him that spell to bind round one of his fingers.
"What's this?" said Ziroonderel.
25.
That troll knewwell when to be impudent, but looking in the
witch's eyes saw something to be afraid of; and well he might, for
those eyes had looked in the Elf King's own. Therefore he played, as
we say in these fields, his best card, and answered: "A message
from the King of Elfland."
"Is that so?" said the old witch. "Yes, yes," she added more lowly
to herself, "that would be for my lady. Yes, that would come."
The troll sat still on the floor fingering the roll of parchment
inside of which was written the rune of the King of Elfland. Then
over the end of his bed, as he waited for breakfast, the baby saw
the troll, and asked him who he was and where he came from and
what he was able to do. When the baby asked him what he was able
to do the troll jumped up and skipped about the room like a moth on
a lamp-lit ceiling. From floor to shelves and back and up again he
went with leaps like flying; the baby clapped his hands, the cat was
furious; the witch raised her ebon stick and made a charm against
leaping, but it could not hold the troll. He leaped and bounced and
bounded, while the cat hissed all the curses that the feline language
knows, and Ziroonderel was wrath not only because her magic was
thwarted, but because with mere human alarm she feared for her
cups and saucers; and the baby shouted all the while for more. And
all at once the troll remembered his errand and the dread parchment
he bore.
"Where is the Princess Lirazel?" he said to the witch.
And the witch pointed the way to the princess's tower; for she
knew that there were no means nor power she had by which to
hinder a rune from the King of Elfland. And as the troll turned to go
Lirazel entered the room. He bowed all low before this great lady of
Elfland and, with all his impudence in a moment lost, kneeled on one
knee before the blaze of her beauty and presented the Elf King's
rune. The boy was shouting to his mother to demand more leaps
from the troll, as she took the scroll in her hand; the cat with her
back to a box was watching alertly; Ziroonderel was all silent.
26.
And then thetroll thought of the weed-green tarns of Elfland in
the woods that the trolls knew; he thought of the wonder of the
unwithering flowers that time has never touched; the deep, deep
colour and the perpetual calm: his errand was over and he was
weary of Earth.
For a moment nothing moved there but the baby, shouting for
new troll antics and waving his arms: Lirazel stood with the elfin
scroll in her hand, the troll knelt before her, the witch never stirred,
the cat stood watching fiercely, even the clock was still. Then the
Princess moved and the troll rose to his feet, the witch sighed and
the cat gave up her watchfulness as the troll scampered away. And
though the baby shouted for the troll to return it never heeded, but
twisted down the long spiral stairs, and slipping out through a door
was off towards Elfland. As the troll passed over the threshold the
wooden clock ticked again.
Lirazel looked at the scroll and looked at her boy, and did not
unroll the parchment, but turned and carried it away, and came to
her chamber and locked the scroll in a casket, and left it there
unread. For her fears told her well the most potent rune of her
father, that she had dreaded so much as she fled from his silver
tower and heard his feet go booming up the brass, had crossed the
frontier of twilight written upon the scroll, and would meet her eyes
the moment she unrolled it and waft her thence.
When the rune was safe in the casket she went to Alveric to tell
him of the peril that had come near her. But Alveric was troubled
because she would not name the baby, and asked her at once about
this. And so she suggested a name at last to him; and it was one
that no one in these fields could pronounce, an elvish name full of
wonder, and made of syllables like birds' cries at night: Alveric would
have none of it. And her whim in this came, as all the whims she
had, from no customary thing of these fields of ours, but sheer over
the border from Elfland, sheer over the border with all wild fancies
that rarely visit our fields. And Alveric was vexed with these whims,
for there had been none like them of old in the Castle of Erl: none
27.
could interpret themto him and none advise him. He looked for her
to be guided by old customs; she looked only for some wild fancy to
come from the south-east. He reasoned with her with the human
reason that folk set much store by here, but she did not want
reason. And so when they parted she had not after all told anything
of the peril that had sought her from Elfland, which she had come to
Alveric to tell.
She went instead to her tower and looked at the casket, shining
there in the low late light; and turned from it and often looked
again; while the light went under the fields and the gloaming came,
and all glimmered away. She sat then by the casement open towards
eastern hills, above whose darkening curves she watched the stars.
She watched so long that she saw them change their places. For
more than all things else that she had seen since she came to these
fields of ours she had wondered at the stars. She loved their gentle
beauty; and yet she was sad as she looked wistfully to them, for
Alveric had said that she must not worship them.
How if she might not worship them could she give them their
due, could she thank them for their beauty, could she praise their
joyful calm? And then she thought of her baby: then she saw Orion:
then she defied all jealous spirits of air, and, looking toward Orion,
whom she must never worship, she offered her baby's days to that
belted hunter, naming her baby after those splendid stars.
And when Alveric came to the tower she told him of her wish,
and he was willing the boy should be named Orion, for all in that
valley set much store by hunting. And the hope came back to
Alveric, which he would not put away, that being reasonable at last
in this, she would now be reasonable in all other things, and be
guided by custom, and do what others did, and forsake wild whims
and fancies that came over the border from Elfland. And he asked
her to worship the holy things of the Freer. For never had she given
any of these things their due, and knew not which was the holier, his
candlestick or his bell, and never would learn for ought that Alveric
told her.
28.
And now sheanswered him pleasantly and her husband thought
all was well, but her thoughts were far with Orion; nor did they ever
tarry with grave things long, nor could tarry longer amongst them
than butterflies do in the shade.
All that night the casket was locked on the rune of the King of
Elfland.
And next morning Lirazel gave little thought to the rune, for they
went with the boy to the holy place of the Freer; and Ziroonderel
came with them but waited without. And the folk of Erl came too, as
many as could leave the affairs of man with the fields; and all were
there of those that had made the parliament, when they went to
Alveric's sire in the long red room. And all of these were glad when
they saw the boy and marked his strength and growth; and,
muttering low together as they stood in the holy place, they foretold
how all should be as they had planned. And the Freer came forth
and, standing amongst his holy things, he gave to the boy before
him the name of Orion, though he sooner had given some name of
those that he knew to be blessed. And he rejoiced to see the boy
and to name him there; for by the family that dwelt in the Castle of
Erl all these folk marked the generations, and watched the ages
pass, as sometimes we watch the seasons go over some old known
tree. And he bowed himself before Alveric, and was full courteous to
Lirazel, yet his courtesy to the princess came not from his heart, for
in his heart he held her in no more reverence than he held a
mermaid that had forsaken the sea.
And the boy came even so by the name of Orion. And all the folk
rejoiced as he came out with his parents and rejoined Ziroonderel at
the edge of the holy garden. And Alveric, Lirazel, Ziroonderel and
Orion all walked back to the castle.
And all that day Lirazel did nothing that caused anybody to
wonder, but let herself be governed by custom and the ways of the
fields we know. Only, when the stars came out and Orion shone, she
knew that their splendour had not received its due, and her
gratitude to Orion yearned to be said. She was grateful for his bright
29.
beauty that cheeredour fields, and grateful for his protection, of
which she felt sure for her boy, against jealous spirits of air. And all
her unsaid thanks so burned in her heart that all of a sudden she
rose and left her tower and went out to the open starlight, and lifted
her face to the stars and the place of Orion, and stood all dumb
though her thanks were trembling upon her lips; for Alveric had told
her one must not pray to the stars. With face upturned to all that
wandering host she stood long silent, obedient to Alveric: then she
lowered her eyes, and there was a small pool glimmering in the
night, in which all the faces of the stars were shining. "To pray to the
stars," she said to herself in the night, "is surely wrong. These
images in the water are not the stars. I will pray to their images, and
the stars will know."
And on her knees amongst the iris leaves she prayed at the edge
of the pool, and gave thanks to the images of the stars for the joy
she had had of the night, when the constellations shone in their
myriad majesty, and moved like an army dressed in silver mail,
marching from unknown victories to conquer in distant wars. She
blessed and thanked and praised those bright reflections shimmering
down in the pool, and bade them tell her thanks and her praise to
Orion, to whom she might not pray. It was thus that Alveric found
her, kneeling, bent down in the dark, and reproached her bitterly.
She was worshipping the stars, he said, which were there for no
such purpose. And she said she was only supplicating their images.
We may understand his feelings easily: the strangeness of her,
her unexpected acts, her contrariness to all established things, her
scorn for custom, her wayward ignorance, jarred on some treasured
tradition every day. The more romantic she had been far away over
the frontier, as told of by legend and song, the more difficult it was
for her to fill any place once held by the ladies of that castle who
were versed in all the lore of the fields we know. And Alveric looked
for her to fulfil duties and follow customs which were all as new to
her as the twinkling stars.
30.
But Lirazel feltonly that the stars had not their due, and that
custom or reason or whatever men set store by should demand that
thanks be given them for their beauty; and she had not thanked
them even, but had supplicated only their images in the pool.
That night she thought of Elfland, where all things were matched
with her beauty, where nothing changed and there were no strange
customs, and no strange magnificences like these stars of ours to
whom none gave their due. She thought of the elfin lawns and the
towering banks of the flowers, and the palace that may not be told
of but only in song.
Still locked in the dark of the casket the rune bided its time.
31.
CHAPTER IX
Lirazel BlowsAway
And the days went by, the Summer passed over Erl, the sun that
had travelled northward fared South again, it was near to the time
when the swallows left those eaves, and Lirazel had not learnt
anything. She had not prayed to the stars again, or supplicated their
images, but she had learned no human customs, and could not see
why her love and gratitude must remain unexpressed to the stars.
And Alveric did not know that the time must come when some
simple trivial thing would divide them utterly.
And then one day, hoping still, he took her with him to the house
of the Freer to teach her how to worship his holy things. And gladly
the good man brought his candle and bell, and the eagle of brass
that held up his book when he read, and a little symbolic bowl that
had scented water, and the silver snuffers that put his candle out.
And he told her clearly and simply, as he had told her before, the
origin, meaning and mystery of all these things, and why the bowl
was of brass and the snuffer of silver, and what the symbols were
that were carved on the bowl. With fitting courtesy he told her these
things, even with kindness; and yet there was something in his voice
as he told, a little distant from her; and she knew that he spoke as
one that walked safe on shore calling far to a mermaid amid
dangerous seas.
As they came back to the castle the swallows were grouped to
go, sitting in lines along the battlements. And Lirazel had promised
to worship the holy things of the Freer, like the simple bell-fearing
folk of the valley of Erl: and a late hope was shining in Alveric's mind
that even yet all was well. And for many days she remembered all
that the Freer had told her.
32.
And one daywalking late from the nursery, past tall windows to
her tower, and looking out on the evening, remembering that she
must not worship the stars, she called to mind the holy things of the
Freer, and tried to remember all she was told of them. It seemed so
hard to worship them just as she should. She knew that before
many hours the swallows would all be gone; and often when they
left her her mood would change; and she feared that she might
forget, and never remember more, how she ought to worship the
holy things of the Freer.
So she went out into the night again over the grasses to where a
thin brook ran, and drew out some great flat pebbles that she knew
where to find, turning her face away from the images of the stars.
By day the stones shone beautifully in the water, all ruddy and
mauve; now they were all dark. She drew them out and laid them in
the meadow: she loved these smooth flat stones, for somehow they
made her remember the rocks of Elfland.
She laid them all in a row, this for the candlestick, this for the
bell, that for the holy bowl. "If I can worship these lovely stones as
things ought to be worshipped," she said, "I can worship the things
of the Freer."
Then she kneeled down before the big flat stones and prayed to
them as though they were Christom things.
And Alveric seeking her in the wide night, wondering what wild
fancy had carried her whither, heard her voice in the meadow,
crooning such prayers as are offered to holy things.
When he saw the four flat stones to which she prayed, bowed
down before them in the grass, he said that no worse than this were
the darkest ways of the heathen. And she said "I am learning to
worship the holy things of the Freer."
"It is the art of the heathen," he said.
Now of all things that men feared in the valley of Erl they feared
most the arts of the heathen, of whom they knew nothing but that
their ways were dark. And he spoke with the anger which men
33.
always used whenthey spoke there of the heathen. And his anger
went to her heart, for she was but learning to worship his holy
things to please him, and yet he had spoken like this.
And Alveric would not speak the words that should have been
said, to turn aside anger and soothe her; for no man, he foolishly
thought, should compromise in matters touching on heathenesse. So
Lirazel went alone all sadly back to her tower. And Alveric stayed to
cast the four flat stones afar.
And the swallows left, and unhappy days went by. And one day
Alveric bade her worship the holy things of the Freer, and she had
quite forgotten how. And he spoke again of the arts of heathenesse.
The day was shining and the poplars golden and all the aspens red.
Then Lirazel went to her tower and opened the casket, that
shone in the morning with the clear autumnal light, and took in her
hand the rune of the King of Elfland, and carried it with her across
the high vaulted hall, and came to another tower and climbed its
steps to the nursery.
And there all day she stayed and played with her child, with the
scroll still tight in her hand: and, merrily though she played at
whiles, yet there were strange calms in her eyes, which Ziroonderel
watched while she wondered. And when the sun was low and she
had put the child to bed she sat beside him all solemn as she told
him childish tales. And Ziroonderel, the wise witch, watched; and for
all her wisdom only guessed how it would be, and knew not how to
make it otherwise.
And before sunset Lirazel kissed the boy and unrolled the Elf
King's scroll. It was but a petulance that had made her take it from
the coffer in which it lay, and the petulance might have passed and
she might not have unrolled the scroll, only that it was there in her
hand. Partly petulance, partly wonder, partly whims too idle to name,
drew her eyes to the Elf King's words in their coal-black curious
characters.
34.
And whatever magicthere was in the rune of which I cannot tell
(and dreadful magic there was), the rune was written with love that
was stronger than magic, till those mystical characters glowed with
the love that the Elf King had for his daughter, and there were
blended in that mighty rune two powers, magic and love, the
greatest power there is beyond the boundary of twilight with the
greatest power there is in the fields we know. And if Alveric's love
could have held her he should have trusted alone to that love, for
the Elf King's rune was mightier than the holy things of the Freer.
No sooner had Lirazel read the rune on the scroll than fancies
from Elfland began to pour over the border. Some came that would
make a clerk in the City to-day leave his desk at once to dance on
the sea-shore; and some would have driven all the men in a bank to
leave doors and coffers open and wander away till they came to
green open land and the heathery hills; and some would have made
a poet of a man, all of a sudden as he sat at his business. They were
mighty fancies that the Elf King summoned by the force of his
magical rune. And Lirazel sat there with the rune in her hand,
helpless amongst this mass of tumultuous fancies from Elfland. And
as the fancies raged and sang and called, more and more over the
border, all crowding on one poor mind, her body grew lighter and
lighter. Her feet half rested half floated, upon the floor; Earth
scarcely held her down, so fast was she becoming a thing of dreams.
No love of hers for Earth, or of the children of Earth for her, had any
longer power to hold her there.
And now came memories of her ageless childhood beside the
tarns of Elfland, by the deep forest's border, by those delirious
lawns, or in the palace that may not be told of except only in song.
She saw those things as clearly as we see small shells in water,
looking through clear ice down to the floor of some sleeping lake, a
little dimmed in that other region across the barrier of ice; so too her
memories shone a little dimly from across the frontier of Elfland.
Little queer sounds of elfin creatures came to her, scents swam from
those miraculous flowers that glowed by the lawns she knew, faint
sounds of enchanted songs blew over the border and reached her
35.
seated there, voicesand melodies and memories came floating
through the twilight, all Elfland was calling. Then measured and
resonant, and strangely near, she heard her father's voice.
She rose at once, and now Earth had lost on her the grip that it
only has on material things, and a thing of dreams and fancy and
fable and phantasy she drifted from the room; and Ziroonderel had
no power to hold her with any spell, nor had she herself the power
even to turn, even to look at her boy as she drifted away.
And at that moment a wind came out of the north-west, and
entered the woods and bared the golden branches, and danced on
over the downs, and led a company of scarlet and golden leaves,
that had dreaded this day but danced now it had come; and away
with a riot of dancing and glory of colour, high in the light of the sun
that had set from the sight of the fields, went wind and leaves
together. With them went Lirazel.
36.
CHAPTER X
The Ebbingof Elfland
Next morning Alveric came up the tower to the witch Ziroonderel,
weary and frantic from searching all night long in strange places for
Lirazel. All night he had tried to guess what fancy had beckoned her
out and whither it might have led her; he had searched by the
stream by which she had prayed to the stones, and the pool where
she prayed to the stars; he had called her name up every tower, and
had called it wide in the dark, and had had no answer but echo; and
so he had come at last to the witch Ziroonderel.
"Whither?" he said, saying no more than that, that the boy might
not know his fears. Yet Orion knew.
And Ziroonderel all mournfully shook her head. "The way of the
leaves," she said. "The way of all beauty."
But Alveric did not stay to hear her say more than her first five
words; for he went with the restlessness with which he had come,
straight from the room and hastily down the stair, and out at once
into the windy morning, to see which way those glorious leaves were
gone.
And a few leaves that had clung to cold branches longer, when
the gay company of their comrades had gone, were now too on the
air, going lonely and last: and Alveric saw they were going south-
east towards Elfland.
Hurriedly then he donned his magical sword in its wide scabbard
of leather; and with scanty provisions hastened over the fields, after
the last of the leaves, whose autumnal glory led him, as many a
cause in its latter days, all splendid and fallen, leads all manner of
men.
37.
And so hecame to the upland fields with their grass all grey with
dew; and the air was all sparkling with sunlight, and gay with the
last of the leaves, but a melancholy seemed to dwell with the sound
of the lowing of cattle.
In the calm bright morning with the north-west wind roaming
through it Alveric came by no calm, and never gave up the haste of
one who has lost something suddenly: he had the swift movements
of such, and the frantic air. He watched all day over clear wide
horizons, south-east where the leaves were leading; and at evening
he looked to see the Elfin Mountains, severe and changeless, unlit by
any light we know, the colour of pale forget-me-nots. He held on
restlessly to see their summits, but never they came to view.
And then he saw the house of the old leather-worker who had
made the scabbard for his sword; and the sight of it brought back to
him the years that were gone since the evening when first he had
seen it, although he never knew how many they were, and could not
know, for no one has ever devised any exact calculation whereby to
estimate the action of time in Elfland. Then he looked once more for
the pale-blue Elfin Mountains, remembering well where they lay, in
their long grave row past a point of one of the leather-worker's
gables, but he saw never a line of them. Then he entered the house
and the old man still was there.
The leather-worker was wonderfully aged; even the table on
which he worked was much older. He greeted Alveric, remembering
who he was, and Alveric enquired for the old man's wife. "She died
long ago," he said. And again Alveric felt the baffling flight of those
years, which added a fear to Elfland whither he went, yet he neither
thought to turn back nor reined for a moment his impatient haste.
He said a few formal things of the old man's loss that had happened
so long ago. Then "Where are the Elfin Mountains," he asked, "the
pale-blue peaks?"
A look came slowly over the old man's face as though he had
never seen them, as though Alveric being learned spoke of
something that the old leather-worker could not know. No, he did
38.
not know, hesaid. And Alveric found that to-day as all those years
ago, this old man still refused to speak of Elfland. Well, the boundary
was only a few yards away; he would cross it and ask the way of
elfin creatures, if he could not see the mountains to guide him then.
The old man offered him food, and he had not eaten all day; but
Alveric in his haste only asked him once more of Elfland, and the old
man humbly said that of such things he knew nothing. Then Alveric
strode away and came to the field he knew, which he remembered
to be divided by the nebulous border of twilight. And indeed he had
no sooner come to the field than he saw all the toadstools leaning
over one way, and that the way he was going; for just as thorn trees
all lean away from the sea, so toadstools and every plant that has
any touch of mystery, such as foxgloves, mulleins and certain kinds
of orchis, when growing anywhere near it, all lean towards Elfland.
By this one may know before one has heard a murmur of waves, or
before one has guessed an influence of magical things, that one
comes, as the case may be, to the sea or the border of Elfland. And
in the air above him Alveric saw golden birds, and guessed that
there had been a storm in Elfland blowing them over the border
from the south-east, though a north-west wind blew over the fields
we know. And he went on but the boundary was not there, and he
crossed the field as any field we know, and still he had not come to
the fells of Elfland.
Then Alveric pressed on with a new impatience, with the north-
west wind behind him. And the Earth began to grow bare and
shingly and dull, without flowers, without shade, without colour, with
none of those things that there are in remembered lands, by which
we build pictures of them when we are there no more; it was all
disenchanted now. Alveric saw a golden bird high up, rushing away
to the south-east; and he followed his flight hoping soon to see the
mountains of Elfland, which he supposed to be merely concealed by
some magical mist.
But still the autumnal sky was bright and clear, and all the
horizon plain, and still there came never a gleam of the Elfin
Mountains. And not from this did he learn that Elfland had ebbed.
39.
But when hesaw on that desolate shingly plain, untorn by the north-
west wind but blooming fair in the Autumn, a may tree that he
remembered a long while since, all white with blossom that once
rejoiced a Spring day far in his childhood, then he knew that Elfland
had been there and must have receded, although he knew not how
far. For it is true, and Alveric knew, that just as the glamour that
brightens much of our lives, especially in early years, comes from
rumours that reach us from Elfland by various messengers (on
whom be blessings and peace), so there returns from our fields to
Elfland again, to become a part of its mystery, all manner of little
memories that we have lost and little devoted toys that were
treasured once. And this is part of the law of ebb and flow that
science may trace in all things; thus light grew the forest of coal,
and the coal gives back light; thus rivers fill the sea, and the sea
sends back to the rivers; thus all things give that receive; even
Death.
Next Alveric saw lying there on the flat dry ground a toy that he
yet remembered, which years and years ago (how could he say how
many?) had been a childish joy to him, crudely carved out of wood;
and one unlucky day it had been broken, and one unhappy day it
had been thrown away. And now he saw it lying there not merely
new and unbroken, but with a wonder about it, a splendour and a
romance, the radiant transfigured thing that his young fancy had
known. It lay there forsaken of Elfland as wonderful things of the
sea lie sometimes desolate on wastes of sand, when the sea is a far
blue bulk with a border of foam.
Dreary with lost romance was the plain from which Elfland had
gone, though here and there Alveric saw again and again those little
forsaken things that had been lost from his childhood, dropping
through time to the ageless and hourless region of Elfland to be a
part of its glory, and now left forlorn by this immense withdrawal.
Old tunes, old songs, old voices, hummed there too, growing fainter
and fainter, as though they could not live long in the fields we know.
40.
And, when thesun set, a mauve-rose glow in the East, that
Alveric fancied a little too gorgeous for Earth, led him onward still;
for he deemed it to be the reflection cast on the sky by the glow of
the splendour of Elfland. So he went on hoping to find it, horizon
after horizon; and night came on with all Earth's comrade stars. And
only then Alveric put aside at last that frantic restlessness that had
driven him since the morning; and, wrapping himself in a loose cloak
that he wore, ate such food as he had in a satchel, and slept a
troubled sleep alone with other forsaken things.
At the earliest moment of dawn his impatience awoke him,
although one of October's mists hid all glimpses of light. He ate the
last of his food and then pushed on through the greyness.
No sound from the things of our fields came to him now; for men
never went that way when Elfland was there, and none but Alveric
went now to that desolate plain. He had travelled beyond the sound
of cock-crow from the comfortable houses of men and was now
marching through a curious silence, broken only now and then by
the small dim cries of the lost songs that had been left by the ebb of
Elfland and were fainter now than they had been the day before.
And when dawn shone Alveric saw again so great a splendour in the
sky, glowing all green low down in the south-east, that he thought
once more he saw a reflection from Elfland, and pressed on hoping
to find it over the next horizon. And he passed the next horizon; and
still that shingly plain, and never a peak of the pale-blue Elfin
Mountains.
Whether Elfland always lay over the next horizon, brightening the
clouds with its glow, and moved away just as he came, or whether it
had gone days or years before, he did not know but still kept on and
on. And he came at last to a dry and grassless ridge on which his
eyes and his hopes had been set for long, and from it he looked far
over the desolate flatness that stretched to the rim of the sky, and
saw never a sign of Elfland, never a slope of the mountains: even
the little treasures of memory that had been left behind by the ebb
were withering into things of our every day. Then Alveric drew his
41.
magical sword fromits sheath. But though that sword had power
against enchantment it had not been given the power to bring again
an enchantment that was gone; and the desolate land remained the
same, for all that he waved his sword, stony, deserted, unromantic
and wide.
For a little while he went on; but in that flat land the horizon
moved imperceptibly with him, and never a peak appeared of the
Elfin Mountains; and on that dreary plain he soon discovered, as
sooner or later many a man must, that he had lost Elfland.
42.
CHAPTER XI
The Deepof the Woods
In those days Ziroonderel would amuse the boy by charms and
by little wonders, and he was content for a while. And then he
began to guess for himself, all in silence, where his mother was. He
listened to all things said, and thought long about them. And days
passed thus and he only knew she had gone, and still he said never
a word of the thing with which his thoughts were busy. And then he
came to know from things said or unsaid, or from looks or glances or
wagging of heads, that there was a wonder about his mother's
going. But what the wonder was he could not find, for all the
marvels that crossed his mind when he guessed. And at last one day
he asked Ziroonderel.
And stored though her old mind was with ages and ages of
wisdom, and though she had feared this question, yet she did not
know it had dwelt in his mind for days, and could find no better
answer out of her wisdom than that his mother had gone to the
woods. When the boy heard this he determined to go to the woods
to find her.
Now in his walks abroad with Ziroonderel through the little
hamlet of Erl, Orion would see the villagers walking by and the smith
at his open forge, and folk in their doorways, and men that came in
to the market from distant fields; and he knew them all. And most of
all he knew Threl with his quiet feet, and Oth with his lithe limbs; for
both of these would tell him tales when they met of the uplands,
and the deep woods over the hill; and Orion on little journeys with
his nurse loved to hear tales of far places.
There was an ancient myrtle tree by a well, where Ziroonderel
would sit in the Summer evenings while Orion played on the grass;
43.
and Oth wouldcross the grass with his curious bow, going out in the
evening, and sometimes Threl would come; and every time that one
of them came Orion would stop him and ask for a tale of the woods.
And if it were Oth he would bow to Ziroonderel with a look of awe as
he bowed, and would tell some tale of what the deer did, and Orion
would ask him why. Then a look would come over Oth's face as
though he were carefully remembering things that had happened
very long ago, and after some moments of silence he would give the
ancient cause of whatever the deer did, which explained how they
came by the custom.
If it were Threl that came across the grass he would appear not
to see Ziroonderel and would tell his tale of the woods more hastily
in a low voice and pass on, leaving the evening, as Orion felt, full of
mystery behind him. He would tell tales of all manner of creatures;
and the tales were so strange that he told them only to young Orion,
because, as he explained, there were many folk that were unable to
believe the truth, and he did not wish his tales to come to the ears
of such. Once Orion had gone to his house, a dark hut full of skins:
all kinds of skins hung on the wall, foxes, badgers, and martens; and
there were smaller ones in heaps in the corners. To Orion Threl's
dark hut was more full of wonder than any other house he had ever
seen.
But now it was Autumn and the boy and his nurse saw Oth and
Threl more seldom; for in the misty evenings with the threat of frost
in the air they sat no longer by the myrtle tree. Yet Orion watched
on their short walks; and one day he saw Threl going away from the
village with his face to the uplands. And he called to Threl, and Threl
stood still with a certain air of confusion, for he deemed himself of
too little account to be clearly seen and noticed by the nurse at the
castle, be she witch or woman. And Orion ran up to him and said
"Show me the woods." And Ziroonderel perceived that the time had
come when his thoughts were roaming beyond the lip of the valley,
and knew that no spell of hers would hold him long from following
after them. And Threl said, "No, my Master," and looked uneasily at
44.
Ziroonderel, who cameafter the boy and led him away from Threl.
And Threl went on alone to his work in the deep of the woods.
And it was not otherwise than the witch had foreseen. For first
Orion wept, and then he dreamed of the woods, and next day he
slipped away alone to the house of Oth and asked him to take him
with him when he went to hunt the deer. And Oth, standing on a
wide deer-skin in front of blazing logs, spoke much of the woods,
but did not take him then. Instead he brought Orion back to the
Castle. And Ziroonderel regretted too late that she had idly said his
mother was gone to the woods, for those words of hers had called
up too soon that spirit of roving which was bound to come to him,
and she saw that her spells could bring content no more. So in the
end she let him go to the woods. But not until by lifting of wand and
saying of incantation she had called the glamour of the woods down
to the nursery hearth, and had made it haunt the shadows that went
from the fire and creep with them all about the room, till the nursery
was all as mysterious as the forest. When this spell would not soothe
him and keep his longing at home she let him go to the woods.
He stole away once more to the house of Oth, over crisp grass
one morning; and the old witch knew he had gone but did not call
him back, for she had no spell to curb the love of roving in man,
whether it came early or late. And she would not hold back his limbs
when his heart was gone to the woods, for it is ever the way of
witches with any two things to care for the more mysterious of the
two. So the boy came alone to the house of Oth, through his garden
where dead flowers hung on brown stalks, and the petals turned to
slime if he fingered them, for November was come and the frosts
were abroad all night. And this time Orion just met with a mood in
Oth, which in less than an hour would have gone, that was
favourable to the boy's longing. Oth was taking down his bow from
the wall as Orion went in, and Oth's heart was gone to the woods;
and when the boy came yearning to go to the woods too the hunter
in that mood could not refuse him.
45.
So Oth tookOrion on his shoulder and went up out of the valley.
Folk saw them go thus, Oth with his bow and his soft noiseless
sandals, and his brown garments of leather, Orion on his shoulder,
wrapped in the skin of a fawn which Oth had thrown round him. And
as the village fell behind them Orion rejoiced to see the houses
further and further away, for he had never been so far from them
before. And when the uplands opened their distances to his eyes he
felt that he was now upon no mere walk, but a journey. And then he
saw the solemn gloom of the wintry woods far off, and that filled
him at once with a delighted awe. To their darkness, their mystery
and their shelter Oth brought him.
So softly Oth entered the wood that the blackbirds that guarded
it, sitting watchful on branches, did not flee at his coming, but only
uttered slowly their warning notes, and listened suspiciously till he
passed, and were never sure if a man had broken the charm of the
wood. Into that charm and the gloom and the deep silence Oth
moved gravely; and a solemness came on his face as he entered the
wood; for to go on quiet feet through the wood was the work of his
life, and he came to it as men come to their heart's desire. And soon
he put the boy down on the brown bracken and went on for a while
alone. Orion watched him go with his bow in his left hand, till he
disappeared in the wood, like a shadow going to a gathering of
shadows and merging amongst its fellows. And although Orion might
not go with him now, he had great joy from this, for he knew by the
way Oth went and the air he had that this was serious hunting and
no mere amusement made to please a child; and it pleased him
more than all the toys he had had. And quiet and lonely the great
wood loomed round him while he waited for Oth to return.
And after a long while he heard a sound, all in the wonder of the
wood, that was less loud than the sound that a blackbird made
scattering dead leaves to find insects, and Oth had come back again.
He had not found a deer; and for a while he sat by Orion and
shot arrows into a tree; but soon he gathered his arrows and took
the boy on his shoulder again and turned homewards. And there
46.
Welcome to ourwebsite – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
testbankmall.com