Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumIdentifying Main Conclusions

Hospital administrators frequently advocate shortening emergency department nursing shifts from twelve hours to eight hours, contending that shorter shifts reduce nurse fatigue and decrease clinical errors. However, medical board statistics demonstrate that handover transitions between shifts account for over sixty percent of preventable communication errors in patient care. Because implementing shorter shifts would inevitably increase the total number of daily handovers required per patient, mandatory shift shortening will ultimately decrease overall patient safety in emergency departments.

Which of the following best expresses the main conclusion of the argument above?

  1. Mandatory shift shortening will ultimately lead to a net reduction in patient safety in emergency departments.Answer
  2. B
    Shortening nursing shift durations will raise the frequency of patient handover transitions occurring each day.
  3. C
    Nurses working twelve-hour shifts experience higher fatigue levels that contribute directly to clinical errors.
  4. D
    Hospitals ought to eliminate handover transitions entirely by extending individual nursing shifts beyond twelve hours.
  5. E
    Communication breakdowns during handover transitions account for the majority of preventable errors in emergency care.

Answer

The main conclusion of the argument is that mandatory shift shortening will ultimately decrease overall patient safety in emergency departments.
The correct answer accurately reflects the ultimate claim of the argument: that adopting mandatory shorter shifts will lead to decreased patient safety overall. The argument establishes that handover errors comprise most preventable errors, that shorter shifts increase handovers, and concludes that patient safety will consequently drop.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the structure of the argument to isolate premises, background context, and structural pivots.
Identified the administrators' view as background context, followed by a contrastive pivot ('However') introducing evidence about handover transition errors.
Contrastive pivots frequently signal a turn toward the author's primary position.
2
Distinguish between intermediate support claims and the main conclusion.
The claim that shorter shifts increase daily handovers supports the final claim introduced by the conclusion indicator 'will ultimately'.
The main conclusion must be the final claim that receives support from all other premises and sub-conclusions in the text.
3
Select the option that accurately captures the author's ultimate claim without overstepping passage bounds.
The statement regarding net reduction in patient safety directly matches the argument's final sentence and ultimate assertion.
The ultimate assertion expresses the core takeaway that the author set out to prove.

Key Concept

Identifying Main Conclusions
Rate this question

Topics

Identifying Main Conclusions

More questions from this topic