NE-BC Practice Questions (2026) — Free Sample Questions with Answers

Answer: A

Directing: clear instructions, close follow-up and specific feedback: Correct. A committed but inexperienced 'enthusiastic beginner' needs high direction (task focus) with lower supportive behavior at first.

Delegating: hand over decisions and step back from day-to-day work: Delegating fits highly competent, highly committed staff, not a new graduate.

Supporting: shared decisions with little task direction: Supporting fits capable staff who lack confidence; this nurse first needs task direction.

Laissez-faire: minimal involvement so she can learn by trial and error: Laissez-faire is not a situational style and leaves a novice without guidance, which threatens safety.

Situational leadership matches style to follower readiness: directing → coaching → supporting → delegating as competence and commitment grow.

Answer: B

Console the nurse, because this was an unintentional human error: Human error is an unintended slip; consciously skipping a safety step is a behavioral choice, so consoling alone does not fit.

Coach the nurse and fix the scanner and the workaround culture: Correct. Skipping a step through normalized drift, without seeing the risk, is at-risk behavior; coach the person and remove the system incentives behind the workaround.

Take disciplinary action, because the nurse acted recklessly: Recklessness is consciously disregarding a known, substantial risk; a widespread drift behavior is usually at-risk, not reckless.

Take no action, because the error never reached the patient: Just culture judges the behavior and system, not the outcome; near misses are key learning opportunities.

Just culture: human error → console; at-risk behavior → coach and fix system drivers; reckless behavior → remedial or disciplinary action. Judge the choice, not the outcome.

Answer: A

The federal Anti-Kickback Statute: Correct. The AKS bars knowingly offering or accepting anything of value to induce purchasing, ordering or referring items paid for by federal health care programs.

The Stark physician self-referral law: Stark applies to physician referrals for designated health services to entities in which the physician (or family) has a financial relationship; no physician referral is involved here.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule: HIPAA protects patient health information; this scenario involves an improper financial inducement, not privacy.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act: EMTALA governs emergency screening and stabilization, not vendor relationships.

AKS: remuneration to induce federally reimbursed business (any person, intent required, criminal). Stark: physician self-referral for designated health services (strict liability, civil).

Answer: C

5.0 FTEs: This divides the 200 daily hours by a 40-hour week, mixing a daily total with a weekly unit.

25.0 FTEs: This sets FTEs equal to the census, ignoring the HPPD target and annual hours.

35.1 FTEs: Correct. 25 patients × 8.0 HPPD = 200 hours/day; 200 × 365 = 73,000 hours/year; 73,000 ÷ 2,080 = 35.1 FTEs.

70.2 FTEs: This divides by 1,040 hours (a half-time FTE), doubling the requirement.

Productive FTEs = ADC × HPPD × 365 ÷ 2,080; adding nonproductive time (vacation, sick, education) raises the total FTEs to budget.

Answer: D

Rate of elective surgical cases cancelled on the day of surgery: Same-day surgery cancellations mostly reflect scheduling, surgeon and anesthesia factors, not nursing care on the unit.

Average physician response time to pages from the unit: Physician response time reflects medical staff processes, not care that nurses control.

Percentage of the unit's patients who have commercial insurance: Payor mix is a financial characteristic of the population, not a measure of care quality.

Hospital-acquired pressure injuries per 1,000 patient days: Correct. Pressure injuries, falls with injury, CAUTI and similar measures are nurse-sensitive because they respond to nursing structure, process and staffing.

Nurse-sensitive indicators (such as NDNQI measures) include falls with injury, HAPI, CAUTI, CLABSI, restraint use, staffing/skill mix and RN satisfaction.

Answer: B

Let staff collect copayments first only from patients who appear stable: Payment inquiries may not delay the medical screening exam for anyone who comes to the ED seeking care, whatever their apparent stability.

Never delay screening or stabilization to ask about payment: Correct. EMTALA requires an appropriate medical screening exam, and stabilization or appropriate transfer, without delay to ask about payment or insurance.

Transfer uninsured patients to a public hospital before any screening: Transferring before screening and stabilization because of insurance status is a classic EMTALA violation ('patient dumping').

Apply the screening requirement only to patients who arrive by ambulance: EMTALA applies to anyone who comes to the emergency department requesting care, however they arrive.

EMTALA: every individual who comes to the ED gets a medical screening exam and stabilization or appropriate transfer, with no delay for financial inquiry.