Each chapter closes with Critical Thinking Questions (listed below) as a review of chapter material that focuses on the role of the medical assistant.

1. What might you say to ease the fears of an anxious patient who is about to undergo a laceration repair?

2. Explain the procedure you would follow if you were functioning as a sterile scrub assistant and your glove was punctured while you were handling instruments during a surgical procedure.

3. Explain how to make sure that a patient has understood the postoperative instructions for wound care.

4. A patient arrives at the clinic with a laceration to the left thumb that occurred while she was washing dishes. She is holding a bloody paper towel on the thumb. She states, “I cannot take this towel off—the blood will gush right out of the cut. It just would not stop bleeding.” What should you do?

5. A patient will need to have a minor surgical procedure done next week at your clinic. What administrative tasks must you perform before the procedure?