A mental health nurse is working with a client experiencing severe depression. The nurse wants to provide supportive care while avoiding becoming emotionally overwhelmed. Which statement best reflects the difference between sympathy and empathy in this context?
Sympathy involves understanding and sharing the client’s feelings, while empathy is feeling sorry for them.
Sympathy is feeling sorry for the client, while empathy is the ability to understand and communicate that understanding without judgment.
Sympathy creates emotional distance, whereas empathy fosters a deeper emotional connection without losing objectivity.
Sympathy and empathy are interchangeable terms that both involve feeling the client’s emotions deeply.
The Correct Answer is B
Choice A reason: This reverses the definitions of sympathy and empathy. Empathy is not about feeling sorry but about understanding and reflecting feelings.
Choice B reason: Sympathy is pity or sorrow for someone else’s suffering, while empathy means perceiving and validating the client’s experience without judgment, which is essential for therapeutic communication.
Choice C reason: Sympathy does not create emotional distance; instead, it often involves pity that can actually reduce meaningful connection. Empathy provides closeness while maintaining professional boundaries.
Choice D reason: Sympathy and empathy are not interchangeable. They differ in depth and therapeutic effectiveness, making this statement incorrect.
Nursing Test Bank
Naxlex Comprehensive Predictor Exams
Related Questions
Correct Answer is A
Explanation
Choice A reason: The superego internalizes societal and parental standards of right and wrong. It guides moral development and can produce guilt when standards are violated or pride when they are upheld.
Choice B reason: The pleasure principle refers to the id, which seeks immediate gratification of desires without considering consequences. This does not describe the superego.
Choice C reason: The ego, not the superego, mediates between the id, superego, and external reality. It works on the reality principle to balance impulses with acceptable behavior.
Choice D reason: Defense mechanisms are managed by the ego, not the superego. They protect against anxiety but are not the superego’s primary function.
Correct Answer is C
Explanation
Choice A reason: SSRIs are antidepressants used to treat depression and anxiety disorders. They do not address extrapyramidal side effects like acute dystonia, so they would not be useful in this case.
Choice B reason: Beta-blockers are primarily used for cardiovascular conditions and akathisia (a sense of restlessness), but they are not the treatment of choice for acute dystonia.
Choice C reason: Diphenhydramine, an antihistamine with strong anticholinergic properties, is effective in treating acute dystonia by restoring the balance between dopamine and acetylcholine in the basal ganglia. This makes it the correct choice for managing the client’s symptoms.
Choice D reason: Benzodiazepines may help with agitation or anxiety, but they are not first-line treatment for acute dystonic reactions caused by antipsychotic medications.
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