What is an important nursing consideration for patients taking a nonbenzodiazepine such as zolpidem?

Choice A reason: Silence in group therapy provides space for reflection, allowing members to process emotions and thoughts. This supports therapeutic goals by fostering insight and self-awareness, aligning with psychiatric principles of facilitating emotional processing, making this the correct choice.

Choice B reason: Silence does not encourage immediate verbal responses; it promotes contemplation. Encouraging quick responses may pressure participants, disrupting therapeutic processing, which relies on reflective pauses, making this statement contrary to the therapeutic use of silence and incorrect.

Choice C reason: Using silence to discipline is punitive, not therapeutic. Silence in therapy aims to facilitate reflection, not control behavior, which contradicts psychiatric nursing principles of fostering a supportive environment, making this choice incorrect and non-therapeutic.

Choice D reason: Silence complements, not replaces, active listening. Active listening involves verbal and nonverbal engagement, while silence provides reflective space. Replacing listening with silence undermines therapeutic communication, making this statement incorrect for the role of silence in therapy.

Choice A reason: Autonomy involves respecting a patient’s right to make decisions. While relevant in mental health, the scenario focuses on differing treatments for similar conditions, not patient choice, making autonomy less directly applicable than the principle of fair treatment across patients.

Choice B reason: Beneficence emphasizes promoting patient well-being. Both restraints and supervision aim to prevent harm, fulfilling beneficence, but the concern is about unequal treatment, not the intent to benefit, making this principle less relevant than justice.

Choice C reason: Justice involves fair and equitable treatment for all patients. Using restraints for one self-mutilating patient and supervision for another raises concerns about consistency and fairness in care, directly aligning with the ethical principle of justice, making this the correct choice.

Choice D reason: Nonmaleficence focuses on avoiding harm. Both interventions aim to prevent self-mutilation, fulfilling this principle, but the ethical issue is about equitable application, not harm avoidance, making justice the more relevant principle in this scenario.