When assessing patients at a mental health clinic, how should their current level of overall functioning be judged?

A continuum from mentally healthy to mentally unhealthy

The rate of both their intellectual and emotional growth

The degree of conformity of the individual to society’s norms

The degree to which an individual appears logical and rational

Answer and Explanation

The Correct Answer is A

Choice A reason: Assessing functioning on a continuum reflects the spectrum of mental health, from optimal to severe impairment. Tools like the Global Assessment of Functioning scale quantify symptom severity and social/occupational performance, integrating neurobiological factors like dopamine imbalances in schizophrenia or serotonin deficits in depression, providing a comprehensive evaluation of mental health status.

Choice B reason: Focusing on intellectual and emotional growth is irrelevant for current functioning. Mental disorders like anxiety or psychosis primarily disrupt mood and cognition, not developmental growth. Neurobiological changes, such as reduced prefrontal cortex activity in depression, affect daily performance, not growth rates, making this metric unsuitable for assessing overall mental health functioning.

Choice C reason: Judging by societal conformity ignores individual neurobiological differences. Mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder, involve altered brain activity (e.g., heightened amygdala response), not just nonconformity. This approach risks mislabeling cultural or personality variations as pathology, disregarding scientific evidence of brain-based dysfunction and hindering accurate assessment of mental health status.

Choice D reason: Assessing logical and rational appearance is insufficient, as disorders like schizophrenia can present with intact logic but severe delusions due to dopamine dysregulation. This overlooks emotional and social impairments, critical in mental health assessment, and fails to capture the full spectrum of neurobiological and functional deficits present in psychiatric conditions.

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Correct Answer is A

Explanation

Choice A reason: Interventions, like offering snacks, address identified problems (e.g., forgetting to eat) to meet nutritional needs. This action targets physiological deficits, potentially linked to cognitive impairments from low acetylcholine in dementia, ensuring adequate caloric intake to support brain function and overall health in the care plan.

Choice B reason: Planning/goals outline desired outcomes, not specific actions. Forgetting to eat, possibly due to frontal lobe dysfunction, requires goals like “maintain adequate nutrition.” Interventions, not goals, specify actions like offering snacks, making this section incorrect for the statement’s placement in the care plan.

Choice C reason: Assessment involves data collection, like observing eating patterns, not actions like offering snacks. Forgetting to eat may reflect cognitive deficits, but assessment identifies the problem, not solutions. This section precedes interventions, making it an incorrect location for the described statement.

Choice D reason: Diagnosis identifies problems, like “impaired nutrition” due to cognitive deficits, not specific actions. Offering snacks is an intervention to address the diagnosis, not the diagnosis itself. This section is incorrect for the statement, which belongs in the intervention phase of the care plan.

A. “The focus of the relationship is socialization. Mutual needs are met, and feelings are openly shared.” B. “The focus is the creation of a partnership in which each member is concerned with the growth and satisfaction of the other.” C. “The focus is on the patient. Problems are discussed by the nurse and patient, but solutions are implemented by the patient.” D. “The focus shifts from nurse to patient as the relationship develops. Advice is given by both, and solutions are implemented.”

Correct Answer is C

Explanation

Choice A reason: Socialization and mutual needs define social relationships, not therapeutic ones. Therapeutic relationships focus on patient needs, like addressing serotonin-driven depression, not reciprocal sharing. This approach risks blurring professional boundaries, making it incorrect for psychiatric nursing’s patient-centered focus.

Choice B reason: Mutual growth and satisfaction characterize social partnerships, not therapeutic relationships. In psychiatric care, the focus is on patient recovery, addressing issues like dopamine imbalances, not nurse satisfaction. This option misaligns with the professional, patient-centered nature of therapeutic relationships.

Choice C reason: The therapeutic relationship centers on the patient, addressing issues like amygdala-driven anxiety through collaborative discussion. Solutions, like medication adherence, are patient-driven to promote autonomy, aligning with neurobiological and psychological recovery principles, making this the correct description of the therapeutic dynamic.

Choice D reason: Shifting focus and mutual advice blur professional boundaries, resembling social relationships. Therapeutic relationships prioritize patient needs, like serotonin stabilization, with nurse guidance, not reciprocal advice. This option misrepresents the patient-centered, evidence-based nature of psychiatric therapeutic relationships.

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When assessing patients at a mental health clinic, how should their current level of overall functioning be judged?

Nursing Test Bank

Naxlex Comprehensive Predictor Exams

Your patient sometimes forgets to eat. In which part of the nursing care plan would the nurse expect to find this statement: “Offer snacks and finger foods frequently”?

Correct Answer is A

Explanation

A nurse explains to a nursing student how the therapeutic relationship differs from a social relationship. What is the best explanation for the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and patient?

Correct Answer is C

Explanation

A patient presents with anxiety, increased heart rate, and fear. The nurse suspects the activation of which neurotransmitter?

A nurse works with a patient to establish goals/outcomes. The nurse believes that one outcome suggested by the patient is not in the patient’s best interest. What is the nurse’s best action?

Several nurses are concerned that agency policies related to restraint and seclusion are inadequate. Which statement about the relationship of substandard institutional policies and individual nursing practice should guide nursing practice?

Which statement most clearly reflects the stigma of mental illness?

Which principle should guide the nurse in determining when to use silence during a patient interview?

A patient asks the nurse, “Why did my health care provider prescribe buspirone (Buspar) for my anxiety instead of diazepam (Valium)?” The nurse’s reply is based on the knowledge of which characteristic of buspirone?

After teaching a class about the rights of persons receiving mental health services, the nurse determines a need for additional discussion when the group wrongly identifies which as a right?

Planning for patients diagnosed with mental illness is facilitated by understanding that inpatient hospitalization is generally reserved for a patient presenting with what characteristic?