Mental Health vs. Mental Illness
What are characteristics of mental health?
Ability to cope with stress, work productively, maintain relationships, adapt to change.
What is denial?
A: Refusing to accept reality.
Q: Define autonomy.
A: Respecting client’s right to make their own decisions.
Q: What are key client rights?
A: Right to refuse treatment, right to informed consent, right to least restrictive environment.
Q: What is cognitive therapy?
A: Focuses on restructuring thoughts.
Q: What happens in the pre-orientation phase?
A: Self-reflection by nurse, review chart, prepare for first meeting.
Q: What are examples of therapeutic communication?
Open-ended questions, active listening, empathy, offering self, reflection, clarification.
Q: What are leadership styles in group therapy?
A: Autocratic (leader makes decisions), Democratic (collaborative), Laissez-faire (minimal control)
What defines mental illness
Clinically significant disturbances in thoughts, emotions, or behavior that impair daily functioning.
Q: What is projection?
A: Attributing one’s feelings to others.
Define beneficence.
Doing good.
Q: When can these rights be taken away?
A: If client is danger to self/others, lacks decision-making capacity, or is under legal mandate.
Q: What is behavioral therapy?
A: Focuses on changing behavior using reinforcement/conditioning.
Q: What is the goal of the orientation phase?
Establish trust, set boundaries, agree on goals.
Q: What are examples of non-therapeutic communication?
A: “Why” questions, giving advice, false reassurance, judgment, changing subject.
Q: What is the Duty to Warn (Tarasoff rule)?
Break confidentiality if client threatens specific harm to identifiable person.
Key difference between mental health and illness?
Mental health = adaptive functioning; mental illness = maladaptive functioning.
Q: What is regression?
A: Reverting to an earlier developmental stage.
Q: Define nonmaleficence.
Doing no harm.
Q: What is CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy)?
A: Combines thought restructuring and behavior modification.
What is milieu therapy?
Using the structured environment as a therapeutic tool.
Q: What occurs in the working phase?
Problem-solving, exploring issues, therapeutic interventions.
Q: What is the difference between empathy vs. sympathy?
Empathy = understanding with client; Sympathy = feeling for client (not therapeutic).
Q: When can a client refuse medications?
If competent and not legally mandated.
What is the order of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
physiological, 2) Safety, 3) Love/Belonging, 4) Esteem, 5) Self-actualization.
Q: What is displacement?
A: Shifting feelings to a safer target.
Q: Define justice.
fair and equal treatment
Q: What is voluntary admission?
Client admits self; can request discharge.
What is psychoanalytic therapy?
Explores unconscious conflicts and childhood origins.
Q: What occurs in the termination phase?
A: Summarize progress, closure, prepare for independence.
Q: What is transference?
Client projects feelings onto nurse.
Q: Define assault.
Threat of harm.
in prioritization, which needs always come first?
Life-threatening and physiological needs (airway, safety).
Q: What is sublimation?
A: Channeling unacceptable impulses into acceptable activities (adaptive
Q: Define fidelity.
Keeping commitments and promises.
Q: When can meds be forced?
Danger to self/others, court-ordered, or lacking capacity.
Q: What are behaviors of active listening?
Eye contact, nodding, silence, paraphrasing, summarizing, reflecting emotions.
Q: How does the nurse maintain professional boundaries?
Avoid gifts, personal disclosures, dual relationships, or over-involvement
Q: What is counter-transference?
Nurse projects personal feelings onto client.
Q: Define battery.
Unwanted physical contact.
What protects client confidentiality?
HIPAA
Q: Example: Client says “aliens control my mind.” Which area of MSE?
Mental Status Exam =MSE
Thought content delusions
Q: Define veracity.
A: Always telling the truth.
Client says “aliens control my mind.” Which area of MSE?
Thought content (delusion)
Q: What are the main areas of a Mental Status Exam?
Appearance, Behavior, Speech, Mood/Affect, Thought process/content, Perception, Cognition, Insight/Judgment.
Q: What roles does a psychiatric nurse have?
Advocate, educator, case manager, medication administrator, crisis intervener, therapeutic relationship builder.
Q: What are the main types of group therapy?
A: Support groups, educational groups, therapy groups, task groups, social groups.
Q: Define negligence.
A: Failure to provide care that results in harm.
Q: Define false imprisonment.
A: Restraining a person without legal justification