ATI RN
Behavioral Nursing Questions Questions
Question 1 of 5
A student says, 'Before taking a test, I feel very alert and a little restless.' The nurse can correctly assess the student's experience as
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: In this scenario, the correct answer is D) mild anxiety. This is because the student's description of feeling alert and a little restless before a test aligns with the typical symptoms of mild anxiety. Mild anxiety is a common reaction to stressors like exams and can manifest as heightened alertness and restlessness. Option A) culturally influenced is incorrect because the student's experience is more indicative of a personal emotional response rather than being solely influenced by cultural factors. Option B) displacement is incorrect as this term refers to redirecting emotions from their original source to a substitute target, which is not applicable in this context. Option C) trait anxiety is incorrect as it refers to a stable personality characteristic where individuals are predisposed to experience higher levels of anxiety across various situations, whereas the student's experience seems to be more situational. Educationally, understanding different levels of anxiety and how they manifest is crucial for healthcare professionals like nurses who often encounter individuals experiencing varying degrees of anxiety. By correctly identifying and assessing the level of anxiety, nurses can provide appropriate support and interventions to help individuals cope effectively with their stressors.
Question 2 of 5
A patient states, "I feel detached and weird all the time. It is as though I am looking at life through a cloudy window. Everything seems unreal. It really messes up things at work and school." This scenario is most suggestive of which health problem?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Depersonalization disorder involves a persistent or recurrent experience of feeling detached from and outside oneself. Although reality testing is intact, the experience causes significant impairment in social or occupational functioning and distress to the individual. Dissociative amnesia involves memory loss. Children with disinhibited social engagement disorder demonstrate no normal fear of strangers and are unusually willing to go off with strangers. Individuals with ASD (Acute Stress Disorder) experience three or more dissociative symptoms associated with a traumatic event, such as a subjective sense of numbing, detachment, or absence of emotional responsiveness; a reduction in awareness of surroundings; derealization; depersonalization or dissociative amnesia. In the scenario, the patient experiences only one symptom.
Question 3 of 5
A soldier who served in a combat zone returned to the United States. The soldier's spouse complains to the nurse, "We had planned to start a family, but now he won't talk about it. He won't even look at children." The spouse is describing which symptom associated with PTSD?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma results in the individual's avoiding talking about the event or avoiding activities, people, or places that arouse memories of the trauma. Avoidance is exemplified by a sense of foreshortened future and estrangement. There is no evidence this soldier is having hyperarousal or reexperiencing war-related traumas. Psychosis is not evident.
Question 4 of 5
Which prescription medication would the nurse expect to be prescribed for a patient diagnosed with a somatic symptom disorder?
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Various types of antidepressants may be helpful in somatic disorders not only directly by reducing depressive symptoms and hence somatic responses, but also indirectly by affecting nerve circuits that affect not only mood but also fatigue, pain perception, GI distress, and other somatic symptoms. Patients may benefit from short-term use of antianxiety medication (benzodiazepines) but require careful monitoring because of risks of dependence. Conventional antipsychotic medications would not be used, although selected atypical antipsychotics may be useful. Narcotic analgesics are not indicated.
Question 5 of 5
A nurse assesses a patient diagnosed with conversion (functional neurological) disorder. Which comment is most likely from this patient?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Patients with conversion (functional neurological) disorder demonstrate a lack of concern regarding the seriousness of symptoms. This lack of concern is termed la belle indifference. There is also a specific, identifiable cause for the development of the symptoms; in this instance, the death of a parent would precipitate stress. The distracters relate to sexual dysfunction and illness anxiety disorder.