Mental Health Nursing: practice problems and exam questions

Multiple-choice practice for mental health nursing: therapeutic communication, defence mechanisms, the mental status examination, the major disorders, psychotropic drugs and their monitoring, suicide and violence risk, and general legal and ethical principles.

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Cram pack (PDF)Formula sheets, method steps and practice problems with full solutions, ready to print.

Topics in this course

  1. Mental health nursingkey terms and facts · applying the concepts · cases and analysismultiple choice
  2. Clinical psychologykey terms and facts · applying the concepts · cases and analysismultiple choice
  3. Pharmacologykey terms and facts · applying the concepts · cases and analysismultiple choice

Exam tips for Mental Health Nursing

  • Safety first: suicide risk, violence and drug emergencies come before communication goals.
  • Never argue with a delusion; acknowledge the feeling and present reality.
  • Know the monitoring for lithium and clozapine, and how serotonin syndrome differs from neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

Example questions

Mental health nursingEasy

The SOLER approach is a guide to which aspect of communication?

  1. ADocumenting patient records accurately
  2. BNon-verbal attending behaviour
  3. CAssessing the risk of suicide
  4. DWriting nursing care plans
Show hints
  1. It stands for Sit squarely, Open posture, Lean towards the person, Eye contact and Relax.
  2. Two wrong answers are now crossed out. One of the remaining two is right.
Show the answer and explanation

Why this is the answer

Egan's SOLER describes body language that shows attention and interest. It should be adapted to the patient's culture and comfort, for example with eye contact.

Answer

B · Non-verbal attending behaviour
Clinical psychologyMedium

Which criterion of abnormality judges behaviour as abnormal when it is rare in the population?

  1. ADeviation from ideal mental health
  2. BDeviation from social norms
  3. CFailure to function adequately
  4. DStatistical infrequency
Show hints
  1. It uses the normal distribution.
  2. Two wrong answers are now crossed out. One of the remaining two is right.
Show the answer and explanation

Why this is the answer

Statistical infrequency defines abnormality as behaviour far from the average. Its weakness is that some rare traits, such as very high IQ, are desirable.

Answer

D · Statistical infrequency

How practising works

  • “Practise this course” mixes problems from all its topics, like a real exam.
  • Every problem has new values, so you learn the method instead of an answer.
  • Stuck? Open a small hint first, and the full explanation only when you need it.
  • Mock exams are timed and have no hints, and you get your score and a full review at the end.

Calculators for this course

Creatinine clearance calculator (Cockcroft–Gault)

Related courses

NCLEX-style practice questions (RN)NCLEX-PN-style practice questions (LPN/LVN)Clinical PharmacokineticsPharmacologyIntroduction to PsychologyMedical SciencesNursing Fundamentals and Clinical PracticeLab Values for Nurses
Practise this course for freePractise this courseTake a mock exam5 free problems every day. No card needed.