Question

The nursing diagnosis that would be most appropriate for a 22-year old client who uses ritualistic behavior would be:

Answer 1

Correct Answers:

Ineffective coping

Rationale :

🔷 Ritualistic behavior is a classic sign of attempting to reduce anxiety using maladaptive coping.

🔷 Clients often rely on repetitive actions because they cannot manage internal distress effectively.

🔷 This behavior reflects poor problem-solving skills and emotional regulation.

🔷 The diagnosis aligns with dysfunctional cognitive patterns used to manage overwhelming emotions.

🔷 It is the most accurate label for persistent rituals interfering with normal functioning.

Impaired adjustment

🔷 This involves difficulty adapting to major life changes, not compulsive rituals.

🔷 Not the primary issue.

Personal identity disturbance

🔷 Seen in borderline personality disorder, not ritualistic coping behaviors.

🔷 Rituals are not identity-related.

Sensory/perceptual alterations

🔷 Associated with hallucinations or delusions.

🔷 Rituals are behavioral, not perceptual distortions.

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Answer 2

Correct Answers:

Impulsiveness
Lability of mood
Self-destructive behavior

Rationale :

Impulsiveness

💠 Core feature of BPD, including risky behavior, sudden decisions, and poor judgment.

💠 Impulsivity often contributes to chaotic relationships.

Lability of mood

💠 Clients move quickly between emotions due to intense affective instability.

💠 Common pattern in BPD.

Self-destructive behavior

💠 Includes cutting, suicide attempts, substance abuse.

💠 A hallmark symptom resulting from emotional dysregulation.

Ritualistic behavior

💠 More consistent with OCD, not BPD.

💠 Not a defining feature.

Psychomotor retardation

💠 Associated with major depression, not BPD.

💠 Not typical of personality disorders.

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Answer 3

Correct Answers:

Become more self-aware

Rationale :

🔷 Confronting rule-breaking helps the client recognize how their behavior affects others,improving insight.

🔷 Clients with borderline personality disorder have difficulty identifying their own behavioral patterns; confrontation increases self-awareness.

🔷 Identifying problematic behaviors allows the client to begin developing healthier coping mechanisms.

🔷 Direct, consistent limit-setting provides structure, helping the client understand appropriate boundaries.

🔷 This insight is essential for progress in therapy, as BPD treatment focuses heavily on recognizing maladaptive behavior.

Control anger

🔷 Confrontation does not immediately improve anger control.

🔷 Anger management involves different therapeutic techniques.

Reduce anxiety

🔷 Confronting behavior can temporarily increase anxiety rather than reduce it.

🔷 This is not the therapeutic purpose of confronting rules.

Set realistic goals

🔷 Goal-setting is part of structured therapy, not a direct effect of confronting rule violations.

🔷 Confrontation focuses on behavior, not goal planning.

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Answer 4

Correct Answers:

Setting mutual goals for the relationship

Rationale :

🔷 Clients with borderline personality disorder struggle with unstable interpersonal relationships, making collaboration on goals challenging.

🔷 Mutual goal-setting requires trust, consistency, and emotional stability—areas where BPD clients experience significant impairment.

🔷 Emotional dysregulation and fear of abandonment interfere with the client’s ability to participate in structured planning.

🔷 They may alternate between idealization and devaluation of the nurse, disrupting the goal-setting process.

🔷 The orientation phase requires establishing expectations, which is often difficult due to the client’s impulsivity and distrust.

Controlling anxiety

🔷 Anxiety may be present but is not the primary barrier during the orientation phase.

🔷 Many BPD clients can participate despite moderate anxiety.

Terminating the session on time

🔷 Termination issues occur later in the relationship, not during orientation.

🔷 Not the biggest challenge initially.

Accepting the psychiatric diagnosis

🔷 Some resistance may occur, but this does not significantly affect the orientation tasks of the therapeutic relationship.

🔷 Diagnosis acceptance typically evolves over time.

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Answer 5

Correct Answers:

Splitting

Rationale :

🔷 Splitting is a defense mechanism where the client views others as all good or all bad, with no middle ground.

🔷 This black-and-white thinking is common in borderline personality disorder due to emotional instability.

🔷 It protects the client from anxiety by simplifying complex feelings about relationships.

🔷 Splitting prevents the integration of both positive and negative traits in others, leading to unstable interpersonal relationships.

🔷 The client labeling all peers as “bad” reflects the inability to hold a balanced, realistic view of others.

Ambivalence

🔷 Ambivalence means having mixed feelings, not extreme good or bad judgments.

🔷 It does not involve complete division of people into opposite categories.

Passive aggression

🔷 Passive aggression involves indirect expression of anger, not labeling people as all bad.

🔷 This does not explain the cognitive distortion seen here.

Reaction formation

🔷 Reaction formation involves expressing the opposite of true feelings.

🔷 It does not include black-and-white categorization typical of splitting.

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Answer 6

Correct Answers:

Empathize with others

Rationale :

🔷 Individuals with antisocial personality disorder show a profound inability to empathize with others, which prevents healthy interpersonal connections.

🔷 Without empathy, they fail to understand or value the feelings, rights, or needs of others, leading to manipulative and exploitative behavior.

🔷 This impaired emotional responsiveness causes repeated violation of social rules and norms.

🔷 Their difficulty relating stems from a long-standing pattern of callousness, not a skill deficit in communication or dependence.

🔷 Lack of empathy is a core diagnostic feature, making it the most accurate reason for poor relational capacity.

Count on others

🔷 Difficulty relying on others is common, but it does not explain why they mistreat or manipulate people.

🔷 Relationships fail not because they can't count on others, but because they can't connect emotionally.

Be dependent on others

🔷 Antisocial individuals prefer independence, but this is not the key cause of relational problems.

🔷 Lack of dependence is not the central issue—lack of empathy is.

Communicate socially

🔷 Many individuals with ASPD can be socially articulate and even charming.

🔷 Their relational deficits are emotional, not communicative.

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Answer 7

Correct Answers:

Respect the client's needs for social isolation

Rationale :

🔷 Clients with schizotypal personality disorder experience intense discomfort with close relationships, making social interaction highly stressful.

🔷 Respecting their need for limited interaction reduces anxiety, allowing the client to feel safe and not overwhelmed.

🔷 Forced participation in groups can increase withdrawal, paranoia, or bizarre thinking patterns.

🔷 The nurse promotes trust by accepting the client’s preferred level of social distance during care.

🔷 Allowing controlled, low-pressure interaction supports gradual improvement in social functioning without pushing beyond comfort.

Set limits on manipulative behavior

🔷 Manipulation is characteristic of antisocial or borderline personality disorders, not schizotypal.

🔷Schizotypal clients are generally socially withdrawn—not manipulative.

Encourage group therapy

🔷Group therapy increases social anxiety and is often distressing for schizotypal clients.

🔷 Individual, structured interactions are more appropriate initially.

Seductive behavior expected

🔷Seductiveness is typical in histrionic personality disorder, not schizotypal.

🔷Schizotypal clients demonstrate odd, eccentric, not seductive behavior.

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Answer 8

Correct Answers:

Return on time or restrictions will be imposed

Rationale :

🔷 Clients with narcissistic personality disorder frequently test boundaries to establish control or superiority, making firm, consistent limit-setting essential.

🔷 Telling the client to return on time reinforces clear expectations and prevents manipulation of unit rules.

🔷 The therapeutic goal is to maintain structure, as clients with NPD respond best to neutral, firm communication, not negotiation.

🔷 Limits help the client understand that privileges come with responsibility and accountability.

🔷 This approach prevents escalation of entitlement behavior and supports the development of appropriate social functioning.

Return immediately

🔷 Using forceful or controlling language increases power struggles with NPD clients.

🔷 It is not therapeutic and can damage rapport.

Compromise at 6:45

🔷 Compromise reinforces manipulative behavior and teaches the client that rules are negotiable.

🔷 This weakens boundaries and undermines therapeutic structure.

Threaten police involvement

🔷 Escalating to threats is inappropriate unless there is danger or elopement risk.

🔷 It increases hostility and damages the therapeutic relationship.

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Answer 9

Correct Answers:

Immediately initiate suicide precautions

Rationale :

🔷 A client who ingests a harmful substance as a suicide gesture requires immediate safety intervention, regardless of whether vomiting occurred.

🔷 Borderline personality disorder is associated with impulsive, self-harming behaviors, making suicide precautions the first priority.

🔷 Safety always comes before physical comfort or further interventions; the nurse must ensure the client is in a controlled, monitored environment.

🔷 Initiating suicide precautions reduces the risk of further self-harm while the client's emotional state is assessed.

🔷 This response aligns with the principle of protecting life first, especially in psychiatric crises.

Notify the physician first

🔵 Notifying the provider is important, but client safety must be secured before calling anyone.

🔵 Without precautions, the client could engage in more self-harm while the nurse contacts the physician.

Sit quietly with the client

🔵 Supportive presence does not address the immediate need for safety and structured precautions.

🔵 It is inappropriate as an initial response in a potentially suicidal client.

Assess vital signs and give syrup of ipecac

🔵 Syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended due to aspiration risk and potential harm.

🔵 Vital sign assessment is important but comes after safety is ensured.

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Answer 10

Correct Answers:

Paranoid

Rationale :

🔷 Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by pervasive mistrust of others and interpreting neutral actions as threatening.

🔷 Clients frequently display hostile or guarded behavior because they believe others are trying to harm, deceive, or exploit them.

🔷 They avoid close relationships and are hypersensitive to criticism due to chronic suspiciousness.

🔷 Hostility often emerges as a defensive response to perceived danger, even without evidence.

🔷 These traits align directly with long-standing mistrust that defines this personality disorder.

Antisocial

🔷 Antisocial clients show manipulation, deceit, and lack of remorse, not persistent mistrust.

🔷 Hostility may occur, but it is tied to impulse and aggression, not paranoia.

Avoidant

🔷 Avoidant clients are fearful and shy, avoiding relationships due to fear of rejection.

🔷 They are not hostile or mistrustful; rather, they are overly sensitive.

Borderline

🔷 Borderline clients exhibit emotional instability and fear of abandonment, not chronic mistrust.

🔷 Hostility may occur but is situational, not pervasive.

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NUR 326 - Exam 2 PSYCH Questions

No.

1 :
The nursing diagnosis that would be most appropriate for a 22-year old client who uses ritualistic behavior would be:

2 :
A 20-year old college student has been brought to the psychiatric hospital by her parents. Her admitting diagnosis is borderline personality disorder. When talking with the parents, which information would the nurse expect to be included in the client's history? Select a that apply.

3 :
A hospitalized client, diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, consistently breaks the unit's rules. This behavior should be confronted because it will help the client:

4 :
When working with the nurse during the orientation phase of the relationship, a client with a borderline personality disorder would probably have the most difficulty in:

5 :
A client with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder has negative feelings toward the other clients on the unit and considers them all to be "bad." The nurse understands this defense is known as:

6 :
A person with antisocial personality disorder has difficulty relating to others because of never having learned to:

7 :
When caring for a client with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder, the nurse should:

9 :
An adult client with a borderline personality disorder become nauseated and vomits immediately after drinking after drinking 2 ounces of shampoo as a suicide gesture. The most appropriate initial response by the nurse would be to:

10 :
A nurse notices that a client is mistrustful and shows hostile behavior. Which of the following types of personality disorder is associated with these characteristics?

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NUR 326 - Exam 2 PSYCH Questions

No.

1 : The nursing diagnosis that would be most appropriate for a 22-year old client who uses ritualistic behavior would be:

2 : A 20-year old college student has been brought to the psychiatric hospital by her parents. Her admitting diagnosis is borderline personality disorder. When talking with the parents, which information would the nurse expect to be included in the client's history? Select a that apply.

3 : A hospitalized client, diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, consistently breaks the unit's rules. This behavior should be confronted because it will help the client:

4 : When working with the nurse during the orientation phase of the relationship, a client with a borderline personality disorder would probably have the most difficulty in:

5 : A client with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder has negative feelings toward the other clients on the unit and considers them all to be "bad." The nurse understands this defense is known as:

6 : A person with antisocial personality disorder has difficulty relating to others because of never having learned to:

7 : When caring for a client with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder, the nurse should:

9 : An adult client with a borderline personality disorder become nauseated and vomits immediately after drinking after drinking 2 ounces of shampoo as a suicide gesture. The most appropriate initial response by the nurse would be to:

10 : A nurse notices that a client is mistrustful and shows hostile behavior. Which of the following types of personality disorder is associated with these characteristics?

1 :
The nursing diagnosis that would be most appropriate for a 22-year old client who uses ritualistic behavior would be:

2 :
A 20-year old college student has been brought to the psychiatric hospital by her parents. Her admitting diagnosis is borderline personality disorder. When talking with the parents, which information would the nurse expect to be included in the client's history? Select a that apply.

3 :
A hospitalized client, diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, consistently breaks the unit's rules. This behavior should be confronted because it will help the client:

4 :
When working with the nurse during the orientation phase of the relationship, a client with a borderline personality disorder would probably have the most difficulty in:

5 :
A client with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder has negative feelings toward the other clients on the unit and considers them all to be "bad." The nurse understands this defense is known as:

6 :
A person with antisocial personality disorder has difficulty relating to others because of never having learned to:

7 :
When caring for a client with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder, the nurse should:

9 :
An adult client with a borderline personality disorder become nauseated and vomits immediately after drinking after drinking 2 ounces of shampoo as a suicide gesture. The most appropriate initial response by the nurse would be to:

10 :
A nurse notices that a client is mistrustful and shows hostile behavior. Which of the following types of personality disorder is associated with these characteristics?