A nurse asks a patient, "If you had fever and vomiting for 3 days, what would you do?" Which aspect of the mental status examination is the nurse assessing?
a. Behavior
b. Cognition
c. Affect and mood
d. Perceptual disturbances
ANS: B
Assessing cognition involves determining a patient's judgment and decision-making capabilities. In this case, the nurse expects a response of, "Call my doctor" if the patient's cognition and judgment are intact. If the patient responds, "I would stop eating" or "I would just wait and see what happened," the nurse would conclude that judgment is impaired. The other options refer to other aspects of the examination.
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The nurse who is demonstrating breast self-examination to a patient points out that the most common area in the breast for tumors to occur is:
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