When communicating with a client diagnosed with a serious mental disorder, it is important for the nurse to recognize which of the following?
a. Clients with mental disorders never have intact sensory channels
b. Clients with a ‘flat affect' are easier to understand
c. Clients with mental disorders are always very talkative
d. Clients with mental disorders may suffer from social isolation and impaired coping
ANS: D
Clients with serious mental disorders may have a different type of communication deficit resulting from a malfunctioning of the neurotransmitters that normally transmit and make sense out of messages in the brain. Social isolation and impaired coping may accompany the client's inability to receive or express language signals. Other communication problems occur with different mental disorders. As an example, some clients with mental disorders can perhaps have intact sensory channels, but they cannot process and respond appropriately to what they hear, see, smell, or touch. The nurse may notice a lack of vocal inflection and an unchanging facial expression. A ‘flat affect' makes it difficult to truly understand the client. Some clients with mental disorders present with a poverty of speech and limited content. Speech appears blocked; reflecting disturbed patterns of perception, thought, emotions, and motivation.
You might also like to view...
A nurse is performing an admission physical examination on a client who has been bedridden for a month and notices a pressure ulcer on the client's left trochanter area
The ulcer involves full-thickness skin loss and damage to the subcutaneous tissue. This pressure ulcer would be staged as: a. Stage I. b. Stage II. c. Stage III. d. Stage IV.
The home health nurse is caring for a patient with an implanted pacemaker. What type of pain management would be contraindicated?
a. Peripheral analgesics b. A TENS unit c. Opioid analgesics d. Adjuvant analgesics
For a client with a history of recurrent UTIs who is prescribed an acid-ash diet, the nurse would advise the client to include
a. alcohol. b. carbonated beverages. c. coffee. d. cranberry juice.
The nurse caring for a client after keratoplasty (corneal transplantation) would assess the client for possible graft rejection, as indicated by
a. a cloudy, swollen cornea. b. eye discomfort. c. photophobia. d. tearing of the eye.