Free Bullets for Nursing Board Exam Review

• Disulfiram (Antabuse) shouldn’t be taken concurrently with metronidazole (Flagyl) because they may interact and cause a psychotic reaction.
• In rare cases, electroconvulsive therapy causes arrhythmias and death.
• A patient who is scheduled for electroconvulsive therapy should receive nothing by mouth after midnight to prevent aspiration while under anesthesia.
• Electroconvulsive therapy is normally used for patients who have severe depression that doesn’t respond to drug therapy.
• For electroconvulsive therapy to be effective, the patient usually receives 6 to 12 treatments at a rate of 2 to 3 per week.
• During the manic phase of bipolar affective disorder, nursing care is directed at slowing the patient down because the patient may die as a result of self-induced exhaustion or injury.
• For a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, the nursing care plan should focus on safety measures.
• After sexual assault, the patient’s needs are the primary concern, followed by medicolegal considerations.
• Patients who are in a maintenance program for narcotic abstinence syndrome receive 10 to 40 mg of methadone (Dolophine) in a single daily dose and are monitored to ensure that the drug is ingested.
• Stress management is a short-range goal of psychotherapy.
• The mood most often experienced by a patient with organic brain syndrome is irritability.
• Creative intuition is controlled by the right side of the brain.
• Methohexital (Brevital) is the general anesthetic that’s administered to patients who are scheduled for electroconvulsive therapy.
• The decision to use restraints should be based on the patient’s safety needs.
• Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) relieves the extrapyramidal adverse effects of psychotropic drugs.
• In a patient who is stabilized on lithium (Eskalith) therapy, blood lithium levels should be checked 8 to 12 hours after the first dose, then two or three times weekly during the first month. Levels should be checked weekly to monthly during maintenance therapy.
• The primary purpose of psychotropic drugs is to decrease the patient’s symptoms, which improves function and increases compliance with therapy.
• Manipulation is a maladaptive method of meeting one’s needs because it disregards the needs and feelings of others.
• If a patient has symptoms of lithium toxicity, the nurse should withhold one dose and call the physician.
• A patient who is taking lithium (Eskalith) for bipolar affective disorder must maintain a balanced diet with adequate salt intake.
• A patient who constantly seeks approval or assistance from staff members and other patients is demonstrating dependent behavior.
• Alcoholics Anonymous advocates total abstinence from alcohol.
• Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is the drug of choice for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
• Setting limits is the most effective way to control manipulative behavior.
• Violent outbursts are common in a patient who has borderline personality disorder.
• When working with a depressed patient, the nurse should explore meaningful losses.
• An illusion is a misinterpretation of an actual environmental stimulus.
• Anxiety is nonspecific; fear is specific.
• Extrapyramidal adverse effects are common in patients who take antipsychotic drugs.
• The nurse should encourage an angry patient to follow a physical exercise program as one of the ways to ventilate feelings.
• Depression is clinically significant if it’s characterized by exaggerated feelings of sadness, melancholy, dejection, worthlessness, and hopelessness that are inappropriate or out of proportion to reality.
• Free-floating anxiety is anxiousness with generalized apprehension and pessimism for unknown reasons.
• In a patient who is experiencing intense anxiety, the fight-or-flight reaction (alarm reflex) may take over.
• Confabulation is the use of imaginary experiences or made-up information to fill missing gaps of memory.
• When starting a therapeutic relationship with a patient, the nurse should explain that the purpose of the therapy is to produce a positive change.

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