Author Question: A patient who is a university student states that before taking an examination he feels a heightened ... (Read 109 times)

lb_gilbert · **on:** Jul 19, 2018

A patient who is a university student states that before taking an examination he feels a heightened sense of awareness, a sense of restlessness, and a mild degree of apprehension. Which nursing intervention is most therapeutic?

a. Normalize his symptoms as resulting from mild anxiety and calmly discuss how they may actually help his performance.
b. Advise the patient to discuss his experience with a physician or psychologist, as these symptoms suggest a more serious psychiatric disorder.
c. Offer to explore the possibility of obtaining an order for an anxiolytic medication to be used when necessary.
d. Acknowledge the patient's experience and suggest that he consider counseling to bring this anxiety under control.

Question 2

A patient with blindness related to conversion disorder tells the nurse, Lots of doctors and nurses stop by to check on my blindness, and the other patients are really interested in it, too.

Too bad people didn't think I was interesting before I became blind.. Which nursing diagnosis is most suggested by this comment? a. Social isolation
b. Chronic low self-esteem
c. Interrupted family processes
d. Ineffective health maintenance

Bigfoot1984 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 19, 2018

Answer to Question 1

A
Teaching about symptoms of anxiety, their relation to precipitating stressors, and the positive effects of anxiety will serve to reassure the patient. Mild anxiety, as suggested by the symptoms noted here, is not pathological and is rarely disruptive to functioning. It can serve to sharpen perceptual focus and lead a person to attend to important matters at hand. Medications and psychotherapy are important treatment modalities of more severe forms of anxiety, especially for disabling anxiety disorders such as panic disorder with agoraphobia, but are not indicated for mild anxiety.

Answer to Question 2

B
The patient mentions that her symptoms make her more interesting to people, and others were not so interested before she became blind, inferring that she is uninteresting and unpopular without the symptoms and supporting the nursing diagnosis of chronic low self-esteem. Defining characteristics for the other nursing diagnoses are not present in the scenario.