Difficulty: Medium
Average Score: 84%
Full-length
Passage / Scenario
At an inpatient psychiatric unit, a 40-year-old woman insists on staying in her room and repeatedly comments to the nurse: 'Special agents are here. Maybe you are one.'Which of the following responses, if made by the nurse, is BEST?
Correct answer
B
Rationale
Strategy: Remember therapeutic communication. (1) nontherapeutic, fails to respond to feeling tone, trust builds through interactions (2) correct-patient experiencing delusion (persistent false belief), responds to feeling tone, acknowledges that patient believes it to be true, represents reality (3) statement of reassurance, but denies acceptance of patient's feelings (4) should not encourage patient to explain delusions, would serve to reinforce them