ABAC NURS 1109 PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT EXAM 1 QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS | EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE 2026/2027
Subjective data - ANS ✔✔What a person says about themselves during history taking
Objective data - ANS ✔✔What you can see as the health professional observing through inspection.
Percussing, palpitating, and auscultation during the physical examination
Mental disorder - ANS ✔✔Apparent when a person's response is much greater than what is expected to
a traumatic life event
Organic disorder - ANS ✔✔A disorder caused by a brain disease of a known specific organic cause
Psychiatric mental disorders - ANS ✔✔A disorder in which an organic etiology has not yet been
established
Consciousness - ANS ✔✔Being aware of one's own existence, thoughts, feelings, and of the environment
(Is the most elementary of mental status functions)
Language - ANS ✔✔Using the voice to communicate one's thoughts and feelings (Is the basic tool of
humans and has a heavy social impact on an individual if lost)
Affect - ANS ✔✔A temporary expression of feelings or state of mind
Mood - ANS ✔✔A more durable and prolonged display of feeling that color the entire emotional life
Orientation - ANS ✔✔The awareness of the objective world in relation to self, including person, place,
and time
Attention - ANS ✔✔The power of concentration and the ability to focus on one specific thing thin with
out being distracted by other stimuli
Memory - ANS ✔✔The ability to lay down and store experiences and perceptions for later recall
Remote memory - ANS ✔✔Memory based on years Recent: Memory based on day to day events
Abstract reasoning - ANS ✔✔The pondering of a deeper meaning beyond what is concrete and literal
Thought process - ANS ✔✔The way a person thinks; The logical train of thought
Thought content - ANS ✔✔What the person thinks (Specific ideas, beliefs, and the use of words)
Perceptions - ANS ✔✔An awareness of objects through the five senses
, Alert - ANS ✔✔Awake or readily aroused; oriented, fully aware of external and internal stimuli and
respond appropriately; conducts meaning full interpersonal interactions
Lethargic or somnolent - ANS ✔✔Not fully alert drifts off to sleep when not stimulated; can be aroused
to name when called in normal voice but looks drowsy, responds to questions or commands but thinking
seems slow and fuzzy, in att
Obtunded - ANS ✔✔Sleeps most of time; difficult to arouse—needs loud shout or vigorous shake; acts
confused when is aroused; converses in monosyllables; speech may be mumbled and incoherent;
requires constant stimulation for even marginal cooperation.
Stupor or semi-coma - ANS ✔✔Spontaneously unconscious; responds only to persistent and vigorous
shake or pain; has appropriate motor response (i.e., withdraws hand to avoid pain); otherwise can only
groan, mumble, or move restlessly; reflex activity persists.
Coma - ANS ✔✔Completely unconscious; no response to pain or any external or internal stimuli (e.g.,
when suctioned, does not try to push the catheter away); light coma has some reflex activity but no
purposeful movement; deep coma has no motor response.
Delirium (acute confusional state) - ANS ✔✔Clouding of consciousness (dulled cognition, impaired
alertness); inattentive; incoherent conversation; impaired recent memory and confabulatory for recent
events; often agitated and having visual hallucinations; disoriented, with confusion worse at night when
environmental stimuli are decreased.
Dysphagia (Disorder of Voice) - ANS ✔✔Difficulty or discomfort in talking, with abnormal pitch or
volume, caused by laryngeal disease Voice sounds hoarse or whispered, but articulation and language
are intact
Dysarthria (Disorder of Articulation) - ANS ✔✔Distorted speech sounds; speech may sound
unintelligible; basic language (word choice, grammar, comprehension) intact
Aphasia (Disorder of Language comprehension and production secondary to brain damage) - ANS
✔✔True language disturbance; defect in word choice and grammar or defect in comprehension; defect
is in higher integrative language processing.
Global aphasia - ANS ✔✔The most common and severe form Spontaneous speech is absent or reduced
to a few stereotyped words or sounds. Comprehension is absent or reduced to only the person's own
name and a few select words. Repetition, reading, and writing are severely impaired Prognosis for
language recovery is poor Caused by a large lesion that damages most of combined anterior and
posterior language areas.
Broca aphasia - ANS ✔✔Expressive aphasia Cannot express himself or herself using language
Characterized by non-fluent, dysarthric, and effortful speech Speech is mostly nouning and verbs (high-
content words) with few grammatic fillers, termed agrammatic or telegraphic speech Repetition and
reading aloud are severely impaired Auditory and reading comprehensions are surprisingly intact Lesion
is in anterior language area called the motor speech cortex or Broca area.
ANSWERS | EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE 2026/2027
Subjective data - ANS ✔✔What a person says about themselves during history taking
Objective data - ANS ✔✔What you can see as the health professional observing through inspection.
Percussing, palpitating, and auscultation during the physical examination
Mental disorder - ANS ✔✔Apparent when a person's response is much greater than what is expected to
a traumatic life event
Organic disorder - ANS ✔✔A disorder caused by a brain disease of a known specific organic cause
Psychiatric mental disorders - ANS ✔✔A disorder in which an organic etiology has not yet been
established
Consciousness - ANS ✔✔Being aware of one's own existence, thoughts, feelings, and of the environment
(Is the most elementary of mental status functions)
Language - ANS ✔✔Using the voice to communicate one's thoughts and feelings (Is the basic tool of
humans and has a heavy social impact on an individual if lost)
Affect - ANS ✔✔A temporary expression of feelings or state of mind
Mood - ANS ✔✔A more durable and prolonged display of feeling that color the entire emotional life
Orientation - ANS ✔✔The awareness of the objective world in relation to self, including person, place,
and time
Attention - ANS ✔✔The power of concentration and the ability to focus on one specific thing thin with
out being distracted by other stimuli
Memory - ANS ✔✔The ability to lay down and store experiences and perceptions for later recall
Remote memory - ANS ✔✔Memory based on years Recent: Memory based on day to day events
Abstract reasoning - ANS ✔✔The pondering of a deeper meaning beyond what is concrete and literal
Thought process - ANS ✔✔The way a person thinks; The logical train of thought
Thought content - ANS ✔✔What the person thinks (Specific ideas, beliefs, and the use of words)
Perceptions - ANS ✔✔An awareness of objects through the five senses
, Alert - ANS ✔✔Awake or readily aroused; oriented, fully aware of external and internal stimuli and
respond appropriately; conducts meaning full interpersonal interactions
Lethargic or somnolent - ANS ✔✔Not fully alert drifts off to sleep when not stimulated; can be aroused
to name when called in normal voice but looks drowsy, responds to questions or commands but thinking
seems slow and fuzzy, in att
Obtunded - ANS ✔✔Sleeps most of time; difficult to arouse—needs loud shout or vigorous shake; acts
confused when is aroused; converses in monosyllables; speech may be mumbled and incoherent;
requires constant stimulation for even marginal cooperation.
Stupor or semi-coma - ANS ✔✔Spontaneously unconscious; responds only to persistent and vigorous
shake or pain; has appropriate motor response (i.e., withdraws hand to avoid pain); otherwise can only
groan, mumble, or move restlessly; reflex activity persists.
Coma - ANS ✔✔Completely unconscious; no response to pain or any external or internal stimuli (e.g.,
when suctioned, does not try to push the catheter away); light coma has some reflex activity but no
purposeful movement; deep coma has no motor response.
Delirium (acute confusional state) - ANS ✔✔Clouding of consciousness (dulled cognition, impaired
alertness); inattentive; incoherent conversation; impaired recent memory and confabulatory for recent
events; often agitated and having visual hallucinations; disoriented, with confusion worse at night when
environmental stimuli are decreased.
Dysphagia (Disorder of Voice) - ANS ✔✔Difficulty or discomfort in talking, with abnormal pitch or
volume, caused by laryngeal disease Voice sounds hoarse or whispered, but articulation and language
are intact
Dysarthria (Disorder of Articulation) - ANS ✔✔Distorted speech sounds; speech may sound
unintelligible; basic language (word choice, grammar, comprehension) intact
Aphasia (Disorder of Language comprehension and production secondary to brain damage) - ANS
✔✔True language disturbance; defect in word choice and grammar or defect in comprehension; defect
is in higher integrative language processing.
Global aphasia - ANS ✔✔The most common and severe form Spontaneous speech is absent or reduced
to a few stereotyped words or sounds. Comprehension is absent or reduced to only the person's own
name and a few select words. Repetition, reading, and writing are severely impaired Prognosis for
language recovery is poor Caused by a large lesion that damages most of combined anterior and
posterior language areas.
Broca aphasia - ANS ✔✔Expressive aphasia Cannot express himself or herself using language
Characterized by non-fluent, dysarthric, and effortful speech Speech is mostly nouning and verbs (high-
content words) with few grammatic fillers, termed agrammatic or telegraphic speech Repetition and
reading aloud are severely impaired Auditory and reading comprehensions are surprisingly intact Lesion
is in anterior language area called the motor speech cortex or Broca area.
