NUR 384 Exam 1 Questions & Answers 2026/2027 | 80+ Questions | Mental Health, Therapeutic Communication, Ethics & Psych Medications

This comprehensive NUR 384 Exam 1 2026/2027 study resource contains 80+ questions, answers, definitions, and exam-focused review points across 22 pages. It provides detailed preparation in psychiatric and mental health nursing, beginning with the mental health continuum, well-being, mental illness, excelling, thriving, surviving, struggling and crisis states. It also examines dysfunction, distress, deviance, biological and environmental risk factors for mental illness, genetics, social determinants of health, cultural humility and implicit bias. A substantial portion focuses on professional, ethical and legal psychiatric nursing practice. Students review patient-centered care, confidentiality and its stated exceptions, competency, treatment refusal, the Patient Self-Determination Act, involuntary commitment, patient advocacy, intentional and unintentional torts, restraint protocols and least-to-most restrictive interventions. The guide also covers practical de-escalation strategies, including calm communication, non-threatening body language, clear limits and creating a therapeutic environment. The document provides extensive coverage of the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship and communication, including transference, countertransference, the pre-interaction, orientation, working and termination phases, congruence, active listening, SOLER and SURETY. Students can review therapeutic communication techniques such as acceptance, clarification, focusing, exploring, recognition, open-ended questioning, paraphrasing, presenting reality, restating, reflecting, silence, summarizing, confrontation and encouraging comparison. Developmental content also covers Erikson's psychosocial stages from trust versus mistrust through integrity versus despair, along with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Later sections provide concentrated psychopharmacology and neuroscience review. Topics include the limbic and sympathetic nervous systems; norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and GABA; neuroplasticity; SSRIs; TCAs; first- and second-generation antipsychotics; benzodiazepines; non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics; melatonin agonists; and SNRIs. The material connects drug classes with their mechanisms, common and dangerous adverse effects and representative medications. It also highlights clinically important complications such as activation syndrome, antidepressant discontinuation syndrome, serotonin syndrome, extrapyramidal symptoms, agranulocytosis and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS). The concluding material reviews age-specific restraint time limits and the ADOPIE nursing-process framework. Relevant students: This document is suitable for undergraduate nursing students enrolled in NUR 384 or an equivalent psychiatric/mental health nursing course, particularly students preparing for Exam 1. It is also relevant to BSN students reviewing therapeutic communication, mental health assessment, psychiatric nursing ethics and legal principles, nurse-patient relationships, neurotransmitters and introductory psychopharmacology. The uploaded document itself does not identify a university, so adding a university name to the title would require independent verification rather than assumption. Keywords: NUR 384 Exam 1, NUR 384 questions and answers, NUR , psychiatric nursing exam, mental health nursing exam, psych nursing questions and answers, mental health continuum, psychiatric nursing study guide, therapeutic communication, nurse patient relationship, cultural humility, implicit bias, patient confidentiality, patient competency, involuntary commitment, psychiatric restraints, de escalation strategies, transference, countertransference, Erikson stages, cognitive behavioral therapy, social determinants of mental health, SOLER active listening, SURETY communication, psychiatric medications, psychopharmacology, neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, SSRIs, tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, serotonin syndrome, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, NMS, antidepressant discontinuation syndrome, psychiatric nursing Exam 1, BSN mental health nursing