MENTAL HEALTH
NURSING EXAM
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
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200 Questions with 4 Options (A-D)
Complete Answer Key Included
200 QUESTIONS • 4 OPTIONS EACH • ANSWER KEY
Instructions: Read each question carefully and select the best answer.
Use active recall before checking the answer key at the end.
,PRACTICE QUESTIONS
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Q1. The primary goal of mental health nursing is to:
A. Administer medications only
B. Promote mental health, prevent mental illness, and assist clients in recovery
C. Provide physical care exclusively
D. Replace psychotherapy
Q2. The therapeutic relationship is based on:
A. Friendship and social interaction
B. Trust, empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard
C. Authority and control
D. Dependence and compliance
Q3. Active listening in mental health nursing involves:
A. Giving advice immediately
B. Paying full attention, reflecting, and clarifying
C. Interrupting to correct the client
D. Focusing only on physical symptoms
Q4. The nurse demonstrates empathy by:
A. Sharing personal problems with the client
B. Understanding and acknowledging the client's feelings
C. Telling the client to be positive
D. Avoiding emotional topics
Q5. Setting boundaries in the therapeutic relationship is important to:
A. Maintain professional standards and protect both nurse and client
B. Show authority over the client
C. Prevent the client from asking questions
D. Ensure the nurse's comfort only
Q6. The Mental Status Examination (MSE) assesses:
A. Physical health only
B. Appearance, behavior, mood, thought process, cognition, and insight
C. Laboratory values
D. Family history only
Q7. A client with flat affect displays:
A. Excessive emotional expression
B. No or minimal emotional expression
C. Rapid mood swings
D. Inappropriate laughter
Q8. Pressured speech is characterized by:
A. Slow, hesitant speech
B. Rapid, difficult-to-interrupt speech
C. Incoherent speech
D. Mute behavior
,Q9. Flight of ideas refers to:
A. Slowed thinking
B. Rapid shifting from one topic to another with loose connections
C. Fixed false beliefs
D. Repetitive thoughts
Q10. A delusion is defined as:
A. A sensory experience without external stimulus
B. A fixed false belief despite contradictory evidence
C. An exaggerated emotional response
D. A memory disturbance
Q11. An hallucination is:
A. A false belief
B. A sensory perception without external stimulus
C. An excessive worry
D. A panic attack
Q12. The most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia is:
A. Visual hallucinations
B. Auditory hallucinations
C. Olfactory hallucinations
D. Gustatory hallucinations
Q13. A client with anhedonia experiences:
A. Excessive pleasure
B. Inability to experience pleasure
C. Heightened anxiety
D. Increased energy
Q14. Avolition refers to:
A. Excessive goal-directed activity
B. Lack of motivation and inability to initiate activities
C. Rapid speech
D. Grandiose thinking
Q15. The nurse should use open-ended questions to:
A. Obtain yes/no answers
B. Encourage the client to express thoughts and feelings
C. Control the conversation
D. End the interview quickly
Q16. Reflection in therapeutic communication involves:
A. Repeating the client's exact words
B. Restating the client's feelings or content to show understanding
C. Changing the subject
D. Giving advice
Q17. The nurse should avoid using "why" questions because they:
A. Are too short
B. Can sound accusatory and put the client on the defensive
C. Are too complex
D. Require too much time
, Q18. Transference in the therapeutic relationship occurs when:
A. The nurse transfers feelings about the client to another staff member
B. The client unconsciously redirects feelings about significant others onto the nurse
C. The client changes therapists
D. The nurse gives the client to another nurse
Q19. Countertransference occurs when:
A. The client changes the subject
B. The nurse unconsciously redirects personal feelings onto the client
C. The family interferes with therapy
D. The client refuses medication
Q20. The most important nursing intervention when a client is suicidal is:
A. Leave the client alone to think
B. Ensure continuous observation and remove means of self-harm
C. Tell the client to be strong
D. Promise to keep the suicidal thoughts confidential
Q21. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by:
A. Brief panic attacks only
B. Excessive worry about multiple events for at least 6 months
C. Fear of specific objects only
D. Flashbacks to traumatic events
Q22. Panic disorder involves:
A. Mild, constant worry
B. Recurrent unexpected panic attacks with fear of future attacks
C. Fear of social situations only
D. Obsessive thoughts without compulsions
Q23. A panic attack typically peaks within:
A. 1 minute
B. 5-10 minutes
C. 30 minutes
D. 1 hour
Q24. Symptoms of a panic attack include all EXCEPT:
A. Tachycardia and palpitations
B. Chest pain and shortness of breath
C. Euphoria and increased energy
D. Sweating and trembling
Q25. Agoraphobia is defined as:
A. Fear of specific animals
B. Fear of open spaces or situations where escape might be difficult
C. Fear of social situations
D. Fear of contamination
Q26. Social Anxiety Disorder involves:
A. Fear of heights
B. Intense fear of social scrutiny and embarrassment
C. Fear of flying
D. Fear of blood
NURSING EXAM
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
200 Questions with 4 Options (A-D)
Complete Answer Key Included
200 QUESTIONS • 4 OPTIONS EACH • ANSWER KEY
Instructions: Read each question carefully and select the best answer.
Use active recall before checking the answer key at the end.
,PRACTICE QUESTIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q1. The primary goal of mental health nursing is to:
A. Administer medications only
B. Promote mental health, prevent mental illness, and assist clients in recovery
C. Provide physical care exclusively
D. Replace psychotherapy
Q2. The therapeutic relationship is based on:
A. Friendship and social interaction
B. Trust, empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard
C. Authority and control
D. Dependence and compliance
Q3. Active listening in mental health nursing involves:
A. Giving advice immediately
B. Paying full attention, reflecting, and clarifying
C. Interrupting to correct the client
D. Focusing only on physical symptoms
Q4. The nurse demonstrates empathy by:
A. Sharing personal problems with the client
B. Understanding and acknowledging the client's feelings
C. Telling the client to be positive
D. Avoiding emotional topics
Q5. Setting boundaries in the therapeutic relationship is important to:
A. Maintain professional standards and protect both nurse and client
B. Show authority over the client
C. Prevent the client from asking questions
D. Ensure the nurse's comfort only
Q6. The Mental Status Examination (MSE) assesses:
A. Physical health only
B. Appearance, behavior, mood, thought process, cognition, and insight
C. Laboratory values
D. Family history only
Q7. A client with flat affect displays:
A. Excessive emotional expression
B. No or minimal emotional expression
C. Rapid mood swings
D. Inappropriate laughter
Q8. Pressured speech is characterized by:
A. Slow, hesitant speech
B. Rapid, difficult-to-interrupt speech
C. Incoherent speech
D. Mute behavior
,Q9. Flight of ideas refers to:
A. Slowed thinking
B. Rapid shifting from one topic to another with loose connections
C. Fixed false beliefs
D. Repetitive thoughts
Q10. A delusion is defined as:
A. A sensory experience without external stimulus
B. A fixed false belief despite contradictory evidence
C. An exaggerated emotional response
D. A memory disturbance
Q11. An hallucination is:
A. A false belief
B. A sensory perception without external stimulus
C. An excessive worry
D. A panic attack
Q12. The most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia is:
A. Visual hallucinations
B. Auditory hallucinations
C. Olfactory hallucinations
D. Gustatory hallucinations
Q13. A client with anhedonia experiences:
A. Excessive pleasure
B. Inability to experience pleasure
C. Heightened anxiety
D. Increased energy
Q14. Avolition refers to:
A. Excessive goal-directed activity
B. Lack of motivation and inability to initiate activities
C. Rapid speech
D. Grandiose thinking
Q15. The nurse should use open-ended questions to:
A. Obtain yes/no answers
B. Encourage the client to express thoughts and feelings
C. Control the conversation
D. End the interview quickly
Q16. Reflection in therapeutic communication involves:
A. Repeating the client's exact words
B. Restating the client's feelings or content to show understanding
C. Changing the subject
D. Giving advice
Q17. The nurse should avoid using "why" questions because they:
A. Are too short
B. Can sound accusatory and put the client on the defensive
C. Are too complex
D. Require too much time
, Q18. Transference in the therapeutic relationship occurs when:
A. The nurse transfers feelings about the client to another staff member
B. The client unconsciously redirects feelings about significant others onto the nurse
C. The client changes therapists
D. The nurse gives the client to another nurse
Q19. Countertransference occurs when:
A. The client changes the subject
B. The nurse unconsciously redirects personal feelings onto the client
C. The family interferes with therapy
D. The client refuses medication
Q20. The most important nursing intervention when a client is suicidal is:
A. Leave the client alone to think
B. Ensure continuous observation and remove means of self-harm
C. Tell the client to be strong
D. Promise to keep the suicidal thoughts confidential
Q21. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by:
A. Brief panic attacks only
B. Excessive worry about multiple events for at least 6 months
C. Fear of specific objects only
D. Flashbacks to traumatic events
Q22. Panic disorder involves:
A. Mild, constant worry
B. Recurrent unexpected panic attacks with fear of future attacks
C. Fear of social situations only
D. Obsessive thoughts without compulsions
Q23. A panic attack typically peaks within:
A. 1 minute
B. 5-10 minutes
C. 30 minutes
D. 1 hour
Q24. Symptoms of a panic attack include all EXCEPT:
A. Tachycardia and palpitations
B. Chest pain and shortness of breath
C. Euphoria and increased energy
D. Sweating and trembling
Q25. Agoraphobia is defined as:
A. Fear of specific animals
B. Fear of open spaces or situations where escape might be difficult
C. Fear of social situations
D. Fear of contamination
Q26. Social Anxiety Disorder involves:
A. Fear of heights
B. Intense fear of social scrutiny and embarrassment
C. Fear of flying
D. Fear of blood
