NUR 256 MENTAL HEALTH EXAM 1|QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | LATEST 2026
UPDATE | 100% CORRECT - GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING.
UNIT 1 EXAM 1 REVIEW
*MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS (Chapter 1 pg. 1)
Health is not possible without good mental health. WHO describes health as a “state of complete
physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Poor physical health can lead to mental distress and disorders, and poor mental health can
lead to physical problems.
Mental Health: state of well-being in which individuals reach their own potential, cope with the
normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to the community. Provides people
w/the capacity for rational thinking, communication skills, learning, emotional growth,
resilience, and self-esteem.
Mental Illness: refers to all psychiatric disorders that have definable diagnoses. May be related
to developmental, biological, or psychological disturbances in mental functioning. No cure! We
teach them how to cope and deal with stressors, not to impair function!
i.e., cognitive/thinking impairment- Alzheimer's, emotional impairment- depressive
disorder, behavioral alteration- schizophrenia.
Mental Health Continuum- spectrum or middle ground between mental health and mental
illness.
**One end of the continuum is Mental Health: general state of well-being (experience
adequate to high-level functioning), may experience occasional stress & discomfort resulting
from problems of daily life, but no impairments to daily functioning.
**Opposite end of the continuum is Mental Illness: Emotional problems or concerns. Experience
temporary mild to moderate discomfort and stress. Mild impairments include insomnia,
lack of concentration, and loss of appetite. Mild depression, generalized anxiety, and ADHD
fit into this group. Most severely affected individuals also fall under this spectrum: experience
altered thinking, mood, and behavior issues. Includes depression, anxiety, major disorders
like schizophrenia. Distinguishing factors are typically chronic or long-term impairments
that range from moderate to disabling.
RISK FACTORS:
Mental health and mental well-being are impacted by individual attributes and behavior
(inborn and learned ways to respond to daily life pressures), social and economic
circumstances (family impacts- either promotes confidence/coping or instills
anxiety/inadequacy, peer influence, either positive or negative, education has greatest impact for
https://www.stuvia.com/user/mboffin
, resources- food, security, clothing, shelter), and environmental factors (political climate- access
to food, water, safety, highway system… and cultural considerations- what’s acceptable or
unacceptable to the social norm). *Resilience- process and outcome of successfully adapting to
difficult or challenging life experiences, especially mental/emotional/behavioral flexibility and
adjustment to external and internal demands.
**Diathesis-stress model: explanation of mental illness. Diathesis represents biological
predisposition, and stress represents environmental stress or trauma. Both must be present
to be diagnosed with the disorder. A person may develop a major depressive disorder as a result
of inherited and biological vulnerability that alters brain chemistry. Another person with little
vulnerability may develop depression as a result of a stressful environment that causes a change
in brain chemistry.
PATIENTS RIGHTS:
Right to treatment/refuse treatment, right to voluntary admission (admission for care,
patient signing out..keeping them is deemed false imprisonment)), involuntary admission-
admitted or detained against patient will when a person is mentally ill or danger to self/others…
held for up to72 hrs when evaluation ends), Right to confidentiality (HIPAA)-info can be
released in life-threatening/emergency situations w/o the patient’s consent, right to informed
consent.
QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses): structure to support the education of future
nurses who possess knowledge, skills, and attitudes to improve safety/quality of healthcare.
Helps to identify and bridge the gap between “what is” and “what should be”. Principles
include:
• Patient-centered care: recognize the patient as the source of control and full partner in
providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for the patient’s
preferences, values, and needs
• Teamwork and collaboration: function effectively within nursing and interprofessional
teams, fostering open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making.
• Quality improvement: use data to monitor the outcomes of care processes and use
improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve quality and
safety.
• Safety: minimize the risk of harm to patients and provide optimal healthcare through
system effectiveness and individual performance.
• Informatics: use information & tech used to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate
error, support decision-making.
https://www.stuvia.com/user/mboffin
UPDATE | 100% CORRECT - GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING.
UNIT 1 EXAM 1 REVIEW
*MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS (Chapter 1 pg. 1)
Health is not possible without good mental health. WHO describes health as a “state of complete
physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Poor physical health can lead to mental distress and disorders, and poor mental health can
lead to physical problems.
Mental Health: state of well-being in which individuals reach their own potential, cope with the
normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to the community. Provides people
w/the capacity for rational thinking, communication skills, learning, emotional growth,
resilience, and self-esteem.
Mental Illness: refers to all psychiatric disorders that have definable diagnoses. May be related
to developmental, biological, or psychological disturbances in mental functioning. No cure! We
teach them how to cope and deal with stressors, not to impair function!
i.e., cognitive/thinking impairment- Alzheimer's, emotional impairment- depressive
disorder, behavioral alteration- schizophrenia.
Mental Health Continuum- spectrum or middle ground between mental health and mental
illness.
**One end of the continuum is Mental Health: general state of well-being (experience
adequate to high-level functioning), may experience occasional stress & discomfort resulting
from problems of daily life, but no impairments to daily functioning.
**Opposite end of the continuum is Mental Illness: Emotional problems or concerns. Experience
temporary mild to moderate discomfort and stress. Mild impairments include insomnia,
lack of concentration, and loss of appetite. Mild depression, generalized anxiety, and ADHD
fit into this group. Most severely affected individuals also fall under this spectrum: experience
altered thinking, mood, and behavior issues. Includes depression, anxiety, major disorders
like schizophrenia. Distinguishing factors are typically chronic or long-term impairments
that range from moderate to disabling.
RISK FACTORS:
Mental health and mental well-being are impacted by individual attributes and behavior
(inborn and learned ways to respond to daily life pressures), social and economic
circumstances (family impacts- either promotes confidence/coping or instills
anxiety/inadequacy, peer influence, either positive or negative, education has greatest impact for
https://www.stuvia.com/user/mboffin
, resources- food, security, clothing, shelter), and environmental factors (political climate- access
to food, water, safety, highway system… and cultural considerations- what’s acceptable or
unacceptable to the social norm). *Resilience- process and outcome of successfully adapting to
difficult or challenging life experiences, especially mental/emotional/behavioral flexibility and
adjustment to external and internal demands.
**Diathesis-stress model: explanation of mental illness. Diathesis represents biological
predisposition, and stress represents environmental stress or trauma. Both must be present
to be diagnosed with the disorder. A person may develop a major depressive disorder as a result
of inherited and biological vulnerability that alters brain chemistry. Another person with little
vulnerability may develop depression as a result of a stressful environment that causes a change
in brain chemistry.
PATIENTS RIGHTS:
Right to treatment/refuse treatment, right to voluntary admission (admission for care,
patient signing out..keeping them is deemed false imprisonment)), involuntary admission-
admitted or detained against patient will when a person is mentally ill or danger to self/others…
held for up to72 hrs when evaluation ends), Right to confidentiality (HIPAA)-info can be
released in life-threatening/emergency situations w/o the patient’s consent, right to informed
consent.
QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses): structure to support the education of future
nurses who possess knowledge, skills, and attitudes to improve safety/quality of healthcare.
Helps to identify and bridge the gap between “what is” and “what should be”. Principles
include:
• Patient-centered care: recognize the patient as the source of control and full partner in
providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for the patient’s
preferences, values, and needs
• Teamwork and collaboration: function effectively within nursing and interprofessional
teams, fostering open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making.
• Quality improvement: use data to monitor the outcomes of care processes and use
improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve quality and
safety.
• Safety: minimize the risk of harm to patients and provide optimal healthcare through
system effectiveness and individual performance.
• Informatics: use information & tech used to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate
error, support decision-making.
https://www.stuvia.com/user/mboffin
