CPMHN(C) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Therapeutic use of self

The nurse deliberately uses personal insight, communication skills, and professional boundaries to build a helping relationship that promotes the patient's growth, coping, and health.

Trauma-informed care

An organizational and clinical approach that realizes trauma is common, recognizes its signs, responds by integrating knowledge into care, and actively resists practices that retraumatize patients.

De-escalation first-line

When imminent danger is absent, agitation is managed first with verbal engagement, reduced stimulation, personal space, offered choices, and limit setting rather than physical restraint or seclusion.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome

A rare, life-threatening reaction to antipsychotics marked by severe rigidity, hyperthermia, autonomic instability, and altered mental status; the offending drug is stopped and emergency treatment is required.

Serotonin syndrome

A potentially fatal toxidrome from serotonergic drugs or combinations, characterized by clonus, hyperreflexia, agitation, hyperthermia, and autonomic instability; stop the causative agents and seek urgent care.

Mental status examination

A structured assessment of appearance, behavior, speech, mood and affect, thought process and content, perception, cognition, insight, and judgment that establishes the patient's current psychiatric baseline.

Suicide risk assessment

Direct, compassionate inquiry about suicidal ideation, intent, plan, means access, prior attempts, substance use, and protective factors; asking about suicide does not increase risk and guides safety planning.

Delirium versus dementia

Delirium is acute, fluctuating inattention and altered awareness, often reversible and medically urgent; dementia is chronic, progressive cognitive decline without the same acute fluctuation or impaired attention.

CIWA-Ar

A validated scale that quantifies alcohol withdrawal severity across tremor, sweating, anxiety, agitation, perceptual disturbances, headache, orientation, and nausea, guiding symptom-triggered benzodiazepine treatment.

Refeeding syndrome

A dangerous electrolyte shift, especially hypophosphatemia, occurring when nutrition is reintroduced too rapidly in malnourished patients; it can cause arrhythmias, heart failure, seizures, and death.

Measurable care plan goals

Patient-centered goals state a specific behavior, a measurable outcome, a timeframe, and the responsible party, allowing the team to evaluate progress objectively rather than documenting vague intentions.

Peplau's phases

The therapeutic relationship progresses through orientation, working, and termination phases; the nurse clarifies expectations, explores feelings, and supports separation and future coping during termination.

Transference

The patient's unconscious redirection of feelings, expectations, or conflicts from past relationships onto the nurse, which can intensify attachment, mistrust, or idealization and must be explored therapeutically.

Countertransference

The nurse's emotional reactions, biases, or unresolved personal issues triggered by the patient; recognizing them prevents acting out, boundary drift, and decisions based on dislike or overprotection.

OARS motivational interviewing

A core motivational interviewing skill set: open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries; these elicit the patient's own reasons for change and strengthen collaboration rather than confrontation.

Nontherapeutic communication

Responses such as advice-giving, false reassurance, changing the subject, excessive questioning, and minimizing feelings that block exploration, reduce trust, and shift focus away from the patient's experience.

DBT four modules

Dialectical behavior therapy teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, targeting self-harm, impulsivity, and relationship problems in borderline personality disorder.

ECT indications

Electroconvulsive therapy is effective for severe major depression, catatonia, psychotic disorders, and acute suicidality when rapid response or medication failure occurs; anesthesia and brief seizure induction are used.

Lithium toxicity

Signs include coarse tremor, vomiting, diarrhea, confusion, ataxia, and seizures; levels above the therapeutic range require urgent evaluation, with renal function, thyroid, and hydration monitored.

Clozapine agranulocytosis

Clozapine can cause severe neutropenia, so absolute neutrophil count monitoring is mandatory before and during treatment; fever, sore throat, or infection requires immediate blood count and urgent review.

Naloxone

An opioid antagonist that reverses respiratory depression and sedation in opioid overdose; it may precipitate withdrawal and has a shorter duration than many opioids, so monitoring and repeat dosing are required.

Tardive dyskinesia

A late-onset, potentially irreversible movement disorder from dopamine-blocking antipsychotics, marked by involuntary oro-facial movements, tongue protrusion, lip smacking, and sometimes limb or trunk movements.

CHIME recovery

A recovery framework emphasizing connectedness, hope and optimism, identity, meaning and purpose, and empowerment; these processes support living a satisfying life despite persistent symptoms.

Assertive community treatment

A multidisciplinary, team-based model with low caseloads, 24-hour availability, and services delivered in the community, designed for people with severe mental illness and frequent hospital use.

Supported employment IPS

Individual placement and support helps people obtain competitive jobs quickly, provides ongoing coaching, and integrates employment services with mental health treatment rather than requiring pre-employment readiness.

Harm reduction

A pragmatic, nonjudgmental approach that reduces substance-related harms through naloxone, sterile supplies, safer-use education, and low-barrier treatment, without requiring abstinence as a precondition for help.

Expressed emotion

A family environment high in criticism, hostility, or emotional overinvolvement; high expressed emotion predicts relapse in schizophrenia, so family psychoeducation and communication training are protective.

Informed consent elements

Valid consent requires decision-making capacity, voluntariness, disclosure of risks, benefits, alternatives, and consequences, and the patient's understanding; emergencies may permit treatment without consent under law.

Duty to warn

A legal exception to confidentiality when a patient poses a serious, identifiable threat to another person; clinicians may need to warn the target, notify police, or take protective action under state law.

Involuntary commitment criteria

Court-sanctioned detention usually requires mental illness plus dangerousness to self or others, grave disability, or inability to care for basic needs; due process includes counsel and periodic review.

SBAR handoff

A structured communication format: situation, background, assessment, and recommendation; it reduces omissions and supports closed-loop confirmation during transitions of care.

Mandatory reporting

A legal duty to report suspected child abuse, elder or dependent-adult abuse, and certain communicable diseases or unsafe conditions to designated authorities, even when confidentiality otherwise applies.