KPSC Staff Nurse - 2018
Mental Health Nursing
Medium
The suitable method to handle an overactive aggressive patient is?
Appeared in: KPSC Staff Nurse - 2018
Explanation
- This option represents a core principle of therapeutic communication: allowing a patient to express feelings, including anger and frustration, without fear of punishment.
- It is a key de-escalation strategy that involves being non-judgmental, respecting the patient's feelings, and focusing on understanding their perspective to prevent behavioral escalation.
- By not reacting defensively or punitively to verbal attacks, the nurse avoids a power struggle, helps the patient feel heard, and maintains a safe, therapeutic environment.
- This approach acknowledges the patient's affect and encourages them to talk about their feelings, which is central to effective aggression management.
Why Other Options Were Wrong
- Option B: The term 'firing' is inappropriate. Applying restraints is a highly restrictive intervention used only as a last resort to prevent imminent harm, not a primary method for handling aggression.
- Option C: Avoiding or neglecting a patient is a form of abandonment, which is unethical and dangerous. It increases the patient's agitation, frustration, and risk of harm.
- Option D: This is a non-therapeutic communication technique (false reassurance/inappropriate praise). It dismisses the patient's valid feelings of anger and can be perceived as patronizing, often escalating agitation.
Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
- Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Management of Aggressive Behavior and De-escalation Techniques to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
- Mastering de-escalation is a critical safety competency for nurses in all settings to protect themselves, other patients, and the agitated individual from harm.
- Nurses must be aware of their facility's policies for managing aggressive behavior, including when and how to call for a rapid response team or code for behavioral emergencies.
- What if the patient's verbal aggression escalates to physical threats or actions? The priority immediately shifts from verbal de-escalation to ensuring safety. The nurse should remove themselves from the immediate situation if possible, call for help (e.g., 'Code Gray'), and not attempt to physically manage the patient alone.
How to Approach the Question
- First, identify the core of the question: it asks for the 'suitable' or 'best' method to manage an aggressive patient. This is a therapeutic communication and safety question.
- Evaluate each option against the principles of patient-centered care, safety, and therapeutic communication.
- Eliminate options that are clearly punitive, neglectful, or dangerous. Option B (restraints as a first step) and Option C (neglect) are non-therapeutic and unsafe.
- Differentiate between therapeutic and non-therapeutic communication. Option D (cheering up) is a form of false reassurance and is non-therapeutic.
- Select the option that aligns with de-escalation principles: remaining calm, listening, and allowing the patient to express feelings in a safe manner. Option A is the only choice that reflects these principles.
Concept Tested & Keywords
- Concept Tested: Management of Aggressive Behavior and De-escalation Techniques
- Stem keywords: handle, overactive, aggressive patient
- Lead-in keywords: suitable method
- Negative lead-in flag: false
Question ID
QO4y_b0N_3S_jygYJhIYNH
Reference Book
E6 Nursing Fundamentals Potter Perry 12e Part 2 p. 198-200
E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) pp. 8843-8845, 8842-8844
Practise the full KPSC Staff Nurse - 2018
Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.
More Psychiatric Emergencies Questions
- Priority action of patient agitation management?
- A patient has tried to commit suicide with drug overdose. Which of the situation depicts that the patient has high risk of suicide?
- Patient is taking haloperidol and at home Patient is not able to sit quietly, during the clinic visit Patient has the urge to walk. What is suffering…
- A client is admitted to the emergency room with symptoms of delirium tremens. After admitting the client to a private room, the priority nursing inte…
- A 38-year-old female client with a history of chronic schizophrenia, paranoid type, is currently an outpatient at the local mental health and mental…
- Which of the following would be a priority nursing intervention for a patient who has suicidal behaviour?
- Which of the following is the most lethal method of Suicide?
- During ward rounds, you find that a 24-year-old patient with mania is very abusive and aggressive; there is imminent danger of his becoming physicall…
- A patient says to a nurse, "Everyone would be better off if I wasn't alive." Which nursing diagnosis would be made based on this statement?
- A patient receiving haloperidol for schizophrenia reports an inner feeling of motor restlessness, stating, "I can't stop moving my legs, I feel like…
More KPSC Staff Nurse - 2018 Questions
- Which Article of Indian Constitution abolishes untouchability?
- The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution were related with. $\qquad$ $?$
- Name the program launched by the Department of Women and Child Development, MHRD in 1988 to boost up women's health, education and political particip…
- Which social reformer of Kerala authored a book titled "Pracheena Malayalam"?
- "Awake, remember the Lord Almighty, Get up at once and fight injustice". Which social reform organization of 20th century Kerala put forth the above…
- ....................is considered as the "father of political movements in modern Thiruvithamkur"?
- Who among the following women social reformer and activist of 20th century Kerala actively participated in the Paliyam Satyagraha of 1947?
- Which compound is known as inorganic benzene?
- The designation of an orbital with $\mathbf{n}=4$ and $\mathbf{l}=2$ is?
- The element with highest electronegativity is?