Research Study Elements

• N represents the total number of participants in a research study.
• p is the probability value in statistical testing that determines result significance, with a p-value ≤ 0.05 typically indicating statistical significance.
• Quasi-experimental research includes an intervention but lacks full randomization, resulting in less control.
• Experimental design involves randomly assigning participants to groups, manipulating an independent variable to assess its effect on a dependent variable.
• Randomization minimizes bias and ensures equal distribution of confounding variables when assigning study participants to groups.
• A variable is any factor in a study that can change or have different values, like age, blood pressure, or treatment type.
• A peer-reviewed research study with original data in a scientific journal exemplifies a primary source.
• The Institutional Review Board (IRB) protects human research participants by reviewing studies for ethical concerns, informed consent, risk minimization, and compliance with federal regulations.
• In nursing, the buy-in stage in politics involves nurses engaging stakeholders and policymakers to support healthcare policy changes or new initiatives.
• Nursing informatics integrates nursing science, information science, and computer technology to improve patient care and healthcare efficiency.
• Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) guides nursing decisions and improves outcomes through current research, clinical expertise, and patient preferences.
• The Nurse Practice Act defines the legal scope of nursing practice, while the State Board of Nursing enforces regulations to protect public safety.
• Scope of practice includes defined responsibilities and limitations of healthcare professionals based on licensure, education, and state laws.
• Credentialing verifies and grants nurses and healthcare providers permission to practice, ensuring competency standards.
• Politics involves activities, policies, and decision-making processes that influence healthcare laws, regulations, and reforms.
• Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) offer a network of providers at a lower cost, allowing out-of-network care at a higher expense without referrals.
• Health disparity includes differences in health outcomes and healthcare access among different population groups due to socioeconomic status, race, or geography.
• Medicare Part A covers hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, and some home health services.
• Behavioral theory and reinforcement state learning occurs through conditioning using positive reinforcement (rewards) or negative reinforcement (avoidance of discomfort).
• Callista Roy's Adaptation Model of Nursing views patients as adaptive systems that respond to stimuli to maintain health.

MSN vs. PhD in Research

• MSN focuses on applying research in clinical practice.
• PhD focuses on conducting original research and advancing nursing science.
• Qualitative design – Ethnography studies cultural groups through observations and interviews in their natural environment.
• Dopamine is the neurotransmitter impacted by schizophrenia (excess dopamine activity is linked to symptoms).
• Double bind communication in schizophrenia is contradictory and causes confusion and distress, often linked to dysfunctional family interactions.
• Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome is a mental health disorder linked to thiamine deficiency, associated with alcohol use disorder.
• Abnormal lab findings in alcoholism include elevated liver enzymes (AST, ALT), macrocytosis (high MCV), and low platelet count.
• The earliest recommended age for a mammogram is 40–50 years old, depending on individual risk factors.
• Imogene King's Theory focuses on nurse-patient interactions to set and achieve health goals.
• Aaron Beck's Theory focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns in depression.

Erikson's Stages of Development

• Infancy involves trust vs. mistrust.
• Toddlerhood involves autonomy vs. shame.
• Preschool involves initiative vs. guilt.
• School age involves industry vs. inferiority.
• Adolescence involves identity vs. role confusion.
• Young adulthood involves intimacy vs. isolation.
• Middle adulthood involves generativity vs. stagnation.
• Older adulthood involves integrity vs. despair.
• CBT main principles include identifying cognitive distortions, modifying thoughts, and changing behaviors to treat disorders like depression and anxiety.
• Bowen's Theory focuses on family emotional systems, including differentiation of self and triangulation.

Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory Stages

• Sensorimotor occurs from 0–2 years.
• Preoperational occurs from 2–7 years.
• Concrete operational occurs from 7–11 years.
• Formal operational occurs from 12+ years.
• The Rinne Test compares air conduction (AC) vs. bone conduction (BC) using a tuning fork for hearing assessment.
• The Whisper Hearing Test evaluates hearing ability by whispering words and asking the patient to repeat them.

Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

• Loud snoring
• Episodes of stopped breathing
• Daytime fatigue
• Morning headaches
• Guanfacine for ADHD reduces hyperactivity and impulsivity as an alpha-2 adrenergic agonist affecting norepinephrine pathways.
• PET scans for anxiety show increased activity in the amygdala and limbic system.

Instructions for high blood pressure

• Lower salt and alcohol
• Exercise more
• Track stress
• Take medications
• Brain lobe associated with personality changes includes the frontal lobe.
• Social phobia is associated with avoidant personality disorder.
• Clock face tests determine dementia (Alzheimer's Disease).

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) techniques

• Mindfulness
• Distress tolerance
• Emotional regulation
• Interpersonal effectiveness
• Amitriptyline (Elavil) indications are for depression and neuropathic pain, and contraindications include heart disease and elderly patients (risk of anticholinergic effects).

Assessment findings for delirium

• Acute onset
• Fluctuating consciousness
• Disorganized thinking
• Hallucinations
• Assessment findings for vascular dementia include stepwise cognitive decline, history of strokes or vascular disease, focal neurological signs, and memory impairment with executive dysfunction.
• Assessment findings for pseudodementia include rapid cognitive decline with depression, inconsistent memory impairment, patient distress by memory loss, and improvement with antidepressant treatment.
• Assessment findings for dementia (Alzheimer's Disease) include gradual memory loss, impaired judgment and reasoning, disorientation to time/place, and difficulty with language and daily activities.
• Assessment findings for paranoid personality disorder include suspiciousness and mistrust of others, interpreting others' motives as malevolent, hypersensitivity to criticism, and reluctance to confide in others.
• Assessment findings for MDD include depressed mood, anhedonia, sleep/appetite changes, fatigue, atypical depression (mood reactivity, weight gain, hypersomnia), melancholic depression (profound anhedonia, early morning awakening), and psychotic depression (hallucinations or delusions).
• Assessment findings for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) include excessive preoccupation with perceived physical flaws.
• Assessment findings for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) include intrusive, repetitive thoughts (obsessions), compulsive behaviors, and significant distress and time consumption.
• Assessment findings for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of trauma reminders, and hyperarousal.
• Assessment findings for histrionic personality disorder (HPD) include excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, theatrical behavior, inappropriate seductiveness, and shallow, rapidly shifting emotions.
• Assessment findings for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) include inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
• Psychiatric medications that inhibit the cytochrome P450 system include fluoxetine, paroxetine (SSRIs), clozapine (antipsychotic), and diazepam (benzodiazepine).
• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) onset and development occurs with antipsychotics, involves hyperthermia, muscle rigidity, autonomic instability, and elevated CK, leukocytosis, and myoglobinuria in labs.
• Malingering involves faking symptoms for external gain, while factitious disorder involves faking symptoms for internal psychological gain.
• Primary gain includes the internal psychological relief from symptoms.
• Secondary gain includes the external advantages from illness.
• Tardive dyskinesia (involuntary facial movements) is a common Reglan (Metoclopramide) psychiatric side effect.
• Al-Anon is a support group for family members of individuals with alcohol use disorder.
• Turner Syndrome includes 45, XO karyotype, short stature, webbed neck, amenorrhea, and infertility.
• Flight of ideas in mania includes rapid, continuous speech shifting between topics with little connection.
• Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy includes a caregiver inducing or fabricating illness in another (usually a child) for attention.

Psychiatric Medications Used for Pain

• Duloxetine (SNRI)
• Amitriptyline (TCA)
• Gabapentin (for neuropathic pain)
• Agranulocytosis requiring regular WBC/ANC monitoring is a major Clozaril (Clozapine) side effect & Lab monitoring component.
• Performance anxiety, PTSD, and akathisia are mental health disorders treated with beta-blockers.
• Side effects of benzodiazepines include sedation, memory impairment, and respiratory depression (high doses).
• Strong therapeutic relationships improve treatment outcomes in psychotherapy.
• Ebstein's anomaly (congenital heart defect) is an anomaly from lithium use during pregnancy.
• Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is related to panic attacks through increased autonomic activity.
• Typical antipsychotics cause extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) and tardive dyskinesia, while atypical antipsychotics cause weight gain, metabolic syndrome, and agranulocytosis (Clozapine).
• Sertraline (Zoloft) was the first SSRI FDA-approved for PTSD.
• DEA enforces drug laws and regulates controlled substances, such as opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants.
• Buspirone (BuSpar) prescription is for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
• Echopraxia includes mimicking others' movements (seen in schizophrenia).
• Echolalia includes repeating others' words (common in autism, schizophrenia).
• Schizophrenia (especially catatonic type) is a disorder including echopraxia & echolalia.
• Mental health disorders with a genetic link include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder (strong hereditary components).
• Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) includes persistent defiance, hostility, and argumentative behavior in children.
• Active listening, open-ended questions, reflection, and validation are therapeutic communication skills with adolescents & validation example.
• Adolescents may resist medications due to fear of stigma, side effects, or feeling controlled.
• A prescription includes drug name, dosage, route, frequency, quantity, refills.
• Theory guides nursing practice.
• A durable power of attorney legally designates a person to make healthcare decisions if the patient is incapacitated.
• Ethnocentrism is judging another culture by one's own cultural standards.
• Medications for acute mania include lithium, valproate, and antipsychotics (e.g., olanzapine).
• Venlafaxine (Effexor) acts as an antidepressant as an SNRI, increasing serotonin & norepinephrine.
• The role of change agent in mental health policy is advocating for systemic improvements in mental health care.