The Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification exam is a challenging assessment for men and women looking to enter this rewarding and rapidly growing field of health care. The exam consists of 175 multiple-choice questions, 25 of which are pretest items used to develop future versions of the exam. These questions do not count toward the final score.
The content of the Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification exam is divided into five domains of practice:
- The health promotion and disease prevention domain (27 questions or 18 percent of the exam) covers epidemiology and risk analysis, health behavior guidelines, growth and development across the lifespan, screening instruments, and prevention activities.
- The assessment of acute and chronic illness (36 questions, 24 percent) reviews anatomy, physiology, development, and pathophysiology across the lifespan; comprehensive psychiatric evaluation; and diagnostic reasoning.
- The domain concerned with the nurse practitioner and patient relationship (22 questions, 14.67 percent) addresses therapeutic communication and legal, business, and ethical issues.
- The clinical management domain (40 questions, 26.67 percent) covers pharmacotherapeutic treatment; psychotherapy, psychoeducation, complementary, and alternative medicine; and crisis management.
- The section on professional role and policy (25 questions, 16.67 percent) includes questions on healthcare and public policy, scope of practice, coordination of services, and research.
Another way to break down the content of the Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification exam is by disorder. Questions on the exam address thought disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, substance use disorders, childhood disorders, and others.
The exam is administered by computer at testing facilities around the country. Total testing time is four hours, although a half hour is spent learning the computer system. The raw score (the number of questions answered correctly) is placed on a scale using a formula that takes into account the relative difficulty of the test version. The minimum passing scaled score on the Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification exam is 350. Scores are available immediately upon completion of the exam.
Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Study Guide
Start learning how to be successful on your Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner exam. Our Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner study guide is guaranteed to help you get the results you deserve on your Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner test. Some test takers prefer to study using flashcards and so we have created the best Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner flashcards that cover everything you need to know for the Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner exam. Note that using multiple study aids will help you maximize the benefit from your study time.
Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Study Guide
Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Flashcards
Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Practice Test
1. Which of the following is NOT true about the epidemiology and risk factors of violent behavior?
a. More than 50% of people who commit criminal homicides and who engage in assaultive behavior have imbibed significant amounts of alcohol immediately beforehand.
b. For aggression classified as homicide, battery, assault with a weapon, or rape, the frequency among males clearly exceeds that among females.
c. Most adults with and without mental disorders who commit aggressive acts do so against people they do not know, that is, strangers.
d. For domestic violence, in which one partner hurts another, the frequency among men and women is about equal.
2. Your client is a 14-year-old girl brought in by her parents for evaluation because of episodes of defiance over curfews and of staying out late with friends. Your initial approach to her situation is which of the following?
a. You meet with the family and tell the parents that such separation-individuation behavior is healthy and normal.
b. You meet with the girl alone and explain that her behavior is exposing her to many high-risk behaviors, including substance abuse, delinquency, unprotected sex, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
c. You arrange for a separate therapist for the girl, a separate therapist for the parents, and yourself as the family counselor.
d. You assess the family situation, assess the level of communication in the family, and attempt to identify specific stressors or situations that could be aggravating a normal development stage in order to address them.
3. You are working in a substance-abuse treatment clinic where the clients are subject to random, mandatory drug screening as a part of their probation for substance abuse–related offenses. If your client has a negative urine test result, you can be confident that the client has not abused any of the following drugs in the past 2 to 3 days EXCEPT:
a. Heroin
b. Toluene
c. Cocaine
d. Marijuana
4. Your client is a 34-year-old Hispanic-American farm worker who was diagnosed last year with bipolar disorder and who has been prescribed lithium carbonate. He came to the United States from Nicaragua 18 months ago. You are meeting him for the first time, after he has had 4 hospitalizations for his disorder and during which his lithium levels ranged from “undetectable” to 2.1 mEq/liter. What is the first step that you would take to assess his “health literacy” concerning his disorder?
a. Determine whether he speaks English well enough to understand explanations and directions in English or whether he needs a translator.
b. Ask him whether he was given information on bipolar disorder during and after his hospitalizations.
c. Ask him to describe in his own words what his illness is and what he must do to manage it.
d. Find out how much formal schooling he has had.
5. Which of the following is true about the heredity of bipolar disorder?
a. The risk of one identical (monozygotic) twin having bipolar I disorder if the other twin has it is 75%.
b. First-degree relatives of someone with bipolar disorder have a risk of developing bipolar disorder that is 4 to 6 times that of the general population.
c. The risk of one fraternal (dizygotic) twin having bipolar I disorder if the other twin has it is 25%.
d. If unipolar depression and bipolar I disorder are considered, then a co-twin has an even higher risk of affective illness if the index twin has bipolar I disorder, namely 100% for monozygotic twins and 50% for dizygotic twins.
Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification Answer
1. C: Most aggressive acts are committed against people who are known to the aggressor, usually family members. The exceptions to this general rule are male adolescents, who may act violently against acquaintances who they know only slightly or against complete strangers.
2. D: The important first step is a thorough assessment of the situation, i.e., asking lots of questions before making any suggestions. Subsequently, the practitioner can assess the client’s level of education and vulnerability concerning high-risk behaviors, determine whether separate therapists are indicated, and determine the degree to which the behavior is normative or pathological.
3. B: Toluene is a constituent of solvents that are abused through inhalation. Like most of the substances abused through inhalation, toluene is not detected by urine drug screenings. Other means of assessing inhalant abuse, such as detecting the odor of the inhalant on the subject’s breath (where it may persist for many hours) or finding products of abuse stored in unusual locations, must be sought.
4. A: Given this history, the patient is unlikely to have a strong grasp of the English language, adding an additional degree of difficulty to developing his “health literacy,” that is, his “capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” Being able to provide information and education in a language that he can understand is the first step, preceding even an assessment of his understanding.
5. B: The majority of studies show a concordance of 40% for monozygotic twins and 0 to 10% for dizygotic twins. When unipolar depression and bipolar I disorder are considered, the risk is 69% for identical twins and is 19% for fraternal twins when the index twin has bipolar I disorder.
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Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Study Options
- Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Exam Secrets Study Guide: NP Test Review for the Nurse Practitioner Exam (click here)
- Official site (click here)