Exam prep

Question 1

Define Stress:

Answer 1

• Stress is a natural responce to events that are threatening or challenging to a person or events precieved as exceeding one’s resouces

Question 2

Explain Yerkes - Dodson law on stress as a stimulus:

Answer 2

The Yerkes-Dodson Law illustrates the impact that emotional arousal has on the performance of tasks. For very simple tasks, arousal has a linear relationship with performance. That is, the greater the stress, the greater the performance. However, for complex tasks, performance follows a parabolic curve. At too low a level of arousal, an individual can become bored or unfocused. At too high a level, an individual can become stressed and overwhelmed. There is typically a midpoint of arousal that leads to optimum levels of task performance, as shown on the diagram.

Question 3

Discuss coping stratagies for stress:

Answer 3

• Confrontation - acknowledge a sressful situation directly
• Withdrawal - aviod the situation
• Defence mechanism - self - deceptive techniques to reduce stress
• Compromise - decide on a more realistic solution
• Social support - network of caring
• Emotional focus - self - regulation to contro stress
• Problem focused - take action to address the stressor

Question 4

List some behavioural determinants of health which are accountable for the burden of disease in Australia:

Answer 4

• Cigarette smoking
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Not excercising
• Poor diet & nutrition
• Recreational drugs
• Unprotected & risky sexual behaviour

Question 5

What is the definition of health according to World Health Oraganisation?

Answer 5

• A complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Question 6

Health & wellbeing are affected by many factors that are associated with ill health, disability, disease or death. These are known as risk factors which include the following:

Answer 6

• Behavioural risk factors
• Biomedical risk factors
• Environmental risk factors
• Demographic risk factors

Question 7

Health is a dynamic concept influenced by?

Answer 7

• Biomedical factors
• Psychological factors
• Social factors

Question 8

Health psychology contributes to health care practice by proposing:

Answer 8

• Theories to explain behaviour
• Models that suggest strategies to change behaviour as required

Question 9

What is health promotion?

Answer 9

• Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over the determinants of health & thereby improve their health (WHO, 1998)

Question 10

The 1986 Ottawa Charter Health Promtion focused on what?

Answer 10

• Building healthy public policies
• Creating a supportive environment
• Stregthening communities to take action that meets the needs of the community
• Developing personal skills
• Reorientation of health services to take a; promotion, prevention, treatment & rehabilitation approach

Question 11

Discuss the different levels of health intervention:

Answer 11

• Primary - psychosocial, political, environmental & biomedical - aim to foster wellbeing & prevent occurence of illness
• Secondary - is the health care delivered when symptoms, illness or injury are identified - aims to restore health
• Tertiary - health care that is delivered when health cannot be restored - aims to assist individuals & families to cope with change in health status, limit disability & promote quality of life

Question 12

What does ‘upstream’ mean in terms of level of health intervention?

Answer 12

• Population focused

Refers to policies regarding health, social welfare & environment to stregthen protective factors

Question 13

What does ‘midstream’ refer to in terms of levels of health intervention?

Answer 13

• Community focused

There are services to prevent illness & eradicate health risks for individuals & groups

Question 14

What does downstream refer to in terms of level of health intervention?

Answer 14

• Individual focused

Services for: diagnosis, treatment & management of injury or illness per indiviual

Question 15

What is the most preventable cause of ill health & death in Australia?

Answer 15

Tobacco smoking

Question 16

Discuss factors to reduce tobacco smoking:

Answer 16

• Health education in schools
• Social marketing in mass media
• Legislation - no smoking in public areas
• Access to quit programs & support for people who want to stop

Question 17

Health behaviour models include?

Answer 17

• Behaviourist thoeries
• Cognitive theories
• CBT approaches

Question 18

Briefly explain Behaviourist theory:

Answer 18

• Asserts that illness is influenced by external factors
• Factors that rienforce behaviour: operant conditoning - learning by rienforcements
• Conditions that elicit & maintain behaviour - classic conditioning - learning by association
• Modelling - observational learning

Question 19

Explain the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) approach:

Answer 19

• Commonly used in health care settings
• Cognitions - thoughts & beliefs are targeted for change
• Aim is to maintain desired behaviour
• Focuses on the present rather than the past
• Identifying problems & their extent
• Setting goals that are achievable & measurable
• Brings about changes in thoughts, feelings, behaviour & physilogocal responses

(Meadows et al, 2007)

Question 20

Discuss the Health Belief Model:

Answer 20

• HBM - 1st cognitive model to explain behaviour (1950’s)
• An individual will practice a health behaviour on the basis of 2 factors…

1. Perception of threat to ones health
2. Belief that a health action will reduce threat

(Rosenstock, 1966)

Question 21

Explain the Theory of planned behaviour:

Answer 21

Question 22

Explain the Transtherectical model:

Answer 22

Question 23

What are the 4 principles of movitavional interviewing?

Answer 23

• Empathy
• Non - comfrontation
• Accept resistance
• Encourage self - efficacy & optimism

Question 24

A 35 year old overweight male was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. what are his likely health behaviours for each of the 3 locus of conrol models?

Answer 24

• —Internal - I will be able to control my diabetes given sufficient information about the condition and its treatment—
• —Powerful - The doctor knows more about this than me, I will follow the medical advice
• —Chance - My father had diabetes so it is probably hereditary. Nothing I do can change that

Question 25

The activities undertaken by a person diagnosed as sick in order to try & get well is known as?

Answer 25

Sick role behaviour

Question 26

What are the 3 factors that inflence health seeking behaviours?

Answer 26

Question 27

List strategies for effective communication:

Answer 27

• Active listening
• Use of open & closed ended quesions
• Natural posture - leaning forward, nodding
• Clarify & paraphrase
• Provide feedback to the client about what has been heard & understood
• empathy - to show that you see things from their point of view
• Summerise

Question 28

Discuss the different types of loss:

Answer 28

• —Major versus minor such as the death of family member versus loss of driver’s license
• —Primary versus secondary such as chronic illness versus loss of employment due to that illness
• —Actual versus threatened such as being injured in a car accident versus having a close call
• —Internal versus external such as loss of identity or self-image versus loss of a limb through amputation
• —Chosen versus imposed such as voluntary migration versus forced migration
• —Direct versus indirect such as personal experience of loss versus experiences by parents for their children’s losses

Question 29

Discuss the different levels of loss:

Answer 29

Weenolsen’s framework of five levels of loss

1. —Primary - obvious losses such as death of a loved one
2. —Secondary - follows on from primary losses, like disruptions to school due to medical appointments when diagnosed with serious illnesses
3. —Holistic losses – loss of plans for the future, loss of status as a married person and loss of hope
4. —Self-conceptual losses – loss of sense of self as ‘normal’, as a potential mother, as a loved partner worthy of love
5. —Metaphorical losses – loss of sense that the world is fair, loss of belief that life is worth living

Question 30

What are the key communication stategies to support a grieving person?

Answer 30

—P - Prepare for the discussion, where possible

—R - Relate to the person

—E - Elicit preferences

—P - Provide information tailored to individual needs

—A - Acknowledge emotions and concerns

—R - (foster) Realistic hope

—E - Encourage questions and further discussions

—D - Document

Question 31

Discuss the term complicated greif:

Answer 31

• —May affect between 10–20% of people who are grieving
• —Difficult to distinguish complicated from uncomplicated grief, especially in the first six months
• —Indicators - suicidal thoughts and gestures, depressive disorders, post-traumatic reactions, persistent grief reactions
• —Persistent complex bereavement-related disorder is now included in DSM-5 published in May 2013
• —This diagnostic category builds on previous research into complicated grief disorder, traumatic grief and prolonged grief disorder

*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, 2013

Question 32

What is pain?

Answer 32

• —Pain is the unpleasant sensory experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage
• —Not adequately explained but simply linked to a noxious stimulus
• —Pain has strong subjective and emotional components
• —Tissue damage is an indicator of someone experiencing subjective pain
• —Pain is warning sign that something is wrong
• —Provides feedback about how we sit, stand or sleep
• —Makes us avoid damaging or dangerous behaviours
• —Makes us seek help

Question 33

What are the different types of pain?

Answer 33

• —Nociceptive - Pain arising from injury or pathology in somatic or visceral structures - Activity in the nervous system generated by a noxious stimulus - —Can take place without any conscious awareness
• —Neuropathic - Pain arising from pathology or changes within peripheral and central nervous system
• —Acute pain - (less than three months)
• —Chronic pain - (three months or more)
• —Types of pain can include - stabbing, shooting, throbbing, aching, piercing and sharp
• —Severity of pain can include - mild discomfort to excruciating
• —Pattern of pain can include - brief, continuous and intermittent

Question 34

Briefly state four types of social support that promotes recovery:

Answer 34

1. Emtional
2. Spiritual
3. Physical
4. Financial

Question 35

Case Study:

Sylvia is an 80 year old widow who will soon be discharged from hospital after a recent hip operation. She lives alone & has no family members in the local area. She was previously living independantly but will require some short term support for the 1st few weeks after discharge. Sylvia is frightened that a desicion will be made to place her in aresidential nursing home…

1. What support do you think Sylvia will need?
2. Who do you need to establish a partnership with? Provide rationale
3. How will you establish & maintain the partnership?
4. What do you forsee your role to be as a health professional?
5. What obstacles do you think may prevent the partnerships being effective? How would you overcome these?

Answer 35

1. She will need support from the multidisaplinary team (nurses, social workers, physio, counselling)
2. With Sylvia & her primary caregiver (family/friend/carer), it is important to establish a rapport & trust to deliver patient centred care & to achieve the best possible outcome for Sylvia
3. Incorporating Sylvias need into the treatment plan, involving her in desicion making, being supportive
4. To be a advocate for the patient
5. Lack of trust from Sylvia as she believes she is about to loose everything & be placed in a nursing home…. Good communication skills, good rapport, supportive, referals to the right people…