ABCN Emergency Response Procedures 5

Question 1

A neuropsychologist is seeing a patient with a brain tumor who experiences a sudden severe headache, vision changes, and confusion mid-session — symptoms consistent with acute intracranial hemorrhage. The correct response is:

Accepted Answer

Stop the session immediately, call 911, keep the patient calm, and do not give food or water

Answer

Stroke and hemorrhage are time-critical emergencies where immediate EMS activation and keeping the patient still and NPO are standard emergency first-aid responses.

Question 2

In the context of neuropsychological practice, a 'duty to warn' obligation is MOST clearly triggered by:

Accepted Answer

A patient making a credible, specific threat to kill an identifiable individual

Answer

Duty to warn is activated by credible, specific, and imminent threats against an identifiable victim — not by historical acts or vague frustration.

Question 3

A neuropsychologist suspects elder abuse in a patient who presents with unexplained bruising and fearfulness toward their caregiver. Under mandatory reporting statutes, the clinician should:

Accepted Answer

Report the suspicion to Adult Protective Services as required by law

Answer

Neuropsychologists are mandatory reporters for elder abuse in most states; reasonable suspicion — not confirmed disclosure — is sufficient to require a report to APS.

Question 4

A patient with severe depression undergoing neuropsychological rehabilitation scores critically high on a standardized suicidality measure. Which next step reflects BEST practice?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a structured clinical interview to further assess suicide risk and determine appropriate level of care

Answer

A high-risk scale score is a signal for follow-up structured clinical assessment — it should not be used in isolation to determine hospitalization or to bypass clinical judgment.

Question 5

When a neuropsychologist must break confidentiality to protect a third party, ethical guidelines recommend that the clinician:

Accepted Answer

Inform the patient of the intention to break confidentiality whenever doing so does not increase risk

Answer

APA ethics guidelines advise informing the patient of the impending breach of confidentiality when doing so is clinically safe and does not increase danger to the intended victim.

(ABCN) American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology Practice Test

(ABCN) American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology Practice Test

ABCN Emergency Response Procedures 5