Psychological measurement and testing
Nurses have a huge role to play in psychological testing. They are required to critically assess the psychological conditions of a patient before taking any important intervention. According to Swerdlik (2012), nurses need to know what a phycological test is, how it is conducted, and how to interpret the results obtained before taking any intervention. If I were a clinician in practice, I would choose an emotional and psychological test because it is not available to me. Through this test, I will be in a position to measure the perfomance of my patients at specific periods. The psychological and emotional test is a sure way of learning the behavior of individuals.
In the present time, psychologists have emphasized the measurement of various aspects of intelligence such as spatial skills, logical reasoning, verbal skills, and understanding analogies. Those who researched the same realized that, even though Intellectual Quotient (IQ) is a key determinant in academic performance, students with high IQ do not perform well in their academics (Palese, 2014). Their overall scores are usually affected by factors such as poor thinking, poor communication, and lack of good behavior. It means there is still a gap in the clinical practice know as emotional intelligence (Swerdlik, 2012). As a nurse in practice, I would like to use an emotional and psychological test to measure IQ for me and my patients.
In undertaking the emotional and psychological test, I will test the personality traits of individuals specifically children. I also need to access their ability to think, remember, observe, and general mental functioning. I also need to evaluate the emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and behavioral traits of children. As a nursing practitioner, I have realized that most children are not able to remember what they learned the previous day, not because they have low IQ but because of their inability to apply their various personality traits in learning (Benchman et al, 2014). Some are good at thinking critically and good in remembering what they might have learned the previous day but they may have poor observational abilities.
As a clinician practice, I usually interact with people of different personalities. It will be important for me to understand the nature of patients and enable them to improve some of their psychological traits such as openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion among others (Palese, 2014). Psychological testing is also not a one-time activity. It is a process that I will undertake for some time by assessing patients repeatedly. I will have to ask those questions, expect answers from them then repeat the same questions, again and again, to find out if they can remember. Psychological and emotional testing also calls for nursing professionals to understand the change in moods and emotions for patients.
Lastly, psychological and emotional tests are administered for a variety of reasons. In my case as a nursing practitioner, the essence of my testing is for treatment purposes. Once I have obtained the right results and data from my tests, I would treat my patients with psychotherapy. I have the option of evaluating patients then referring them to other specialists who can offer treatments after they have made a diagnosis. Also, from the information that I obtain from my assessment, it will be easy for me to understand the behavior of persons and develop a treatment plan for them.