NR548 Week 5 Assignment Mental Status Examination Worksheet

Mental Status Examination Worksheet

Name: _________

Using the assignment guidelines and rubric, try to answer the following questions based on what you observed of the volunteer in your documented psychiatric interview, which you have submitted in Week 4.

1) Mental Status Examination:

Observe the psychiatric interview report that you prepared during week 4 and observe the psychiatric state of the volunteer that you are assigned. Note the observations of the following elements of mental status exam (MSE) according to the following terms.

Appearance	The client is a 68-year-old man. He is neatly dressed and wears clean, age-appropriate clothing. He is somewhat obese (BMI 33.8) but well-groomed. During an interview, he sits upright and maintains eye contact with the interviewer.
Behavior and attitude	He or she is accommodating, easy to communicate with, and friendly. There was no agitation, psychomotor disturbances, or abnormal movements. He is liberal and has no difficulty communicating.
Speech	Normal speech rate, volume, and rhythm. He is eloquent and not threatened by monotony, articulation slurs, forced speech, and poor speech.
Affect and mood	Affect will be consistent with his mood, as he will state that he is content but lonely at times. The influence is thorough, solid, and appropriate to the dialogue’s circumstances.
Thought process	The mentality is objective, rational, and linear. The client is not disorganized with ideas; there is no circumstantiality, tangentiality, flight of ideas, or thought blocking.
Thought content	Denies any delusions, hallucinations, obsessions, or phobias. The client cannot complain of suicidal or homicidal ideation. At times, he complains about his weight and financial condition, but these are not delusions.

2) Cognitive Examination:

Discuss the age-specific examination procedures that could be used to establish the state of cognition of your volunteer. The following components should be there:

Age of volunteer	68 years old
Level of awareness or wakefulness	Client is an alert and oriented person, place, and time (oriented x3).
Attention and concentration	Demonstrates good concentration and attention. Some subtraction of serial 7s, and can spell the word W O R D backwards with no difficulty.
Memory	 Immediate recall: contains accurate repetition of 3 objects right after presentation.  Recent memory: remembers events in the day, including what he ate for breakfast.  emote memory: has accurate recall of past employment and important life events.
Judgment	Displays good judgment. When faced with a hypothetical situation (What would you do if you smelled smoke in your home?), he takes the appropriate measures, i.e., warns others and calls an ambulance.
Insight	Does not seem to know the poor state of his health and lifestyle. Realizes he is overweight and has a low income, which could affect his health, and is ready to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

3) Reflection:

The open and probing questions I used during the psychiatric interview were intended to enable the client to tell me everything about his experiences and lifestyle issues, such as eating habits, physical activities, and social well-being. This would help fully comprehend his habits and health risks and align with approaches that promote self-reliance and independence among older adults (Vilar-Compte et al., 2021).

Strengths:

Developed a relationship and trust so that the client would feel free to discuss personal health challenges of interest and lifestyle habits.
Empathic emotional communication was implemented successfully in the research of the daily life experience, as well as issues with diet and exercise, which is indicative of the best practices of involving aging people in society (Seron-Arbeloa et al., 2022).

Areas for Development:

Enhance the probing questions in a way that they can get more details on the psychosocial variables that might influence adherence to healthy practices, and they might also encompass economic aspects (Huangfu et al., 2024).
The increased pauses in the conversation will allow the client to develop his ideas concerning health and the preference of activities (National Institute on Aging, 2024).

References

Huangfu, P., Pearson, F., Abu-Hijleh, F. M., Wahlich, C., Willis, K., Awad, S. F., Abu-Raddad, L. J., & Critchley, J. A. (2024). Impact of price reductions, subsidies, or financial incentives on healthy food purchases and consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health, 8(3), e197–e212. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(24)00004-4

National Institute on Aging. (15 November 2024). Health Benefits of Exercise and Physical Activity. National Institute on Aging. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/exercise-and-physical-activity/health-benefits-exercise-and-physical-activity

Serón-Arbeloa, C., Labarta-Monzón, L., Puzo-Foncillas, J., Mallor-Bonet, T., Lafita-López, A., Bueno-Vidales, N., & Montoro-Huguet, M. (2022). Malnutrition screening and assessment. Nutrients, 14(12), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14122392

Vilar-Compte, M., Burrola-Méndez, S., Lozano-Marrufo, A., Ferré-Eguiluz, I., Flores, D., Gaitán-Rossi, P., Teruel, G., & Pérez-Escamilla, R. (2021). Urban poverty and nutrition challenges associated with accessibility to a healthy diet: A global systematic literature review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01330- 0