Mental Status Exam Assignment

PNSG 1524 Mental Health

Use the interactive MSE form and interview another person. This could be a family member, roommate, classmate, etc. Keep in mind that many of the items on the form deal with observation of your “patient”; it is not just about asking questions. Look at the person you are interviewing and really think about what you are seeing. Also use your other senses, such as sound, smell, etc. All those things are important when assessing an individual’s mental status. Write 1-2 paragraphs describing how the interview went. Please answer each of the following questions:

1. What observations did you make regarding your “patient”; how did they appear and react to your questions?

1. Were there any areas you felt uncomfortable asking about?

1. Could you think of different ways to make the person you interviewed feel more comfortable?

1. What type of therapeutic communication techniques did you use?

1. How might you incorporate what you learned here when caring for patients in the future?

This form is a helpful tool that you can use when you assess any patient, it is not only for use in a mental health setting (although you can use it when you go for your mental health observation). Remember, people with mental health diagnoses are found in every clinical (and non-clinical) setting you can think of. It is just as important to assess a patient’s mental status as it is to assess their physical status.

This is for practice only; I do not need (or want) to see the results of the exam! Also, you can skip some of the areas of the MSE for this assignment that might seem too personal, such as the demographic section, but you would not want to skip any area if you were assessing a “real” patient.

Write these on separate paper