A COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING PROCEDURES

Mental status examination is a description of the patient’s appearance, speech, actions & thoughts during the interview. It is a systematic format for recording finding about, thinking & behaviour patient history remains stable, where the mental status can change daily or hours. DEFINITION: A mental status examination is an assessment of a patient’s level of cognitive (knowledge-related) ability, appearance, emotional mood, &speech, thought patterns at the time of evaluation.