Post a brief explanation of three important components of the psychiatric interview and why you consider these elements important
Post a brief explanation of three important components of the psychiatric interview and why you consider these elements important
Post a brief explanation of three important components of the psychiatric interview and why you consider these elements important. Explain the psychometric properties of the rating scale you were assigned. Explain when it is appropriate to use this rating scale with clients during the psychiatric interview and how the scale is helpful to a nurse practitioner’s psychiatric assessment. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
Sample Expert Answer
The Psychiatric Evaluation and Evidence-Based Rating Scale
Psychiatric evaluation is crucial in the sense that it helps determine a client’s mental health needs, allowing psychiatrists to prepare an intervention plan that outlines how to address these needs. To assess patients’ needs, psychiatrists rely on the assessment tools or mental health screening tools. Focusing on Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) as the assigned tool, it is important to explore the psychometric properties that make it an ideal assessment tool, and determine its appropriateness especially when conducting assessment during psychiatric interview.
Components of the Psychiatric Interview Including their Importance
Psychiatric interview is a multifaceted process, comprising of different components including History of Presenting Complaint (HPC). As a component, HPC focuses on the presentation of the symptoms in terms of the onset, duration, and advancement. This aspect of the assessment enables the identification of how symptoms changed with time, and establish the seriousness of the disease including its impact on patient functioning (Hierlihy & Latus, 2025).
Mental Status Examination (MSE), which is the second component, provides an overview of the client’s psychiatric health status by focusing on the client’s demeanor, emotional state, thought flow, cognitive ability and self-awareness. This component helps identify critical psychiatric issues, and enables the psychiatrist to monitor symptoms, and to make appropriate judgment during the diagnosis of the disease (Savander et al., 2021).
The third component is psychiatric history, which involves comprehensive evaluation of the different aspects of the health history such as previous use of behavior-altering substance, physiological health background, and past psychiatric health issues. By reviewing these aspects of the patient’s psychiatric health, a psychiatrist is able to prepare an intervention plan that matches the needs of the patient. It also leads to better comprehension of the client’s biopsychosocial needs (Hierlihy & Latus, 2025).
The Psychometric Properties of the Assigned Rating Scale
The selected cognitive disorders rating scale is MOCA, a tool that measures cognitive health status by examining aspects like attention and memory. When it comes to measurement invariance, MOCA is reliable and valid considering that it measures the same cognitive abilities in similar ways across various groups. The tool is also valid in the sense that it detects minor cognitive dysfunction considering its 90% sensitivity (Corral et al., 2024). MOCA’s reliability is based on the fact that it yields high internal consistency, which for this tool is above 0.8.
When it is Appropriate to Use the Rating Scale with Clients During Psychiatric Interview
As a cognitive health evaluation tool, MOCA is suitable in a scenario in which clients present with attention deficit, memory problems, and impaired cognitive control. This tool also becomes ideal for clients that present with diminished judgment, maladaptive behavior or those with neurological problems.
How the Scale is Helpful to a Nurse Practitioner’s Psychiatric Assessment
In terms of psychiatric assessment, the MOCA scale is useful to the nurse practitioner given that this tool supports the identification of the mild cognitive dysfunction before it progresses and causes significant disorientation of the mental health. Using this particular scale, nurses are able to differentiate cognitive symptoms of dementia from those linked to depression. The tool also enables nurses to plan for treatment by assisting mental health professionals to determine whether reviewing the patient’s case is necessary (Aiello et al., 2022).
Conclusion
In overview, attributes like high sensitivity and strong internal consistency make MOCA appropriate for use in cognitive assessment. Combining this tool with identified components of the psychiatric interview translates to improved patient assessment outcomes. This in turn results to the improvement in treatment outcomes.
References
Aiello, E. N., Gramegna, C., Esposito, A., Gazzaniga, V., Zago, S., Difonzo, T., Maddaluno, O., Appollonio, I., & Bolognini, N. (2022). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): Updated Norms and Psychometric Insights into Adaptive Testing from Healthy Individuals in Northern Italy. Aging Clinical And Experimental Research, 34(2), 375–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-021-01943-7.
Corral, S., Gaspar, P. A., Castillo-Passi, R. I., Mayol Troncoso, R., Mundt, A. P., Ignatyev, Y., Nieto, R. R., & Figueroa-Muñoz, A. (2024). Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as a Screening Tool for Cognitive Impairment in Early Stages of Psychosis. Schizophrenia Research. Cognition, 36, 100302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scog.2024.100302.
Hierlihy, T., & Latus, A. (2025). An Approach to Teaching the Psychiatric Interview. BMC medical Education, 25(1), 110. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06529-1.
Savander, E. È., Hintikka, J., Wuolio, M., & Peräkylä, A. (2021). The Patients’ Practises Disclosing Subjective Experiences in the Psychiatric Intake Interview. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 605760. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.605760.
