This assessment supports you in developing your understanding of the roles and practice of mental health nurses in conducting assessments and developing appropriate interventions

Assessment 1:

Type: Short Answer Questions

Weighting: 50%

Length: 2,500 words (+/- 10%)

Aim

Mental health nurses play a key role in supporting mental health consumers and their families (Foster & Isobel, 2018), including the conduct of a range of assessments and implementation of interventions within a recovery-oriented framework (Hungerford et al., 2021).

The aim of Assessment Task 1 is to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the practice of mental health nurses.

Instructions

This assessment supports you in developing your understanding of the roles and practice of mental health nurses in conducting assessments and developing appropriate interventions; the components of the comprehensive mental health assessment, including the mental state examination, in the context of the mental health nursing scope of practice; and specialised assessments, such as crisis assessment, clinical risk assessment, suicide risk assessment, risk of aggression or violence, assessment of vulnerability, and the assessment of extrapyramidal side effects.

Task

You are to provide evidence-based responses to the following short-answer questions:

1What are the unique features that mental health nurses can bring to assessing a person with mental health concerns, and formulation of interventions? (300 words)
2Justify the need to conduct comprehensive mental health assessments that include (without being limited to) (i) past and present physical health, mental health, substance use, sociocultural issues, level of functioning, and family support; (ii) history of presenting problem; (iii) mental state examination; (iv) level of risk, and (v) collaborative formulation. (400 words)
3Explain and justify each of the components of the Mental State Examination. (300 words)
4Differentiate between the crisis assessment, clinical risk assessment, suicide risk assessment, assessment of the risk of aggression or violence, and assessment of vulnerability. (400 words)
5Discuss the need for mental health nurses to assess for extrapyramidal side effects (EPSEs), including an explanation of EPSEs and why mental health nurses are well placed to assess for EPSEs. (300 words)
6What are the benefits and challenges of practitioner-administered and self-reported assessments? Provide examples and explanations of one practitioner-administered assessment and one self-reported assessment commonly used in the field of mental health. (400 words)
7Explain the processes for mental health nurses to follow after completing an assessment. Provide examples. (400 words)

You are to:

write each question at the top of a new page and provide your answer beneath the question (the wordcount of the question is not included in the overall word count).