Mmse in Nursing Essay

A mini mental state examination (MMSE) also known as the Folstein test is a brief 30-point questionnaire test that is used to screen for cognitive impairment in a patient. It’s use I normally in medicine to screen for the presence of dementia. In this case I used it to estimate the severity of cognitive impairment at a given point in time and to follow the course of cognitive changes in an individual over time. Functions assessed are usually arithmetic, memory and orientation (Changsu Han, 2008). I assessed Mrs. Pandey’s state of cognitive impairment using the mini mental state examination. Mrs. Pandey is a young lady suffering from multiple sclerosis. At this point we assume that she has a normal cognitive state and it was proven correct by the mini mental state examination. After my assessment I found that the MMSE was easy to perform in a way that the type of questions to address where given to me already, concentration was nowon effective communicaion with Mrs. Pandey and developing confidence in her to answer the questions to the best of her ability. To some individuals it is difficult to ask some of the questions , an example was the one question were i had to ask the patient to count backwards from 100 by 7. This was because the patient could find it difficult to understand what is required by the question or interprete in a different way, which can affect the accuracy in determining the patient’s state of cognitive impairment. Some of the questions sounded a bit silly which could possibly annoy the patient especially when they have a normal cognitive state (McMurray, A. 2005). This I thought could cause psychological depression to the patient since they might feel they could be so silly enough not to answer some of the questions correctly. The advantage in this examination could be that no answer is wrong; it is just a way of assessing their state of cognitive assessment. Communication was not much a problem. An issue could be misunderstanding the aim or the purpose of the examination; I did do my best I think to explain the purpose of the exam. I really did not need to rephrase most of the questions because Mrs. Pandey is of an English speaking background therefore I just needed to say it as it is. I do not think, though, that my question could help me draw a definite conclusion because people make mistake even if their cognition is normal due to anxiety and nervousness therefore it is difficult to draw an accurate conclusion (Galea, M. Woodward, M. 2005 ) (McMurray, A. 2005). In terms of the video, i was a little disappointed because i was not speaking loud enough so some of the things i said could not be heard in the video. all in all i think i did a good job in communicating with the patuent, i had a profound open posture to the patient and the patient to examiner positioning was perfect in that it gave the patient a state of superiority