The nurse is interviewing a patient whose wife reports, "He's really forgetting things more these days." To provide the best assessment of this complaint, what should the nurse do first?

Question

1. Ask the wife to give examples of the patient's forgetfulness.
2. Have the patient take the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE).
3. Use the mnemonic OLD CARTS to obtain assessment data.
4. Ask the patient if he too feels he's "forgetful."

Answer 1

3
Rationale 1: Asking the wife for examples of the patient's alleged forgetfulness is not the best assessment method available.
Rationale 2: The nurse may administer the MMSE, but this is not the first action.
Rationale 3: To obtain as full a description of the reported forgetfulness as possible, the nurse should use the mnemonic OLD CARTS (Onset, Location, and Duration of symptoms, Characteristics, Aggravating/associated factors, Relieving factors, Temporal factors, and Severity of symptoms) to ensure that all necessary information is obtained.
Rationale 4: Patient report will not provide as much information as needed for this assessment.