Mmm Case Study Nursing

Before a nurse practitioner assesses a client’s mental status from the client’s family’s concerns of possible mental decline, the practitioner should assess the patient’s hearing status. According to Jorgensen, Palmer, Pratt, Erickson, and Moncrieff (2016), “Confusion-life behaviors often concern family members and other caregivers; they may presume that the person has dementia and bias the diagnostic process toward dementia rather than hearing loss” (p. 312). A large portion of the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) requires the use and comprehension of auditory sensory stimuli. For those who have hearing deficits, clients may not fully understand what is being said or asked of them, which can cause a falsely low score on the MMSE; Hearing loss can negatively influence MMSE results and may not truly reflect a client’s cognitive function. Jorgensen et al. (2016) recommends testing a …show more content…
The MMSE has had the most testing performed on the MMSE’s reliability, validity, sensitivity, and specificity; therefore, most professionals prefer to use this tool. Unfortunately, the MMSE is currently copyrighted, and one must purchase the test as well as answer sheets to use this tool lawfully without repercussions of copyright infringement. There are two promising cognitive tools that still need further testing of their validity and reliability, but recent studies have shown positive results (Stewart, O’Reily, Edelstein, & Gould, 2012). The Saint Louis Mental Status Examination (SLUMS) has shown to be better for testing those with higher levels of education, and its score can be adjusted to a patient’s education level. The SLUMS also tests for logical memory. The other tool is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), which also assesses abstract thought, unlike the SLUMS and MMSE tools. The MoCA tool also has focuses on attention more than either of the other two tools. Stewart et al. (2012)