NRNP-6635 Module 1: Foundations of Psychopathology and Diagnostic Reasoning
July 5, 2025NRNP 6635 Week 4 Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, and OCD
July 5, 2025Week 2: Discussion:The Psychiatric Evaluation and Evidence-Based Rating Scales
Assessment tools have two primary purposes: 1) to measure illness and diagnose clients, and 2) to measure a client’s response to treatment. Often, you will find that multiple assessment tools are designed to measure the same condition or response. Not all tools, however, are appropriate for use in all clinical situations. You must consider the strengths and weaknesses of each tool to select the appropriate assessment tool for your client. For this Discussion, as you examine the assessment tool assigned to you by the Course Instructor, consider its use in psychotherapy.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To Prepare:
- Review this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on the insights they provide regarding psychiatric assessment and diagnosis.
- Consider the elements of the psychiatric interview, history, and examination.
- Consider the assessment tool assigned to you by the Course Instructor.
By Day 3 of Week 2
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.
Upload a copy of your discussion writing to the draft Turnitin for plagiarism check. Your faculty holds the academic freedom to not accept your work and grade at a zero if your work is not uploaded as a draft submission to Turnitin as instructed.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6 of Week 2
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on 2 different days by comparing your assessment tool to theirs.
Note: For this Discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by clicking on the “Post to Discussion Question” link, and then select “Create Thread” to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click on Submit, you cannot delete or edit your own posts, and you cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clicking on Submit!
Learning Resources/ Required Readings
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Section I: DSM-5 basics. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.5555/appi.books.9780890425787.Section_1
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Classification. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev., pp. xiii-xl). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.5555/appi.books.9780890425787.Section_1
Review
- · Carlat, D. J. (2024). The psychiatric interview (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- Chapter 35, Writing Up the Results of the Interview
- Boland, R. & Verduin, M. L. & Ruiz, P. (2022). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (12th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- Chapter 1, “Examination and Diagnosis of the Psychiatric Patient”
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1995). Practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents. https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/practice_parameters/psychiatric_assessment_practice_parameter.pdf
- American Psychiatric Association. (2016). Practice guidelines for the psychiatric evaluation of adults (3rd ed.). https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.books.9780890426760
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Classification in psychiatry. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry (4th ed., pp. 1–8). Wolters Kluwer.
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Psychiatric interview, history, and mental status examination. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry (4th ed., pp. 39–52). Wolters Kluwer.
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Medical assessment and laboratory testing in psychiatry. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry. (4th ed., pp. 16–21). Wolters Kluwer.
