NRNP 6634 Week 2 Psychiatric Interview Write-Up Example

Course	NRNP 6634 Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nursing Care of Adults and Older Adults
Week	Week 2
Paper type	Psychiatric interview write-up
Length	About 760 words, 5 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Walden University
Program	MSN Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for NRNP 6634 Week 2

Psychiatric Interview Write-Up: A 72-Year-Old Woman With Four Months of Low Mood and Memory Complaints, Recorded as She Told It

Student Name

College of Nursing, Walden University

NRNP 6634: Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nursing Care of Adults and Older Adults

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title promises the subjective record in the patient's own terms. The grade in this week sits on the boundary between report and interpretation, and the title says which side of it the document stays on.

Psychiatric Interview Write-Up: A 72-Year-Old Woman With Four Months of Low Mood and Memory Complaints, Recorded as She Told It

Identifying Data and Reason for Visit

Composite patient: woman in her early seventies, retired dental office manager, widowed 6 years, living alone in a single-story house; came to the visit with her daughter, who waited outside for the interview and joined for the last 10 minutes with the patient's permission. Referred by her primary care clinician.

Reason for visit, in her words: "My doctor thinks I'm depressed. I think I'm losing my mind like my mother did."

History of Present Illness

Her younger sister, with whom she spoke daily, died suddenly in March, 4 months ago. For the first month she was "sad but getting through it." Starting in April, she noticed she no longer enjoyed things she had done for years: the church quilting group, which she stopped attending in May, and baking for her grandchildren. Sleep changed next: she falls asleep by 22:00 but wakes at 03:00 or 04:00 and cannot return to sleep. Appetite fell; she says her clothes are looser, and she thinks she has lost "about 10 pounds." In the past month she has noticed difficulty following the plot of television programs, losing her place mid-sentence, and twice forgetting whether she had taken her evening pills. She stopped driving on the highway in June because she "couldn't concentrate." She says her mood is "empty" most of the day, worst in the morning. What she can no longer do: attend the quilting group, drive to her daughter's house 40 minutes away, and keep up with her bills, which her daughter took over in July.

What Was Tried Before, and What It Did

At 48, after a hysterectomy, she had an episode of low mood, poor sleep, and withdrawal lasting several months; her family physician prescribed an antidepressant whose name she does not recall. In her account: "It helped after about six weeks, but it made me sick to my stomach, so I stopped after nine months." She did not see a therapist. She has had no psychiatric hospitalizations and no other episodes. For the current episode she has taken no medication; her primary care clinician offered one and she declined, "because I wanted to know first if it was my memory."

Screening Blocks in Fixed Order

Mood: symptoms as above. Geriatric Depression Scale, 15-item version, self-completed in the waiting room: 11 of 15 (Yesavage et al., 1982).

Suicide and self-harm: asked directly; she reports passive thoughts that she "wouldn't mind not waking up" on some nights since March; denies active thoughts, plan, intent, or preparatory behavior; no past attempts; no firearms at home.

Anxiety: worries about her memory most days; no panic attacks.

Psychosis: denies hearing voices or seeing things others do not; denies believing others are against her.

Mania: no periods of decreased need for sleep with increased energy.

Substance use: one glass of wine most evenings since March, up from occasional use; AUDIT-C score 4 (Bush et al., 1998); no other substances; nonsmoker.

Trauma: none reported beyond the recent loss.

Cognition, by her report: forgetting recent conversations, losing her train of thought; no getting lost in familiar places; no trouble recognizing people.

What this page is doingThe screening blocks appear in a fixed order so that a blank can be seen as a blank. Each records the question asked and her answer, not the writer's impression.

Medical, Medication, Family, and Social History

Medical: hypertension; osteoarthritis of both knees; hypothyroidism for 12 years. Medications, as she takes them: levothyroxine daily; amlodipine daily; acetaminophen as needed; an over-the-counter sleep aid three or four nights a week since April, which she brought to the visit (diphenhydramine). Allergies: none known.

Family: mother diagnosed with Alzheimer disease in her late seventies; father with no known psychiatric illness; no known suicide in the family.

Social: two adult children, both nearby; four grandchildren; active in her church until May; finances managed by her daughter since July.

Gaps Recorded as Findings

The following are recorded as gaps, not as negatives. The name and dose of the antidepressant taken at 48 are unknown; her daughter will look for old pharmacy records. Collateral history of cognitive change from her daughter was brief; a fuller account, particularly whether the memory complaints began before or after the depressive symptoms, is planned for the next visit. The date of her most recent thyroid test is unknown. Her daughter's view, in the last 10 minutes: "She's been sad since Aunt Ruth died, but the forgetting is what scares me." The APA practice guideline recommends that the initial evaluation include information from collateral sources when appropriate and with the patient's permission (American Psychiatric Association, 2015); that part of this evaluation is incomplete and is recorded as such.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2015). The American Psychiatric Association practice guidelines for the psychiatric evaluation of adults (3rd ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890426760

Bush, K., Kivlahan, D. R., McDonell, M. B., Fihn, S. D., & Bradley, K. A. (1998). The AUDIT alcohol consumption questions (AUDIT-C): An effective brief screening test for problem drinking. Archives of Internal Medicine, 158(16), 1789-1795. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.158.16.1789

Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M., & Leirer, V. O. (1982). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17(1), 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3956(82)90033-4

NRNP 6634 Week 2 instructions, in plain terms

Week 2 of NRNP 6634 often asks for a psychiatric interview write-up for an adult or older adult. You document identifying data, presenting concern, history of present illness, prior treatment, screening for major symptom groups, medical, medication, family and social history, and gaps in the history. Faculty grade the line between what was reported and what was interpreted. Cite the evaluation guideline in APA 7. The mental status examination may be a separate assignment. Collateral information should be attributed to its source. Unanswered questions should be recorded rather than omitted. NRNP 6634 faculty want the patient's words quoted in the history of present illness. Screening blocks should appear in the same order every time. State who provided collateral and with what consent. List the gaps plainly.

How the NRNP 6634 Week 2 example is put together

The document reads as a chart entry rather than an essay. First comes identifying data cut down to an age band, a living situation and who came with the patient, then the reason for the visit inside quotation marks in the patient's own phrasing. The present illness runs as continuous prose carrying onset, course over time, what shifted in the last month and what the adult can no longer do. Earlier episodes appear with the treatments tried and the response as the patient described it, not as the writer would rate it. Substance use, current medicines, medical conditions, hearing and vision, and sleep are each recorded. Family psychiatric history reaches two generations where the patient knew it. A short closing block states what went unanswered and what nobody could verify. No diagnosis is named anywhere in the file.

Reading the NRNP 6634 Week 2 rubric

The whole grade sits on the boundary between report and interpretation, and that is where most of it goes missing. A write-up describing an adult as guarded, evasive or lacking insight has crossed into the observed exam and into judgment, and the criterion asking for an accurate subjective record has less to credit than the writer assumes. A present illness compressed into symptom labels loses the time course, and the time course is what the later differential runs on. Blank sections score as absent even when the interview covered them, so a line reading not asked earns more than white space. Medicine lists without the reason each was started, and family histories stopping at one relative, both cost accuracy quietly. Where the classroom applies a late penalty, a strong record still loses under it.

Common NRNP 6634 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Interview write-ups lose most of their grade when interpretation slips into the report, such as calling the patient guarded. Record what she said and did. Another common gap is skipping prior treatment and its effect, which shapes the next plan. Ask and record. Writers also run screening blocks out of order or leave some out. Use a fixed order. Avoid omitting questions she declined to answer; they are findings. Attribute the daughter's information. Keep dates and medications consistent. Close with what still needs to be asked. Writers also forget to record her goals for the visit. Ask what she hopes will change. Another frequent slip is a medication list without over-the-counter sleep aids, which matter for memory. Ask about them.

Get a NRNP 6634 Week 2 example written to your instructions

Send the Week 2 prompt with the template your classroom supplies and the rubric attached to it, and the desk writes the interview record out as a finished example under your own document headings. The first custom sample is free and returns inside 24-48 hours, matched to your section rather than lifted from this page.

More NRNP 6634 papers and PMHNP samples

NRNP 6634 Week 2 questions, answered

Does the write-up include a mental status exam?

No. The example keeps the interview and the observed exam apart, because that separation is the point of the record at this stage and because many sections place the exam in the following week. Everything in the file is reported by the patient or held already in the chart. What the writer saw across the desk belongs in the exam document, and the example marks that boundary rather than blurring it.

Whose interview is it?

Nobody's. The adult in the file is a composite built to carry a full history, with age given as a band and every locating detail left out. Interviews you conduct on placement stay in the record you keep there. The example exists to show a finished document's shape, its headings, its order and its level of detail, against which your own record can be read.

Why does the example record what the patient would not answer?

Because a refusal is information and a blank space is not. A record showing that a question was asked and declined tells the next reader something about the encounter and about how far the history can be trusted. Rubrics asking for a thorough history credit the demonstrated attempt, while an empty section reads as an interview that never reached the topic at all.

Where can I find a free NRNP 6634 Week 2 sample paper?

The 72-year-old's interview write-up is reproduced here with her history in her words, prior treatment, ordered screening blocks and the gaps recorded as findings.

Why record unanswered questions in NRNP 6634 Week 2?

Because a declined answer is information, about trust, stigma or symptoms. The example lists what she would not discuss so the next visit can return to it.