Patient Interview questions from MDS

[holli1210]

Hi! I am an RN and I work for an insurance agency. I visit the insurance members in the nursing homes and talk with them for a few minutes. Some of the questions we have to ask them, quarterly, are the same as the MDS interview questions. Such as, Do you know the date (month and year)? Are you feeling sad or depressed? Do you want to go home?

I have found a way to reword "Do you want to go home?", but I always feel bad asking the dementia patients if they know the date. Does anyone know of a way to reword this, or work it into normal conversation, without pointing out to them that they can't remember? I would love to get ideas from others!

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

You need to ask the questions the way they are worded. This is used to evaluate the patients and their level of mentation. If they are a dementia patient they won't know they are wrong unless you tell them. When they answer, just say thank you and move on. This approach can be used with all the questions. Document what they say and then do the next question.

Hope this helps. I do a lot of admissions and if I stopped to tell people they answered wrong a one hour admission would take three hours.

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

This sounds like a nice job. Can you tell us more about it? Maybe something I'd like to do.