22. A nurse admits an older client who is experiencing memory loss, confused thinking, and apathy. A psychiatrist suspects depression. What is the rationale for performing a mini-mental status exam?

Answer: to rule out the neurocognitive disorder

Explanation:

The mini-mental status examination is useful to check the cognitive functioning and screen of the cognitive loss. It test the individual memory, orientation, calculation, attention, language and motor skills.

A mini-mental status exam can be conducted to rule out the neuroconginitive disorder. The neurocognitive disorder is the term that is used to define the decrease in the mental function because of the mental illness or disease. The client may suffer from reversible dementia, which can occur because of the depression. At the cognitive level the application integrated process evaluation must be done.