There is an increasing need for home care nursing follow-up for patients with psychiatric diagnoses. Ongoing assessment is the basis on which the nurse plans interventions. This article presents concise, comprehensive information necessary to perform a psychiatric nursing assessment. The discussion divides the assessment into sections: the macrolevel assessment, which includes the community, home, and family responses; and the microlevel assessment, which includes the patient's level of function, the psychosocial stressors, and the caregiver's stressors.
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