Question:

A patient with a history of schizophrenia is admitted to the acute psychiatric care unit. He mutters to himself as the nurse attempts to take a history and yells, “I don’t want to answer any more questions! There are too many voices in this room!” Which of the following assessment questions should the nurse ask NEXT?

A “Are the voices telling you to do things?”

explanation

We need to assess for command hallucinations to determine if this patient is at increased risk for harming himself or others.