| Course | NR 326 Mental Health Nursing |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Suicide risk assessment write-up |
| Length | About 1,120 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN (pre-licensure) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 326 Week 5
Risk Assessment Write-Up: The Question Asked at 1615 and the Hedged Answer From a 46-Year-Old Heating Technician Four Days Before Discharge
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 326: Mental Health Nursing
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Risk Assessment Write-Up: The Question Asked at 1615 and the Hedged Answer From a 46-Year-Old Heating Technician Four Days Before Discharge
Context
Mr. N. is 46, a heating and air conditioning technician, admitted voluntarily nine days ago with major depression after his wife moved out with their two children; identifying details have been changed. His discharge was being discussed for the following Monday. At 1615 on Thursday, while helping him sort a pile of paperwork about his health insurance, I asked him the safety questions I had been taught to ask. This write-up gives the questions as I said them, his answers as he said them, what I asked next because of those answers, and what I did in the ten minutes afterward. As a student, I did not decide anything about his risk level or his observation; my part was to ask plainly, listen fully and tell the right person at once.
The Question in Its Own Words
I put the question without a preamble, because a long lead-in makes "no" the easiest answer. I said: "In the past week, have you wished you were dead, or wished you could go to sleep and not wake up?" The wording follows the first screening question of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, which Posner et al. (2011) found to have good agreement with other measures of suicidal ideation and behavior across three multisite studies. I asked it in the same flat tone I had used for the insurance forms.
Before the interview I had been worried that asking would put the idea in his head. Dazzi et al. (2014) reviewed the studies that tested this directly, in adults and adolescents and in general and at-risk groups, and none found a significant increase in suicidal ideation among people asked about it. Some suggested that being asked may reduce it.
The Answer Quoted Whole
He put the pen down and said: "Not really. I mean, not like that. Some nights I think it'd be easier if I just didn't have to do Monday. But I wouldn't do anything. I've got the kids."
I recorded the whole answer because the hedges carry information. "Not really" is different from "no." "Not like that" suggested he had a version of the thought he was separating from the one I asked about. "Easier if I just didn't have to do Monday" tied the thought to discharge, which was four days away. And "I've got the kids" was offered as the reason he would not act, which made it the thing I most needed to understand.
What the Answer Produced Next
My next questions followed what he had said rather than a list. Because he said "not like that," I asked: "What is it like, when you think about not doing Monday?" He said it was mostly at night, that he pictured going back to an empty house, and that "sometimes I think about how I'd do it, but then I stop." Because he had now described thinking about a method, I asked about it directly: "Have you thought about how you might kill yourself?" He said, "I've got my deer rifles at the house. That's just where my head goes. I'm not going to."
I asked whether he had ever made an attempt or started to, and he said no. I asked whether he had any intention of acting on the thoughts, and he said, "No. Honestly no." I asked what he meant by "I've got the kids," and he said his son had a baseball tournament in two weeks and he had promised to be there, "but she might not let me go, the way things are."
History Apart From Tonight
The fixed background, from his chart and from him: no previous suicide attempts, no previous psychiatric admissions, a father who died by suicide when Mr. N. was 19, drinking that had increased to six to eight beers most nights over the two months before admission, and a recent separation. None of that can change before Monday.
What can change before Monday is different. The thoughts are present now, at night, and tied to going home. He has thought about a method, and the method is in his house. The thing he names as holding him back is contact with his children, which he has just told me is uncertain. And discharge is the event that would put him alone in that house with that method.
What Is Holding, and How Well
Three things are holding him. His children are the strongest, and the least secure, because the baseball tournament depends on a decision that is not his. His job is a second: he said his manager has held his position and called twice, and he wants to go back. The third is that he answered every question and did not seem to want to stop talking, which suggests he is not concealing. I would describe the first as strong but conditional, the second as real but not something that helps him at 2300 in an empty house, and the third as useful to the team rather than protective in itself.
Stanley and Brown (2012) describe a safety plan built with the patient that includes making the environment safer, which for Mr. N. would mean the rifles. That is a plan for the treatment team to build with him, not for me to propose on my own at 1615, but it is the reason the rifles had to be in my report.
Who Was Told, and When
At 1622 I told Mr. N. that what he had shared was important and that I needed to pass it to his nurse, and that I would be back. At 1624 I found his assigned nurse and my instructor together at the nurses' station and told them: "Mr. N. just told me he has thoughts at night that it would be easier not to face Monday, he's thought about using his deer rifles, which are at home, and he denies intent. His reason not to act is his kids, and he's not sure he'll get to see them." His nurse went to speak with him at 1630 and informed the psychiatrist. The discharge was deferred pending review, and the social worker was asked to meet with him about the firearms and the custody arrangement. I documented my part in the student note at 1650, quoting his words, and did not add a risk rating of my own.
References
Dazzi, T., Gribble, R., Wessely, S., & Fear, N. T. (2014). Does asking about suicide and related behaviours induce suicidal ideation? What is the evidence? Psychological Medicine, 44(16), 3361-3363. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714001299
Posner, K., Brown, G. K., Stanley, B., Brent, D. A., Yershova, K. V., Oquendo, M. A., Currier, G. W., Melvin, G. A., Greenhill, L., Shen, S., & Mann, J. J. (2011). The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial validity and internal consistency findings from three multisite studies with adolescents and adults. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168(12), 1266-1277. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111704
Stanley, B., & Brown, G. K. (2012). Safety planning intervention: A brief intervention to mitigate suicide risk. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19(2), 256-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2011.01.001
Reading the NR 326 Week 5 instructions
The risk assessment write-up asks you to describe how you assessed a patient for suicide risk and what you did with what you found. The grading criteria usually name the clinical context, the exact questions asked, the patient's responses, risk and protective factors, your nursing actions including communication with the team and supporting evidence, in APA. Write down the question as you actually put it, with no softening preamble. Quote the patient's answer whole, because hedges carry meaning. Let each follow-up question come from what was just said. Separate the history that cannot change from the factors that can. End with who you told, when and in what words, and leave the treatment decisions to the team.
How this NR 326 Week 5 example is built
The context section places Mr. N. nine days into a voluntary admission, with discharge under discussion for Monday. The question appears in full, worded after the Columbia scale's first screening item. A paragraph admits the student's worry about asking and answers it with Dazzi and colleagues. His reply, beginning "Not really. I mean, not like that," is quoted whole and each phrase is read for what it signals. Follow-up questions bring out the night thoughts, the rifles at home and how much rests on his children. The history section lists his father's suicide and increased drinking. Stanley and Brown's safety planning model frames the rifles as the team's task. The final section records telling his nurse and instructor at 1624.
NR 326 Week 5 rubric: what full points look like
Risk assessment rubrics in this course usually give points for context, a clearly documented assessment, accurate identification of risk and protective factors, appropriate nursing actions and communication, use of evidence and APA. The assessment row is earned by quoting the actual question and the full answer, which shows the asking took place. Risk and protective factors score when they are sorted into fixed history and what can change before discharge, as this paper does. Nursing action is credited for prompt reporting with times and words, and for keeping the safety plan with the treatment team. Evidence counts when Posner, Dazzi and Stanley each support a specific step. Clear headings and correct references finish the paper.
NR 326 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost points
The most expensive mistake on this paper is leaving the question out entirely and writing that safety was addressed, which gives the grader no proof that anyone asked. Next is the paper that describes worry in detail and never says who was told or when. Students also summarize the patient's answer as "denied suicidal ideation" when the real answer was hedged, or recommend medications and passes, which belongs to the team. Lists of risk factors copied from a textbook earn little unless they are tied to this patient. Change identifying details and keep quotations accurate. If you were present for a risk assessment and want to see how an NR 326 write-up would present it, send us your notes and the times.
Get a NR 326 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 5 instructions and whichever form or case your section supplies, and a custom example is written into that form and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. A real assessment you took part in, and everything that followed from it, stays between you, your instructor and the nurse you handed it to.
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NR 326 Week 5 questions, answered
Am I supposed to reach a conclusion about risk?
You describe and you escalate. A pre-licensure write-up is marked on whether the question was asked directly, whether the answer was recorded accurately, and whether the information reached a registered nurse quickly. Judgments about level of care sit with the team. Rubrics tend to penalize a student document announcing a disposition far more heavily than one that reports plainly and hands over.
Does asking about suicide put the idea in somebody's head?
No, and where your section requires citations this is the claim most worth supporting, since the belief is common and the literature speaks to it directly. The practical half is wording. A question asked plainly gets a truer answer than one wrapped in apology, and the write-up demonstrates that by putting the sentence on the page instead of describing it.
What if a patient told me something during an ordinary conversation?
Then it goes to a registered nurse before it goes into any document, and the record notes the time you passed it on. Nothing about a safety concern waits for the end of a shift or for an assignment deadline. In the write-up itself, take out names and identifying detail and keep the location general, which costs the document nothing it needed.
Where can I find a free NR 326 Week 5 sample paper?
This page has the complete Week 5 risk assessment write-up for Mr. N., including the exact question, his hedged answer, the follow-up questions, the reporting times and three references.
How does the NR 326 Week 5 paper handle the rifles in the patient's home?
It records them as a means the patient has already thought about and passes the information on, while leaving the safety plan, including the rifles, for the treatment team to build with him.