| Course | PA 622 Clinical Clerkship: Behavioral Health |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Psychiatric intake note |
| Length | About 590 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PA 622 Week 2
Inpatient Intake Note in the Unit's Heading Order: An Identifying Line With Age Band, Legal Status and Admission Time, a Source Line Under Every Block, a Structural Mental Status Examination and a Clear Point Where the Sample Stops
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 622: Clinical Clerkship: Behavioral Health
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Inpatient Intake Note in the Unit's Heading Order: An Identifying Line With Age Band, Legal Status and Admission Time, a Source Line Under Every Block, a Structural Mental Status Examination and a Clear Point Where the Sample Stops
Identifying Line
Adult, age 30 to 39. Legal status: emergency hold under the state's mental health statute, signed by the emergency physician at 22:15 on October 1, 2026, valid 72 hours. Admitted to the unit at 01:40 on October 2.
Reason for Admission
Brought by police after a neighbor called; reported standing on a highway overpass railing for about 20 minutes. Source: emergency department note and police transfer form.
History of Present Illness
Two weeks of poor sleep, about three hours a night; increasing alcohol use; job loss on September 18. Patient states: "I wanted it to stop. I wasn't going to jump. I just needed to think." Denies current intent. Source: patient interview, 09:00, October 2.
The patient described the job loss as "the thing that knocked everything over" and said drinking increased in the same week. Sleep began to fail at about the same time. The patient denies hearing voices, racing thoughts or periods of unusually high energy, which matters because the differential includes a first manic or mixed episode.
Psychiatric History
One prior outpatient episode of depression at age 26, treated with sertraline for about a year; no prior hospitalizations; no prior suicide attempts by patient report. Source: patient interview; no outside records yet received.
Substance Use
Alcohol: patient reports "a few beers"; sister reports "most nights" for a month (collateral, with permission). Last drink: about 18:00 on October 1. No other substances reported; urine drug screen negative. Source: patient, sister, laboratory.
Medical History and Medications
None known; no current medications. Allergies: none. Source: patient interview; emergency department record.
Mental Status Examination, 09:00
Appearance: casually dressed in hospital clothing, fair hygiene. Behavior: cooperative, limited eye contact. Speech: normal rate, low volume. Mood (patient's word): "numb." Affect: constricted, congruent. Thought process: linear. Thought content: passive wish to be dead over the past week; denies current plan or intent; no thoughts of harming others. Perception: denies hearing or seeing things others do not; none observed. Cognition: alert; knew the date, the hospital and the reason for admission. Insight: partial. Judgment: impaired by recent behavior.
Risk Summary
Elevated short-term risk based on recent behavior at a height, alcohol use, job loss and sleep loss; protective factors include a sister who is involved and no prior attempts. Observation level and safety plan in separate notes.
The risk summary deliberately does not assign a single score; it lists the factors so the next reader can weigh them as they change, especially alcohol withdrawal, which peaks in the first two to three days.
Where the Sample Stops
The details of what the patient said about the marriage and the reasons for the job loss are not in this note; they are relevant to therapy and are recorded in the psychotherapy session record kept separately by the therapist. Federal privacy rules treat such separately kept notes differently from the medical record, requiring specific authorization before most disclosures (Uses and Disclosures for Which an Authorization Is Required, 2024).
References
Uses and Disclosures for Which an Authorization Is Required, 45 C.F.R. ยง 164.508 (2024).
PA 622 Week 2 instructions, in plain terms
The second week asks for an inpatient intake note of two to three pages, in headed blocks rather than an essay. Use the heading order your unit or classroom gives you; it is not yours to choose. Open with an identifying line carrying an age band, a legal status and an admission time, with no name anywhere on the page. Put a source line under each block, so a reader knows whether a fact came from the patient, a relative, the emergency department or a test. Keep the mental status examination structural, one domain per line. Include a short risk summary. Then say where the sample stops: what is deliberately left for other records. The note should describe the condition, not argue a diagnosis at length. Cite the rule behind any material kept elsewhere.
Inside the PA 622 Week 2 example
The identifying line gives an adult aged 30 to 39 on a 72-hour emergency hold signed at 22:15 on October 1, admitted at 01:40. The reason block records police transport after 20 minutes on an overpass railing, sourced to the emergency and police records. The history block quotes the patient on wanting it to stop, sourced to the 09:00 interview. Blocks follow for psychiatric history, substance use with conflicting patient and sister accounts and a negative screen, and medical history, each with its source. The mental status examination runs domain by domain, including a mood of "numb" and a passive wish to be dead without plan. A risk summary weighs the overpass, alcohol, job loss and sleep against a supportive sister. The final block stops at therapy content, citing the federal authorization rule.
Where the points sit in the PA 622 Week 2 rubric
Intake notes lose the most when blocks have no source, so a reader cannot tell the patient's account from a relative's or a test. Next comes an identifying line that omits legal status or admission time, both of which every reader needs. Graders deduct for a mental status examination written as a paragraph of impressions. Faculty reward the given heading order, a source line under every block and a risk summary that names both risk and protective factors. Saying where the note stops, and where omitted material lives, earns credit. Accuracy and neutral language are checked throughout. Citation of the rule behind separately kept material rounds out the grade.
PA 622 Week 2 help from the desk
Intake notes most often fall short by mixing sources, so a sister's estimate of drinking reads as the patient's history. Another common problem is a mental status examination written as "patient depressed and guarded," which skips the domains. Some notes also include therapy-level detail that does not belong in a record read by many offices. If your unit uses a different format or your patient's admission was voluntary, send the format and your interview notes; we would follow your heading order, add a source line under each block, write the examination by domain, summarize risk and protective factors and mark where the note stops. The legal status line would reflect your state's terms.
Get a PA-622 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the admission script your section supplies, the note format and the rubric rows, and a finished example comes back written to them inside 24-48h, free the first time. What we cannot send is the rotation itself: the hours, the site, the people supervising you, their sign-off and the encounters in your log are yours, and no sample here stands in for any of them.
More PA 622 papers and MPAS samples
- PA 622 Week 1: Psychiatric Note Readership Post
- PA 622 Week 3: Documentation Limits Brief
- PA 622 Week 4: Release of Information Note
- PA 622 Week 5: Observation Level Note
- PA 622 Week 6: Collateral Contact Note
- PA 622 Week 7: Shared Record Memo
- PA 622 Week 8: Amended Note Comparison
- PA 620 Week 2: Obstetric Triage Note
- PA 618 Week 2: Three-Party Encounter Write-Up
- PA 616 Week 2: Pre-Rounding Data Sheet
- PA 648 Week 2: Remediation Contract
PA 622 Week 2 questions, answered
Our classroom supplies a note format. Does the example use it?
Yes, and sending it changes the result more than anything else you could send. Admission formats differ on where the risk material sits, whether the formulation is its own block and how much the identifying line carries. An example written to your format is marked against the rows you actually have, and an example written to a generic one is not.
How much of the condition should the note argue?
Almost none of it. This week marks organization, sourcing and restraint, and the reasoning about the condition itself belongs to the didactic pair that sits alongside this rotation. The example states a working picture in a line or two and then moves on, because a note that spends a page defending a diagnosis has spent it in the wrong classroom.
Is the admission taken from a real recording?
Sections work from a scripted admission, a recorded actor interview or a written scenario, and the example works from whichever one yours supplies. Where nothing is supplied, it works from a scenario written for the assignment. Nobody real appears in it, and no encounter of yours is needed to produce one.
Where can I find a free PA 622 Week 2 sample paper?
The complete PA 622 Week 2 inpatient intake note for an adult on an emergency hold, with a source line under every block, is on this page.
Where does the PA 622 Week 2 sample stop?
At the details of the marriage and job loss, which belong in the separately kept psychotherapy record rather than the shared intake note.