Full MSE — conduct and integrate a complete mental status examination
1 of 6 debrief stages revealed
Fictional OSCE teaching station. A deterministic station with a rubric for learning and self-assessment — it is not auto-graded, produces no score, and is not a diagnosis exam. Not a real patient.
Auditory Hallucination Thought Insertion Blunting of Affect
Candidate instructions
Type L · Full MSE · time limit 20 min
You are a trainee. In 20 minutes, conduct a full mental status examination of a 28-year-old admitted with a two-week history of odd behaviour, and integrate your findings. Cover the observable presentation, subjective experience, cognition and clinical reflection. Describe and integrate phenomenologically; do NOT state a diagnosis.
Task: Conduct a structured full MSE across domains, keep observation separate from report, differentiate look-alike phenomena, screen risk, and integrate into a phenomenological formulation — not a diagnosis.
Simulated patient role (reveal when practising with a partner)
Role (simulated patient): You have heard external third-person voices for two weeks and feel thoughts are being placed in your mind. Your emotional expression is reduced. You are alert and oriented. You have limited insight, regarding the experiences as externally real. No thoughts of harm. You engage with warmth and open questions and disengage from jargon or a rushed manner.
Fictional teaching station; conduct a risk screen and document its outcome. Escalation principles apply if risk emerges; treatment decisions are out of scope.
Attempt the station (20 min)
Run the full station, ideally aloud with a peer, then reveal the debrief.
Consider: How will you structure a full MSE so no domain is missed and description stays ahead of diagnosis?