Which question should a nurse ask to assess cognition during a mental status examination?

To assess cognition during a mental status examination, the nurse should focus on questions that require the patient to demonstrate their awareness of time, circumstance, and their surroundings. Asking what the patient had for dinner last night serves this purpose well because it involves the patient's recent memory and orientation to their immediate past. This question not only checks memory recall but also assesses the ability to process and articulate information.

Other options, while they might provide information about the patient's emotional state or orientation, do not specifically target cognitive functions as directly. Asking about feelings relates more to emotional assessment, inquiring about one's name touches on identity but does not assess cognitive function in the same way, and asking where one lives tests orientation to some degree but does not engage as deeply with cognitive processing related to recent events or memory recall. Thus, the question regarding what the patient had for dinner last night is the most effective choice for evaluating cognitive ability.