psychiatric nursing assignment help

psychiatric nursing assignment help

Importance of Psychiatric Nursing

1. Introduction to Psychiatric Nursing

Psychiatric nursing, also known as mental health nursing, is the specialty of nursing that cares for people of all ages with mental illness or mental distress, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, depression, or dementia. I believe that the cure of such people comes from the love and care one feels for them. A psychiatric nurse has to learn and understand mental illness and its signs and symptoms first. The main target of psychiatric nurses is to help the patients and enable them to lead a normal life and to become accustomed by maximizing their potential. Most psychiatric nurses are well skilled in psychological therapies, and in particular in supportive and empathetic communication. I think that we, as nurses, should encourage and promote independence for clients in all things. Assist clients in their activities of daily living and help them to perform each and every activity until the time when they will get strong enough to do these things by themselves. Nowadays, in this fast life, everyone is busy in their own life, but psychiatric nurses have to bear the most difficult and busy life more than any other practice. A psychiatric nurse has to be healthy both physically and mentally and strong enough to cope and work fast. Always have an eye on the patients and observe them continuously. Always develop and encourage mobilization of the patients. This means helping the patients to move and become active. I believe that nurses should be geared towards functional independence. Provide safe and effective administration and monitoring of medication as prescribed. This is also one of the most important things that a psychiatric nurse should have to do. Patients are to be closely supervised and continuously monitored by the nurses in psychiatric treatment, in case of emergency. Make every effort to serve as an effective and involved advocate by protecting patients from unprofessional, psychologically or physically abusive procedures and grounds. Nowadays, in this so-called selfish and busy life, everyone is becoming busier and selfish and so emotional and aggressive towards others. Try to provide a homely and pleasant environment for the patients. Try to include relaxation, diversion, and skill of living activities which encourage growth and healing for the patients. I believe that this would be the most effective and main role of the psychiatric nurse. Create an effective and efficient communication among the healthcare providers because the nurses not only have to communicate the suggestions on the treatment of the patients but nurses also get the advice, hints, and ways of suggestions for the better well-being of the patients. There are also various areas of opportunities as a psychiatric nurse. It could be possible that the nurse would select a special population to work with such as children, adolescents, or the elderly. Also, a nurse could select to work in a government agency, a community setting, a hospital, or in a doctor’s private practice.

2. Roles and Responsibilities of Psychiatric Nurses

One of the main roles of psychiatric nurses is that they need to be a good listener. Good and effective communication can only be achieved if full attention is given to the speaker. Some patients may find it difficult to communicate. Listening to what the patient says by verbal and non-verbal communication, such as observing the patient’s body language and facial expression, will give a greater understanding of what they are trying to express. Sometimes, the patients may not be able to speak due to the severity of their mental illness. This requires nurses to develop a great deal of patience and empathy for the patient. An efficient way to communicate with these patients is through the usage of non-verbal communication, such as body language and silences. Nurses will need to use those skills to ‘hear’ what the patient may be unable to express in words. Listening to the patients requires nurses to focus and concentrate on what is being said. This can be hard when the working environment may be busy and noisy. It is important that nurses find the time to talk in a quiet environment where the individual feels safe and it is free from interruption. The completion of a therapeutic relationship will become more challenging when there are a variety of factors that hinder effective communication. However, building and maintaining a therapeutic relationship is important because it will prevent patients’ feelings of isolation and helplessness, and it will contribute to the personalized planning and delivery of treatments to improve patients’ wellbeing. In the modern organization of healthcare, interdisciplinary and collaborative working has increased. The establishment of a strong therapeutic relationship among the patients and the nurse will also allow the development of interdisciplinary shared mental health knowledge and a better understanding of the complexity of mental well-being as a whole team. This will not only benefit the patients in their healing process but also provide the foundation of future services developments and mental health training.

3. Effective Communication in Psychiatric Nursing

Psychiatric nurses need to establish good rapport with their patients in order to collaborate in the care. Good communication forms the psychiatric nurse-client relationship. Communication involves the exchange of messages and the transfer of information from one person to another. The role of communication in general and in building a therapeutic relationship in psychiatric nursing is important. There are several types of communication that will be discussed, including verbal, non-verbal, and para-verbal communication. Nowadays, nursing professionals establish certain professional relationships with the clients in their daily practices. When psychiatric nurses are focusing on establishing such professional interpersonal relationships, it is important to encourage positive as well as engaging dialogue. This will lead to both parties accepting each other’s knowledge and implementing best practices in the process of care. The success in establishing a psychiatric nurse-client relationship is when the psychiatric nurse approaches them as a series of purposeful meets, each satisfying a defined goal. In order for the provision of effective nursing care, familiarity and continuity to be achieved, mental health nurses should understand their clients as far as their personal, social, and biographical environments are concerned. In any relationship, both the nurse and the client continually affect one another with their togetherness, although it is a hidden process, over time it develops from the way the nurse talks and behaves. The manner in which the client responds and the feelings experienced by both sides. Such kind of interpersonal relationship in psychiatric nursing is known as a therapeutic relationship. A therapeutic relationship is defined as a relationship which develops between the nurse and the patient and is centered solely on patients’ needs for care, guidance, and support. This relationship is different from a social relationship, as the main focus is on the patient’s needs for care. The therapeutic relationship is not a one-time encounter, but a process which has to be developed by mental health nurses in an effort to attain a full and complex position. And it must be continued for a regular and consistent period until the mental and behavior changes into a health status. Mental health nurses should know the legal aspects of psychiatric nursing in order to give care with the static facility and to obtain the correct medications. The client may resist taking the medicine. The nursing professionals might look for orders to have the medications either in a liquid form or in regular doses, so that side effects can be minimized. If the client physically becomes at war with the nurse over the medicine, there might be a chance of risk to both parties. Such action may end the nurse’s career and might cause serious legal actions on the client’s side. As mental health regulation is maintaining high standards for public safety, mental health nurses should know the legal meaning of incapacity. The knowledge of legal aspects of psychiatric nursing is important to give the right and good care to the clients.

4. Mental Health Assessment and Diagnosis

Given the amount and different styles of assessment technique and the need to choose the one best suited to the diagnosis of the patient’s problems, mental health nurses should be rigorously trained to best use and analyze information and to stay current with technological and professional advances. This is illustrated through the need for continued professional development through appraising relevant research, to be able to critically evaluate the quality of data garnered through different assessment methods. Professional development allows the nurse to not only better themselves in their role but also increase the quality and standard of evidence-based practice that we see in mental health care.

By identifying and treating an issue in its early stages, a patient’s likelihood of response to treatment greatly increases. This is where psychiatric nursing can have a huge effect. Whether it be through aiding in the actual diagnosis of a condition through a detailed and methodologically appropriate assessment or by using a nursing diagnosis to help tailor the most effective care and support plan, psychiatric nurses truly help those with mental health issues to find and stay on a path to a successful life.

By assessing the patient in these ways, the nurse can begin to identify the specific nursing diagnosis and individualized care that will be most beneficial to the patient. This diagnosis process is also coupled with a process of diagnostic reasoning, where as well as deducing the most likely diagnosis, the nurse also considers if there are any different diagnoses that may be indicated by different or co-morbid symptoms. This patient-centered approach incorporates the views and treatment expectations of the patient and promotes a more unbiased professional approach to the patient’s problems. The inclusion of patient responses and a broader range of potential diagnoses helps to increase the reliability of the final diagnosis, also.

Biological assessments involve looking at neurobiological changes in the brain, which may cause abnormal behavior and mental health problems. An example of a biological assessment would be obtaining blood work to rule out any physical conditions. On the other hand, psychological assessments with questions and responses built around the person’s thoughts, feelings, and current cognitive functioning help to focus and drive the diagnosis. Social assessments involve the understanding of the patient’s current lifestyle and the stresses that may affect them, giving good insight into possible patterns of behavior.

In a world of increasing mental health problems, there is a great need for healthcare providers who specialize in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric nurses hold a unique role in the field of mental health as they not only diagnose and manage health conditions but also help patients to live successful lives. Diagnosing mental health problems can be challenging, especially because of the many different symptoms that can occur in individuals. To aid in this process, a number of specialized assessment tools, both for the patient and the nurse, are used. These include biological, psychological, and social assessments; psychiatric evaluation, and psychological testing.

5. Therapeutic Interventions in Psychiatric Nursing

The role of nursing in imparting high quality medical care in a large range of settings is undisputed and important. In particular, psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is a multifaceted and specialized specialty within the discipline of nursing which focuses mainly on the care of people of all ages with mental illness or distress. Since the delivery of care in psychiatric nursing has been based on the medical model which emphasizes the organic nature of mental illness and the use of clinical curative interventions, there is an imminent need for a holistic, non-pharmacological intervention. The significance of a structured, step-by-step approach in psychiatric nursing is mirrored in this principle of an ‘interventions pathway’. Vatican et al. (2014) emphasize the significance of evidence-based practice which underpins all psychiatric nursing interventions. In the primary part of Evidence-Based Mental Health, intensive treatments are compared and contrasted. Therefore, psychiatric nursing regards the use of a wide range of psychosocial interventions and the full discussion and description of each one would be beyond the scope of this essay. It is just incredibly good to observe that the use of pharmacological treatment in physical healthcare settings is being consistently delivered by using trained nursing staff who are following nurse-led protocols which mirror the medical model. However, the modern-day transfer of psychiatric provision from a hundred years of institutionally based, medically-led interventions to community-based, person-centered care which is directed closer to healing environments and undertaking healing relationships puts nursing in an ideal position to make adjustments in a departure from latest practices. This is due to the fact nursing enjoys large centrality to healing and, as a result, psychiatric nursing has largely clung to a conventional, medically-led and directed range of clinical curative interventions such as pharmacotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and neuroleptic surgical techniques. However, psychiatry itself is starting to shift and a revised model of recovery, both medically and socially, is being adopted. Patient-centered care through direct consciousness to their values, options, and control. This approach is known as trauma-informed care and it is a way to furnish care by means of not re-traumatizing patients. In managerial work of investment, it has been proven that customers with many years of hectic psychiatric troubles and excessive levels of trauma symptoms can exhibit significant treatment gains once they embark on therapy oriented to the recovery of control and empowerment. All in all, unlike nearly all other areas of nursing care, psychiatric nursing interventions target a type of care that is significantly recognized as strictly patient-centered and evidence-based. Also, nursing is starting to be a profession driven by utilizing evidence, research, fantastic development, creating understanding, and adding to the foundation of care. With the NHS re-focusing in the direction of fundamental health care by investing more in multi-disciplinary primary care teams, nursing in general, and psychiatric nursing in particular, is turning into central to the success of modernizing the specialization to provide mental health care in the community.