Care Plan for Dual Diagnosis to Mental Health Patients - Essay Example

? Care Plan for Dual Diagnosis to Mental Health Patients By (Module and number) Care Plan for Dual Diagnosis to Mental Health Patients Taking care of the health is very important as it serves as the foundation of the wellness of a person. He is able to perform and function well when his health is in good condition. Ideally, it is easy to keep the self healthy, but in the fast-changing world where demands are high and complex systems arise, each person has experienced being trapped in confusion at one part of his life. It gives pressure to the life and health of the individual that leads to stress. Stress then causes imbalance in the body and weakens it eventually leaving him vulnerable to diseases. In response to the diseases and negative health conditions, healthcare is provided by the medical professionals like doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and hospital staffs (Buchhols and Henke 2008, p. 364). They ensure that the health condition of the patient is treated and monitored. Probably various tests are required to identify the infection or imbalances in the body so the doctors can prescribe medicines and administer some treatments to the patient. Doctors are then assisted by nurses especially in carrying out some tasks like blood pressure check, injection, breathing of patient and many more (Zaman, 2005, p. 143). In making the rendered healthcare services easier, care plans are created for the healthcare professionals like nurses. It allows an organized and easy-to-follow procedure for a faster and more effective healthcare assistance given by nurses to their patients (Kongstvedt 2007, p. 19). Care plan is then part of the so-called nursing process. Nursing process is known to be the foundation of the nursing practice as it is the systematic way of making personalized care that considers the individual needs of the patients (Sam 2007, p. 1). It compensates for the downside of healthcare standards as standards only consider the general characteristics of diseases and the conditions of patients. With the nursing process, care for the patients is faster and organized as solutions to the health problems are administered. The nursing process then started in the 1950s as Lydia Hall coined the term as she related it to the standard procedure in providing health assistance by nurses (Bomar 2004, p. 257). The process then serves as the foundation to cater the specific health needs through efficient ways of deciding, solving and administering the care. The process then starts when a patient seeks the care of the nurse until the patient receives the desired care and result (Sam 2007, p. 1). NANDA or the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association determines the communication needs of the nurses among them (Herdman 2008, p. 228). The same group also clarifies the difference between the medical diagnosis and nursing diagnosis. The former focuses on the changes in disease while the later centers on the patient. Since the nursing process provides the foundation for the healthcare rendered by nurses, it contains six main stages summarized as ADOPIE which means Assess, Diagnose, Outcome, Plan, Implement, and Evaluate (Ralph and Taylor 2005, p. 2). Assess or assessment is the primary stage wherein the nurse check the patient holistically as the overall condition of the patient must be identified (Timby 2008, p. 17). A way of assessing the patient is done using a nursing model. The value of the first stage is to know the health problems or diseases of the patient which may be an existing or a probable occurrence of a disease (Hatfield 2007, p. 18). It is then done to create a startup for the other stages in the nursing process to occur. Standardized and widely-recognized tools for assessment must be used to properly identify the specific needs of the patient. The data is then collected using the health background and history, interview and physical check-up (Ralph and Taylor 2005, p. 2). The second stage is the diagnostic stage wherein the data gathered from assessment are subjected to analysis and interpretation. Nurses connect the symptoms they have seen from the assessment and identify those to certain medical conditions. Afterwards, multiple diagnoses are done to ensure the accuracy (Hatfield 2007, p. 18). The third stage is the outcome identification wherein the nurse identifies the exact conditions of the patient (White 2005, p. 128). The fourth stage is the planning stage wherein the nurse tries to look for practical solutions to the condition of the client. Procedures are then formulated to make practical applications later on. Once several conditions are found out, the nurse chooses the most severe and creates plans for it immediately. In making those plans, specific goals are set to ensure the accuracy of solving those problems (Timby 2008, p. 18). For each goal set, various procedures are put underneath to reach the desired outcome. The product of the stage is called a care plan which commonly uses the Nursing Outcomes Classification that serves as the standard for measurements and technical terms involve in the making of the plan. The fifth stage puts the plan into practice to meet the desired results. That stage involves the division of interventions into time and personnel to assist the patient (White 2005, p. 128). The last stage involves the checking of the effectiveness of the first five stages of the nursing process. The evaluation then leads to change of plans whenever the results are lower than expected. Once the outcomes are exactly or more than the projected results, the healthcare assistance may stop (Timby 2008, p. 18). Once new problems arise and identified at the last stage, the whole nursing process must begin again. For the paper presented, the focus is on the planning stage of the nursing patients and the product of that phase which is a nursing care plan. The plan is then applied specifically for dual diagnosis of mental health patients. Care plans are created for the benefit of the patients. Standards are then set in making the plan as to ensure the top caliber care rendered for certain medical conditions (Ralph and Taylor 2005, p. 16). The plans are then present to provide the nurses with efficient ways to get back the general practices that can be done to assist the patients. The so-called diagnostic cluster or the group of identified health problems are brought to light by the care standards (Kluwer 2007, p. 66). Systems are then put into place in planning to ensure the organized methods of making lists of the client conditions, the problems to solve and the steps to be administered. Care planning then has its own upsides and downsides that are known to assist the nurses in adjusting the method and improve it. The planning allows nurses to save time by removing the repetitive writing of the activities done in assisting the patients (Moyet, 2008, p. 47). With that, they are able to perform their tasks smoothly. Planning also helps in orienting the new staffs about the healthcare practice. The nurses and staffs are also well-instructed as indicated by the plans produced. Criteria are also set for developing the program further and create more desirable health assistance. The plan also helps the nurse to focus on the care rendered to the patient and record the findings and improvements in the patient condition. The downsides are then fewer than the upsides of the care planning that provide room for improvement despite of the big help that practice provides. Standardization then in planning may overlook at the patient and forgets about the unique needs of the individual (Heath 1995, p. 53). Planning may also delve the nurses into the predictable conditions without checking on the additional risks and harms that may come out (Moyet, 2008, p. 48). Those downsides occur in some clinics where nurses tend to remove the standards since the nurses write the printed contents of the standards instead of the ones they actually do. Some nurses then think of the standards as very unprofessional as it does not cater the individual needs of the patients, but they must recognize the standards to be scientific (Schultz and Videbeck 2008, p. 24). Whenever new circumstances arise, the standards must be changed, but the misuse must be changed. Charts and notes are then used to implement the documentation depending on the kind of data (Moyet, 2008, p. 48). Now that the advantages and disadvantages have been tackled, the levels of care in nurse care planning will be viewed in detail. The standards set forth by the system of planning show the responsibilities that the nurses must possess. The standards are impossible to cater all the problems of the patients as there are specific needs and conditions that the nurses must be able to identify with the guidance only of the plans (Heath 1995, p. 10). The standards must be realistic to avoid any problems in the given care and assistance by the nurses to their patients. Also the nurses must focus on every detail of the needs of their patients with the help of the three levels of the system of care planning. Those are numbered as level one to level three and each level has different set of standards. For level one, the usual and easy care is given to patients (Swearingen 2007, p. 93). For level two, diagnostic standards are in place while for level three, it contains the additional plans once the first two levels are not enough for the patients (Moyet, 2008, p. 48). Level one is a generalized stage where the standards made are applicable to almost everybody. At the first stage, the patients are not experiencing highly threatening conditions. Flow charts are then used by nurses whenever any deviation from the standards is observed (Schultz and Videbeck 2008, p. 24). Also a problem list can be made by nurses to check out the diagnoses and problems in an easy-to-understand format. The next level contains the supplementary standards to the generalized ones of the level one. Level two then contains high risk profiles and diagnostic cluster (Moyet, 2008, p. 49). The last level contains the additional care plans needed for intervention that the first two levels do not provide. Level three is the most specific among the three as it shows the individual needs of the patients. It contains the extra diagnoses to complete the needs of the clients (Wilkinson 2001, p. 439). Care plan can then be used to treat mental patients with dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis originally means a person who suffers from both mental health problems and disability Schultz and Videbeck 2008, p. 146). It has been changed in the recent years to pertain to mental health problems resulting to too much indulgence on substances like cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. The likes of it can be tricky as majority of the patients suffering from it shows many problems with complicated combinations and conditions. The concept is a common term for medical professionals, but it is not created formally. Also the challenge posed by dual diagnosis is the broad spectrum of mental conditions and substance abuse (Norman and Ryrie 2004, p. 514). The vast limit of the dual diagnosis makes it hard for the healthcare professionals to provide the exact and sufficient needs of their clients. In response to that, awareness upon the needs of the patients with dual diagnosis must be addressed properly. Happenings in the locality must be considered as it may have some effects over the psyche of the patients as they indulge with various substances (Carra and Clerici 2003, p. 44). It must be considered that majority of the people suffering from dual diagnosis require generic nursing intervention and not a specialist help. Through trainings, skills enhancement of the medical staffs can be achieved as written in the foundation of the care plan for dual diagnosis (Cooper 2010, p. 57). To ensure the success of providing the adequate help, mainstream model may be used together with the collaborative model to provide the top services to the mental health patients (Solomon et.al. 1993, p. 261). With the hand-in-hand connections and workings of the health care staffs in the locality, they will be able to provide the health assistance on-time. The help for those patients can be improved by conducting trainings on assisting the patients, ample awareness through education, consider the harm reduction model, conduct further training programs, make the standards, and audit the everything especially the outcome (Tyrer and Silk 2008, p. 126). To summarize the required contents of the care plan for dual diagnosis patients, it must contain the specific needs of the mental health patient and give adequate instructions on interventions. It must also assign the tasks to certain healthcare providers or specific nurses. Each nurse must then be aware and informed of their roles in the plan. Afterwards, goals must be set for the nurses and the patients to work on toward that kind of results. Lastly, procedure and steps must be included to ensure the success of the outcome. 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