Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice - Assignment Example

Benners Competency Helping Role In the case of a mental patient I encountered while working in the mental health division, I played Benners helping role of providing professional care. The patient was recovering from a severe mental condition that could easily relapse if not carefully attended to. As an advanced beginner, I had acquired experience in such situations and therefore there was no cause for alarm when I realised the patient’s condition required special attention. I was determined to help the patient to develop a positive change because through experience I learnt that mental health is a significant of the general wellbeing of an individual and hence I engaged the patient to regain normality through constant support on all aspects of the day to day activities and counselling to alleviate depression that was overwhelming to the patient thereby diminishing the chances of recovery (Benner, 2000). The patient attempted to commit suicide twice while undergoing mental rehabilitation. I understood and responded to the patient’s reactions to distress that came as a result of hopelessness and anxiety. I managed to guide the patient through behavioural and emotional changes that were occurring in his mind while recognizing and promoting effective participation in the day to day activities to help him understand and live to his full potential. According to Masters (2011), a nurse needs to promote a feeling of resiliency which is critical to a mental patient’s recovery. I helped the patient to re-gain self-esteem and confidence through inspire hope and power in him, which positively influenced his behaviour after realizing that his contribution is necessary to the development of his community. I coordinated with his family that provided useful historical information on the patient’s previous engagements, which helped me to make out the impact of culture and traditions on the healing process. I was able to evaluate and explain the effect of the patient’s beliefs, principles as well as life engagements on the condition. I shared this information with the physician in charge and other colleagues and together we were able to develop care strategies that were culturally welcome thereby enhancing the recovery process. Communication skills were significant in dealing with the patient. Listening carefully to his incoherent speech helped me to make sense out of it and also understand him better. I also observed his behaviour keenly and tried to relate it to past experiences with similar patients that I had come across before, which helped me to realize the patient’s mental health needs. I was therefore able to develop and maintain a caring goal oriented environment that worked positively towards accomplishment of the therapeutic goals. I also offered encouragement to the patient’s loved ones who were significantly affected by the mental condition of one of them and also advised them on their contribution to his recovery. This included resources that directly influenced his mental condition. I understood that even if these contributions were social-economic in nature, my relationship with the patient was professional and hence I could only offer a specialist advice for them to choose whether to adopt it or not. My evaluation of the patient’s response therapeutic interventions was that the patient responded well due to the inter-personal relationship that developed between me and the patient (Benner, 2000). Management of Rapidly Changing Situations In another scenario of a bipolar disorder patient, I played Benner’s role of managing rapidly changing situations as an advanced beginner. This was an important role that involved dealing with unpredictable occurrences that could harm not only the patient but also healthcare staff. The patient experienced varied mental health states that included episodic mood changes that alternated with periods of depression. The patient turned violent while in the agitated state and would be highly charged at times, becoming aggressive and uncontrollable with emotions. As an advanced beginner, I compared this situation to previous experience and focused on various aspects that could lead to such mental condition. I conducted an assessment of the patient’s risk of drug and substance abuse, early exposure to violence and child abuse as well as possibilities of contemplating suicide or murder. Managing the patient was an expensive undertaking since he could not be accommodated together with other patients due to the violent tendencies and therefore extra resources were needed to manage the situation. These included a secluded room where the patient could receive specialized treatment in isolation. It also required extra time for the nurse and these costs were to be met by the patient’s family. I managed to explain to the family members regarding the new developments and the resources needed and they agreed to finance them. The other important activity was to continuously monitor the patient’s safety and therapeutic response. I maintained constant assessment to identify any notable variations in the patient’s mental state and always took action in circumstances of severe agitation. This was one of the crisis intervention strategies that were suitable for this particular patient. I initiated critical procedures to deal with eventualities such as violence or suicide attempts by the patient through formally requesting for a stand-by guard to ensure the patient’s safety as well as that of the nurses attending him. The guard was critical for emergency restraint of the patient when he became aggressive. I was in charge of coordinating care of the patient whereby I ensured that roles were not duplicated among the nurses who worked as a team to help the patient regain good mental health. This helped in minimizing errors and also avoiding omissions that could hamper the rehabilitation program. All these interventions were carried out within the legal framework governing the relationship between nursing professionals and patients. I ensured that the rights of the client were safeguarded even without his cognition ability. The response plan was re-evaluated whenever a new development occurred to ensure that all responses were relevant to the circumstances. I informed the family members regarding the developments and the emergency responses put in place so that they could understand and also help to prevent the condition from recurring once the patient goes back to the society. I ensured that all the critical events that required emergency response were recorded and discussed by the team members, which was necessary to motivate them to come up with new ideas with regards to therapeutic responses that could have been possible in the case. Teaching-Coaching Function As a result of working as a nurse for more than two years in comparable with mental health situations, I became competent and clearly understood the long term goals of mental rehabilitation. I acquired the ability to develop individual action plans on the basis of cognizant, intellectual and logical thinking whereby I helped to increase therapeutic efficiency and organization of the recovery process. I intervened through Benner’s teaching-coaching function in a situation where a household caring for a patient who was recovering from bipolar disorder experienced problems of victimisation of their members in the society. Their adolescent boy was experiencing hard time in school as a result of hounding by other boys who knew the mental state of his father. As a competent nurse, I was able to guide the family through problem identification with regards to situations that were beyond their control as well as those whereby they can take action to alleviate negative impacts. I conducted a bio-psychosocial evaluation through analysing signs of anxiety in the adolescent, which was necessary to understand the implication of the boy’s bullying to his mental well-being. I also developed strategies to bring down anxiety in the victim, which included reasoning developmental interventions. I understood that the family played a significant role of generating positive view of life and resiliency in the boy despite the prevailing ill-treatment by colleagues. I keenly observed the boy’s progress in managing anxiety, clearly identifying situations where it could rise or fall. I helped the boy to manage uneasiness through psycho-education and psychotherapy, which successfully helped to avoid deterioration. I also mobilized the family and the school’s authorities to discuss the problem, especially due to the fact that the school was the origin. The boy was assigned a professional counsellor in the school while the administration promised to develop strategies to accomplish a long term goal of preventing victimisation among students (Watson, 2011). I understood that knowledge is important in dealing with issues that affected the mental well-being of individuals such as the boy and therefore provided the necessary information that could help to promote mental health of the patient in the family, the boy facing victimisation in school, the school counsellor who was not an expert in this field as well as the administration. These were the important components of the mental health promotion team with various roles to play in the current situation as well as eradicate such occurrences in future. I evaluated the learning needs of the boy and developed information dissemination strategies to ensure that he acquires self-awareness and also understands ways of avoiding anxiety. He was ready to learn and I made it easy for him to put the acquired knowledge in to practice. Reference List Benner, P. (2000). From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice, Commemorative Edition, New Jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall. Masters, K. (2011). Nursing Theories, Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Watson, J. (2011). Nursing: Human Science and Human Care, Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning Read More