Role of The Mental Health Nurse Towards Physical Health

Question: Describe about Role of The Mental Health Nurse Towards Physical Health? Answer: Introduction Nursing is a great career option. This profession allows toprovide services for helping people to improve their health outcomes as well as includes services for saving peoples life. The nursing career is a satisfying, acceptable and rewarding in respect to the pleasure it brings with success (Koenig et al. 2012). Therefore, nurses should be grateful or should be proud of their role and job profile. According to their career option, nurses should draw their career path by observing and working in the diverse situation. Nursing profession can be an exciting career for success in men and women; this field offers a lot. Health care careers are booming and new technological innovations are brightening up in the health care field enhancing the career. The job has various degrees of opportunities and job security has enhanced. Through this profession with great skills nurses can make a difference in someones life, thus this profession teaches people to value life (Swanson 2012). Nursing profession provides the opportunity to learn in a continuous manner. Nursing profession makes the person more competent to work in different departments with the same efficiency; it helps to build critical thinking skills and handling the emergency with problem solving skills. People who like to work in the challenging situation, the nursing profession is a great option for them. Selecting mental health nursing as a specialty is a great option as well (Purnell, 2012). Mental health nursing deals with the care activities of the patients dealing with mental illness. It is more challenging from other departments of nursing, as each patient has different psychology, therefore, for each patient, nurses and therapists need to implement different care plans, thereby enhancing the critical thinking skills (Swanson 2012). There is a number of training programs provided during the course, for enhancing the mental health nursing skills. Helping people to restore their mental health is m ore or equally valuable and satisfying as in the case of caring patients with physical illness. Clinical examples and shaping the personal philosophy of practice Nursing can be defined as the promotion, protection, abilities and prevention of injury and illness. It includes alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response and advocacy in individual, community, population or groups care. Therefore, considering and addressing nurses own personal philosophy is important for being an efficient nurse (Happell et al., 2012). There are different aspects which shaped the personal nursing philosophy of a mental health nurse. Nursing is a career where nurses with critical thinking skills select the strategy for helping and providing efficient and appropriate care services to the patients as well as share their values and perceptions with other members of the care services. For a mental health nurse, knowledge is the first aspect shaping the nursing philosophy. Knowledge is the key aspect of the career. As a nurse, the nurse should achieve the knowledge of mental health care services and different disorders during the course study. Until a nurse is not becoming able to apply the classroom knowledge to the practical field or in work flied, the knowledge is of no use (Blythe and White 2012). Therefore, it has been revealed that application of knowledge can shape the efficiency and potentiality of the clinical practice of a mental health nurse. In the context of knowledge, the holistic nursing should be applied in each aspect of nursing with continuous anticipation of the health requirements of nursing. According to Florence Nightingale, nursing is an art and nurses should build their mind to see the beauty of art become an efficient nurse (Im and Ju Chang 2012). In this view, nurses should strive to uphold the visualization of Nightingale regarding the pr ofession and should appreciate the art of human beauty and in the case of mental health nurse; they should appreciate the beauty of human mind and its link with physical well-being. The next aspect is caring and compassion, a nurse is always likely to be enough caring and empathetic to the patients. Especially in the case of mental health nursing, one of the key aspects is to establish a positive relation with the patient for understanding the health status and personal health needs of the patient. In the field of mental health, showing empathy to the patient is the chief criteria for providing relief and analyzing the chances of patients mental health recovery. Patients in mental health care, mostly has been suffering from trauma or painful life events, so handling them with emotional care is important. Once, a positive rapport and trust are built; patients become more available to share their inner feelings (Munhall 2012). The nurses should consider the ethical considerations and basic human rights while working with patients with mental health issues. In this context, honesty and respect toward patients are two more aspects shaping the mental-health nursing career. The mental health nurses do their best to provide a healthy, safe and well-balanced environment by providing rights to the patient. Collaborative practice in the health care practice will promote the health benefits of the patients. Paying very close attention to the patients condition and the health care environment would be effective in promoting health benefits of the patients (Stuart 2014). Additionally, the nurse should be efficient enough to analyze the need for change in the health care setting as well as particular health care plan for a patient. Implementing change based on the current requirements of service users is a key nursing competency. Another major aspect is the advocacy of patients. It will be kept in mind that, confidentiality, legal protection of patients and ethical practices are the key aspects of success in the health care sector. During the care plan, the patients needs should be prioritized with the consideration of their choices regarding the health care intervention. Prioritizing patients view helps to enhance the health care outcomes. It should be analyzed based on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs model (Fawcett and Desanto-Madeya 2012). Next part is honor and respect toward patients and their family. Following the viewpoint of Florence Nightingale, the nurse would appreciate the cultural norms and beliefs of patients from diverge culture and would show equal dignity and respect through the provision of health care services. In addition, another aspect that can shape the philosophy of a mental health nurse can be the continuous knowledge building and keeping a relation with society and social care for achieving new and innovative knowledge for providing in health care services to the patients (Butts and Rich 2012). Therefore, these aspects shape the philosophy of nursing in a mental health nurse. This would help to achieve nursing competencies and to an efficient mental health nurse. Finally, self-esteem and self-confidence are very important to handle critical cases in the appropriate way that is key success factor of nursing (Morgan and Yoder 2012). Linking personal philosophy to relevant literature The personal philosophy of nurses is built on the basis of the existing nursing literature and relevant theories related to nursing practices. According to Dossey et al. ( 2012), there is a direct correlation between the personal philosophy of nursing and nursing theories. In general, nurses use certain nursing theories or models by which they are influenced and include these into their practice field, thereby including those theories in their personal philosophy related to nursing. In this context, mental health nurses focus on the theories that are built on the basis of relationship building within patients and nurses. For this reason, nursing philosophies and theories and the terms related to these two aspects are interchangeable in both theoretical and practical field of nursing. As the nursing theories help to build their personal philosophy, the personal philosophy of nurses promote them to identify the type of theories and models used by them. Both the nursing theories and phi losophy provides the nurse an approach of their daily practice and helps in deciding particular care plan for the individual patient (Townsend 2014). There are a number of theories provided by different theorists, who have considered different aspects of nursing practice. In this context, the nursing theories related to the core aspects of mental health nursing would be linked with the personal philosophy of practice. The first nursing theorist was Florence Nightingale and she identified five component of the environment and indicated the linkage between environment, person, health and nursing. According to her, nursing the ability to see and feel the art and beauty of human body. While developing own nursing philosophy, this fact has been considered at first for being able to see the art of human mind and be able to link it with the physical well-being of patient (McCrae 2012). Hildegard Peplau established the Interpersonal theory of nursing. Here the theorists defined the nurse/patient relation establishment through four stages, including orientation, identification exploitation and resolution. Here the nursing profession has been viewed as the maturing force or a personality that grows with the educational, therapeutic and interpersonal process. After assessing the needs of the patient, nurses enter into a personal relationship with the patient. This is a popular theory in mental health nursing (Ignatavicius and Workman 2015). In the personal philosophy, it has been depicted that, one of the aspect that has been shaped the nursing philosophy is the relationship establishment with the patients, as it helps to enhance trust of the patients and a supportive environment promote the patient to share their inner feelings. Therefore, it helps the nurse to identify the reason of his mental illness (Wu and Volker 2012). On the other hand, Madeleine Leininger provided the view of Transcultural Nursing in 1978. Here the theorist depicted that; the nurses should have the goal to provide care to the patients by valuing their cultural beliefs, perceptions, values and practices. According to the theorist, the health care professional should plan the care services after addressing the interpersonal values, health beliefs and life styles of different cultures, thereby providing specific care to the individual patient with specific cultural needs. In the personal philosophy of nursing, it was a key aspect that, nurses should provide specific care to individual patients through the provision of equal care practices and holistic care (Im and Ju Chang 2012). Through the provision of holistic care, nurses would be able to provide advance care with the cultural beliefs of the particular patient. Considering the cultural context of patients, the nurses will be able to create a great environment in the health care settings, thereby enhancing their health benefits. Virginia Henderson has proposed the Need theory; this theory is based on education and practice that are two crucial factors shaping the efficiency and personal philosophy of nursing. She was known as the Nightingale of Modern Nursing. The theorist highlighted that enhancement of client's independence was important for promoting the continuous healing progress after hospitalization. According to this theory, a nurse should assist the patient to perform those activities suitable for their recovery. Here the major contributing factor is the ability of the nurse to sense particular health needs of the patient (Cleary et al. 2012). The nurses own personal philosophy has been influenced by this theory. In personal philosophy, it has been highlighted that, in mental health nursing, the establishment of positive rapport and trust of the patient toward the nurse is a key step of care for mental health nurse and this the nurses would have to assess the specific needs of the patient. Critical consideration of own philosophy While working in the mental health nursing, a number of mental health patients have been handled and for handling each patient, consideration of own personal nursing philosophy is important, as according to the personal philosophy, a nurse shapes the care plan for a patient. In this context, this essay will emphasize on critical consideration of own philosophy while working with two patients. The first patient to be discussed, Mr. S, was having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The patient has the symptoms of repeating his feelings over and over, including reoccurring obsessions and compulsions in a chronic and long-lasting mental disorder. The patient was feeling repeated obsessions of fear of germs or contamination causing anxiety. As he has repetitive mental images of germs, he was over conscious about the cleaning, hygiene and hand washing. While working with this patient, the proper utilization of the personal nursing philosophy has been done (Grossman 2012). Mr. S was suffering from severe OCD and needed critical care service for restoring his mental health (Sharp 2013). The patient was a 40 years old male. At first, the medical history of Mr. S was collected for understanding the mental health status and particular needs of the patient. The history revealed that after losing his job Mr. S undergone depression and after some days diagnosed with bipolar disorder, in disease progression he was diagnosed with OCD. After attending the patient, nurse gathered knowledge from the nurse educator and psychotherapists about the disorder (Mealer et al. 2012). These kinds of patients become frequently anxious and thus establishment of a positive rapport was the first step of nursing care. The nurse attempted to create a positive relationship by listening to him with more consciousness and patience. The nurse always visited the patient with a clean image and always attempted to support his hygiene related behavior. While building relation, the nurse showed honor and respect for the patient. While building the care plan, all the aspects and needs of the patient were considered as the components of holistic care. While supporting the patients right, behavioral therapy was planned for him (Stein et al. 2011). Initially, the frequency, duration and intensity of compulsion and obsessions were recorded and targeted therapy was directed. He was advised for picturing himself touching different objects might having germs and making him understand about the resistance of his urge for washing his hands repeatedly. This therapy slowing helped in restoring his resistance to the compulsion and exposed him to the feared stimulus, thereby supporting and assisting Mr. S to build avoidance behavior, thereby reducing the physiologic fear response occurring with the exposure toward stimulus (Mealer et al. 2012). Along with the behavioral therapy, he was recommended serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antidepressants for enhanced control of anxiety. During the therapy, the nurse continuously encouraged the patient in collaborative practices while acknowledging patients anxiety and compulsions and supporting him to enhance the efficiency of completing work through the involvement of his family members in ther apy. The next patient was Mrs. X; she was a 52 years old women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. This disorder was associated with depression and anxiety after the death of his 22-years old son and husband in a car accident and she was present at the time of the accident but survived. In this condition, she was brought to the hospital (Mealer et al. 2012). After considering her situation, the nurse gathered information about his experiences from her family members. After assessing the information, it was revealed that emptiness, loss of hope and loneliness made her unsocial and pushed her to undergo depression and she started to become the insomniac, hyper-vigilance and re-experienced the trauma via nightmares and flashbacks. It was analyzed that, she need critical support and should be socialized to restore her mental health status. She needed someone to talk with. Therefore, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy was best-suited therapy for her (Katon et al. 2011). In this case, the nurse showed empathy and respect for the patient for building a positive relation with the patient. While building relation with the patient, the nurse attempted to support her emotionally and initially started to talk with her with enhanced frequency, while talking, the nurse asked about the small details of the trauma and encouraged to write about her nightmares and dreams. After undergoing the IRH therapy, nurse discussed the cognitive therapy with Mrs. X and collected her consent for planning counseling sessions with the psychotherapist, thereby prioritizing human rights of the patient (Davidson and Frances 2012). It influenced her to change her negative behavior. This led to a change implementation in the care practice by the nurse. The nurse arranged collaborative practices in the care settings; she attempted to make Mrs. X social by involving her with other patients in the care settings. It helped the patient to become socialize and to understand how to evalu ate the change in her negative thoughts. The nurse also helped her to restore her mental health through the relaxation techniques (Suhonen et al. 2012). Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that nursing is a profession that promotes the health and welfare of patients. Mental health nursing is the good choice of specialty nursing for the learners who likes the challenging jobs. In this context, it has been revealed that mental health nursing can provide a good opportunity to achieve best carrier option with the benefits of self-esteem and satisfaction. However, the job can be challenging and excellent critical thinking and problem solving skills are needed by the nurses preferring the mental health sector. This essay provided the personal philosophy and critical consideration of a nurse's own philosophy in the relevant context. The nursing philosophy can be characterized as, how one can define nursing, how people can demonstrate the characteristics essential for enhancing nursing capabilities. The own philosophy of nursing develops based on the relevant nursing theories and beliefs existing in the existing health care settings. The essay hig hlighted the aspects were shaping the nursing philosophies with clinical examples. In the next part, the personal philosophy of nursing has been linked with relevant literature by discussing nursing theories and concepts regarding the provision of appropriate care services to the mental health patients. After analyzing the own philosophy of nursing and linking it with the existing literature, the critical consideration of own nursing philosophy has been considered. After being aware of the nursing philosophy and related literature, nurses build their own philosophies and set their own personal and professional goals. Nevertheless, all of these make no sense, until the knowledge and philosophies are not considered in actual scenarios in real life. Therefore, in next step, the essay highlighted the consideration of own nursing philosophies through the analysis of two real life patient's cases and analyzed the efficiency of the nurse through his or her own nursing philosophy. Reference List Blythe, J. and White, J., 2012. 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