Nursing Week-6 assignments
Assignment no-1
Ava is a seven-year-old girl, the second of two children of a middle-class family living in a suburban area of a northwest city. Ava has one sister that is two years older than she is. Her mother’s pregnancy was normal, with no complications and Ava’s birth was normal. Ava had colic the first three months, cried extensively and was difficult to comfort. After three months, she became passive and cried very little with comfort from her mother. Her growth and development appeared to be normal. She met all the developmental milestones her first three years. She interacted normally with her sister and parents, except that she would become tearful and anxious when her parents would get a babysitter.
At age four, she was in nursery school and appeared to function normally except during the first month when Ava had difficulty when her father would drop her off at school. The nursery school was a small private school with a lot of personal attention given to each child. Although shy, she made friends and liked going to nursery school after she became adjusted to the new setting. Her parents liked the school so much that they decided to keep Ava in kindergarten at this school with her same teachers and friends. However, tuition at the school became a problem after Ava’s mother became sick with lupus and was unable to work.
At age six, Ava’s parents enrolled her in first grade at the public elementary school in their neighborhood. For the last two weeks, she has refused to go to school and has missed six school days. She began routinely brushing her hair before bed and insisted on making sure each side was brushed with an even number of strokes. She also had her mother tuck her in bed on the right side and her father come after on the left side each night. She would become very tearful and upset if the routine was not followed. She is awake almost all night worrying about going to school and asks the same questions over and over about the environment, teachers, and other students. As the start of the school day approaches, she cries and screams that she cannot go, chews holes in her shirt, pulls her hair, digs at her face, punches the wall, throws herself on the floor, as well as experiences headaches, stomachaches, and vomiting. Over the past two weeks, she has become gloomy, has stopped reading for fun, and frequently worries about her mother's Lupus and that she may die. She asks her every night if she has dreamed about her funeral. In addition, Ava is phobic of dogs, avoids speaking and writing in public, and wets the bed every night.
Her parents immediately made an appointment to see her PCP. Her doctor conducted a thorough physical exam, found no physical abnormalities and then referred her to you, a Family PMHNP.
Family history of mental health includes the following: mother has a history of panic disorder; her father has a history of treatment with medications for ADHD as a child; and she has a cousin diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.
For your assignment, write a paper that addresses the following prompts using evidence-based references to support your answers:
1. Summarize the case.
2. What is your provisional diagnosis, as well as the possible differentials?
3. Justify your answer with DSM-5 criteria (be short, brief and to the point).
4. Is Ava too young to diagnose, or is there a basis for early identification and intervention?
5. What psychiatric scales or assessment tools might you use with this patient? With the parents? List and describe briefly.
6. What would be your treatment plan for medications, if any? If you do choose to offer medication as part of the treatment plan, please address the following medications issues:
1. Target symptoms
2. Receptors affected
3. Psychiatric and system effects
4. Possible parental concerns
7. What would be your school-based treatment plan, if any?
8. What would be the implications for the families of children and adolescents with these diagnostic pictures?
9. How does the mother’s health play into the picture of Ava’s diagnosis? What type of therapy would you recommend for Ava (and her family) to work through her issues?
10. Identify resources for patients/families with this diagnosis in the form of community groups, web-sites, advocacy, as well as treatment resources available in your service area.
11. What are you worried about (if anything)? Consider this question in terms of treatment, assessment, alliance, compliance, effectiveness, safety, and other factors.
Submit your Assignment to the unit Dropbox before midnight on the last day of the unit.
Journal/ Assignment-2
Instrument/Tool criteria:
For each assessment tool you select, you will identify an instrument and do the following:
· Identify a scholarly, peer-reviewed article that addresses the use of the instrument.
· Discuss if the instrument is appropriate for diagnosing the condition it is designed to assess or if the developers of the instrument reported that the instrument is only part of a comprehensive assessment for the disorder.
· Describe whether the instrument can be used to measure patient response to therapy/treatment.
· Discuss the psychometrics/scoring of the instrument, including reliability and validity.
· Discuss any limitations associated with the use of the instrument.
Instruments/Tools for diagnosis of (one instrument/tool for each diagnosis):
· Anxiety in children and adolescents
· OCD in children and adolescents
Use the Journal Template Assessment Tool Template to complete the journal assignment. Your information can be in bulleted format or just a couple sentences for each criterion listed. However, you must use APA citations and references at the end. You are NOT required to write this in a paper format. Turn in one document for each of this week’s topics.
ALL criteria must be present to receive credit.
You may refer to the Assessment Tools Student Example to assist you in preparing this assignment.
Submit your Assignment to the unit Dropbox before midnight on the last day of the unit.
Example
Student Example Anxiety and Related Disorders
Unit 7
Instrument: Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN)
Article: Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory
Appropriateness for Dx: This tool is meant for screening of individuals with social phobia and assignment of a severity score (Connor et al., 2000). The tool was created in congruence with DSM-4 but is consistent with the DSM-5 diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, minus some minor changes (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration [SAMHSA], 2016). Although the study is outdated, Duke University School of Medicine (2020) acknowledges that the tool is still relevant and utilized by their Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Program.
Response to Therapy/Treatment: The SPIN is appropriate for testing treatment response and through studies has proven sensitive to symptom changes over time. Changes in scores are able to determine treatment efficiency (Connor et al., 2000).
Psychometrics: The tool is self-administered and consists of 17 separate statements regarding problems a patient may exhibit if they have social phobia. The statement is then rated on how much it has bothered the individual in the last week, from ‘not at all’ (0) to ‘extremely’ (4). Any score over 21 is considered clinically significant. In the study, the assessment tool was able to effectively separate individuals with and without social phobia. Validity is strong in regard to detecting the severity of illness and is sensitive to symptom reductions during treatment. The scale shows significant correlation with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Test, The Brief Social Phobia Scale and The Fear Questionnaire social phobia subscale (Connor et al., 2000).
Limitations: Limitations exist in the tool’s alignment with DSM-4 instead of the more recent edition, although differences are very minor (SAMHSA, 2016). With a cutoff score of 19, sensitivity and specificity were good, but some individuals consider the cutoff score to be 15, in which these measures are weaker (Connor et al., 2000).
Journal Discussion Prompt from Assignment: This tool could be used when suspected social anxiety is present. It would be helpful to assess the client’s strengths and weaknesses as well as know the degree of social anxiety.
References
Connor, K., Davidson, J., Churchill, E., Sherwood, A., Foa, E., & Wisler, R. (2000).
Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory. British Journal of Psychiatry, 176, 379-386.