P11

REFLECTION 2

Mental Health Reflection

Name of Student

Name of Institution

Date

Reflection

Throughout the practicum, I have developed vast skills and knowledge concerning assessment, diagnosis and management of psychiatric patients. Additionally, I have been able to achieve several goals and objectives that I set at the beginning of the practicum, including differentiating psychiatric illnesses that are similar and achieving the appropriate diagnosis and treatment. I have gained sufficient psychiatric screening knowledge and skills (Price & Reichert, 2017), as well as the ability to use instruments, interview my patients utilizing excellent communication skills and advanced interviewing strategies to get to know them better and understand various psychiatric screening methods through application of advanced knowledge of practice. by the completion of the practicum.

For the three most challenging patients, two of them were schizophrenic on one was a drug addict. The challenge with all of them was that they were extremely aggressively and uncooperative during assessment, making it difficult to obtain history and make a good diagnosis, as well as barring effective management. Additionally, the drug addict was against taking drugs and starting rehabilitation, which raised several ethical concerns in the facility. From this encounter, I leant that several patients who suffer from psychiatric illnesses may refuse taking drugs, and therefore, their next of kin should make the decision and if not available, the nurse is obliged to make decision, since the nurse has to play a vital role of an advocate.

I used several resources that were available at the facility, including my preceptor, other nurses and psychiatrists who were available. These provided information based on experience with psychiatric patients on how to handle them, assess, diagnose and manage them. Also, I used the internet sources, particularly articles providing psychiatric information. I’m learning new skills on how to assess aggressive patients, by developing a good relationship with them. On management of patient flow and volume, I just ensure that I have registered all new admission. Additional numbers that the facility cannot manage due to resources like beds are referred to another psychiatric facility for management, to ensure that the patient to resources ratio is kept favorable to support them. I communicate my feedback from patient assessment and diagnosis and management to my preceptor, through a comprehensive report that I write concerning the patients that I have attended to. This helped me to become an accountable professional through provision of care with the best evidence to patient and making a report about it.

I must continuously expand my psychiatric knowledge and assessment skills to improve on the weaknesses that I have identified. This can be accomplished partly by continuous reading and research, which would provide me with the best evidence for practice, while addressing my weaknesses (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners [AANP], 2020). Since interpreting a patient’s mental status reports has proved to be my weakness, I need to utilize every opportunity during clinical rotations to improve on this weakness. Moreover, I will continuously expand my knowledge by enrolling in the facility’s training program, especially in research and clinical sites assessment skills. Overall, I will engage in activities that improve my personal and professional skills to sharpen my PMHNP skills and knowledge to foster evidence-based quality and safe care (Krautter et al., 2017).

References

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. (2020). Standards of practice for nurse practitioners. American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Krautter, M., Diefenbacher, K., Schultz, J. H., Maatouk, I., Herrmann-Werner, A., Koehl- Hackert, C instructor feedback—A controlled trial. PLoS One, 12(7), e0180308.

Price, S., & Reichert, C. (2017). The importance of continuing professional development to career satisfaction and patient care: meeting the needs of novice to mid-to late-career nurses throughout their career span. Administrative Sciences, 7(2), 17.