NUR2200 Nursing Interventions in Schizophrenia Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : NUR2200
• University : University of Southern Queensland My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Nursing

Mental Health Across the Lifespan

Nursing Report

This report is about the detailed analysis and findings from the mental state examination of Peter Goldblum. He is 38 years old man suffering from schizophrenia. He has past family history of mental health illness, his paternal grandfather has committed suicide, and his father has mental health issues or breakdown, and his sister Rebecca was also diagnosed with anxiety issues. Due to increasing verbal and physical aggressive behavior of Peter, his parents told him to take medical treatment, but he refused for that. Because of his abnormal behavior, he got separated from his relationship too. Moreover, his office male staff was also not comfortable because of Peter belief that they were pedophiles. He never got any permanent job due to this behavior. When he was referred to a local mental health service, then other people at shared accommodation complaint police about Peter. People said that they have seen Peter talking to himself with a weird voice content about different males, and doing violence with others. Finally, placed under the mental health act and following an assessment, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is condition of severe mental illness in which individual cannot differentiate between the imagination and reality (Tabangcora, 2017).

Peter started taking antipsychotic medications for treatment, but soon he left that service and come back to his home at Sydney. For next 6 years, he took no medications and refused to believe that he is mentally ill. He had been abusing prescription medications including Diazepam and Xanax and engaged into drinking socially, and take pills for sleep. He tried to convince his mother that she is in danger with Uncle Tim. Peter also started threatening Rebeca’s partner and showed aggressive behavior, because he believed that his husband is pedophile. There is voice of a secret group that made him believe that he is true. Also, in order to protect his family, he has kept a knife in a secret location in case if he has to use it. He used to take alcohol sometimes and some sleeping medications to sleep, but does not use any other drugs like cocaine (Voss, 2020).

The current circumstances of 5 days in a hospital, he has been on some medications and thereby he showed some improvement. Now he does not worry about Steve at that extent, and hearing of voices from secret group have also been reduced. But he still thinks that it is his responsibility to protect her sister. He does not have any side-effects from medications. He just needs a treatment for adjustment of sleep and he takes other medications because the doctors are telling him otherwise, he does not think that there is any need for other medications. The reason to create this report is to summarize the mental health of Peter and suggest the best possible medications for his treatment. As a nurse, it is recommended for Peter that he is recommended medications like antipsychotic drugs or psychotherapies like cognitive behavior therapy for his treatment of mental illness or schizophrenia (Pinho et al., 2017). Other than therapies and drugs, it is also important for a nurse to maintain trustworthy therapeutic relationship with Peter and observe his behavior routinely. Moreover, the nurse should encourage him to take medications, and regularly do physical and mental exercises (Cummins, 2019).

Nursing Interventions

During the interview of Peter, he displayed several things which demonstrate his mental health issues symptoms and risk factors. For these symptoms, various nursing interventions can be taken which are discussed below:

• Peter seems to be in depressive mood during interview that his family along with his sister does not believe in his thoughts. Moreover, he was also getting issues while relating his thought process and speech. Nursing interventions that may be deployed in this case include that nurse should establish trust, rapport and healthy relationship with their patients. To maintain the trust, nurse should establish short, consistent and repeated contacts with the patient. Nurse should assist the patient to learn various social skills for interaction (Allinson & Chaar, 2016).

• Peter does not take any medications for his illness, due to which he is getting more aggressive and his family does not want him to stay with them. These conditions can make Peter more depressive and aggressive, due to which he can take any impulsive decision like suicide or self-harm (Patusky, 2016). Nursing interventions includes that nurse must monitor the nutritional status of the patient. Moreover, the nurse should engage the patient in actual activities with other people, like social skills training or any workshop.

• Peter has been taking alcohol and some sleeping medications. It may be possible that later, these medications can cause delusions or hallucinations to him. Nurse should not argue with the patient who had hallucination and they should make them believe that these are not real. Medications like antipsychotic drugs or psychotherapies like cognitive behavior therapy for treatment are useful. Moreover, the nurse should also involve his family in the treatment so as to avoid any nervous condition of patient (Orlov et al., 2018).

References for Nursing Interventions in Schizophrenia

Allinson, M., and Chaar, B. (2016). How to build and maintain trust with patients. The Pharmaceutical Journal. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/cpd-and-learning/learning-article/how-to-build-and-maintain-trust-with-patients/20201862.article

Cummins, I. (2019). Contemporary mental health services. Mental Health Social Work Reimagined, 79-110. doi:10.1332/policypress/9781447335597.003.0004

Orlov, N., Garisson, J., & Allen, P. (2018). Translating Neurocognitive Models of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia into Novel Therapeutic Interventions. Hallucinations in Psychoses and Affective Disorders, 175-190. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75124-5_11

Patusky, K. L. (2016). Known Risk Factors for Prevalent Mental Illness and Nursing Interventions for Prevention. Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. doi:10.1891/9780826131294.0008

Pinho, L.G., Pereira, A., and Chaves, C. (2017). Nursing interventions in schizophrenia: The importance of therapeutic relationship. Nursing and care Open Access Journal, 3(6), 331-333. doi:10.15406/ncoaj.2017.03.00090

Tabangcora, I.D. (2017). Schizophrenia. Psychiatry Nursing. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://nurseslabs.com/schizophrenia/

Voss, R. (2020). Mental Status Examination. In: Stat Pearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): Stat Pearls Publishing; Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546682/

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