Illnesses and Injuries Impact on the Human Mind

How Illnesses and Injuries Impact the Mind
In what ways does mental health need to be considered across the illness/injury continuum?
Mental health necessities should be considered across the illness range by pinpointing a uniform form of managing depressive symptoms amongst the patients within an in-patient healthcare setting. Spilman et al. (2015) conducted a retrospective study investigating the use of in-hospital antidepressant medication (ADM) amongst adult trauma patients with an intensive care unit stay of a period of five days or more. 25 percent of the patients involved in the study received an antidepressant medication, with solely 33 percent of this figure having a recorded history of depression. In addition, out of all of the patients that received their initial antidepressant medication from a trauma or critical care physician, solely 5 percent of them were discharged with a recorded plan for psychiatric follow-up. Taking this into consideration, the study ascertained a need for standardized identification and management of depressive symptoms amongst trauma patients within the health care setting for in-patients (Spilman et al., 2015).
How can nurses help both patients and caregivers work through mental blocks and depression associated with an illness or injury?
Mental blocks and depression are deemed to be the most recurrent mental disorder amongst the older population. The rate of this disorder amongst nursing home patients is deemed to be three-fold or four times greater as compared to older individuals residing in the community. Taking this into consideration, it is imperative for nurses to determine ways of helping both patients and caregivers to work through such mental disorders. Nurse–patient interaction is an pivotal aspect of quality of care, seen by long-standing nursing home patients. Simplifying nurses’ communicating and interactive skills and capability may hinder and diminish depression and anxiety amongst cognitively intact nursing home patients (Haugan, Innstrand, and Moksnes, 2013). What is more, in accordance to Haugan et al. (2013), enabling nurse–patient collaboration to offer patients’ sense of worthiness, sense in life, self-acceptance and alteration to the life state of affairs and one’s incapacities would endorse honesty and welfare and preclude despair and depression. Therefore, in this regard, the solution is hand nurses addition time to interact with their patients.
Although treatment will take place in a medical facility, how can non-medical treatments used as a supplement?
Despite the fact that treatment will take place in a medical facility, non-medical treatments can also be utilized as a supplement. In accordance to Buijck et al. (2014), for numerous domains, high quality of life of geriatric patients was linked with high functional independence and self-determination, minimal neuropsychiatric symptoms, and less depressive complaints. In addition, informal care giver encumbrance is not linked with the quality of life of the patients. The study indicates that the manifestation of neuropsychiatric symptoms have a negative impact on the quality of life of patients. These symptoms also have an impact on the burden of the caregiver. Taking this into consideration, health care professionals in skilled nursing facilities can lay a fundamental role in the provision of the essential psychosocial support and aftercare (Buijck et al., 2014).
References
Buijck, B. I., Zuidema, S. U., Spruit-van Eijk, M., Bor, H., Gerritsen, D. L., & Koopmans, R. T. (2014). Determinants of geriatric patients’ quality of life after stroke rehabilitation. Aging & mental health, 18(8), 980-985.
Haugan, G., Innstrand, S. T., & Moksnes, U. K. (2013). The effect of nurse–patient interaction on anxiety and depression in cognitively intact nursing home patients. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 22(15-16), 2192-2205.
Spilman, S. K., Smith, H. L., Schirmer, L. L., & Tonui, P. M. (2015). Evaluation and treatment of depression in adult trauma patients. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 22(1), 17-22.