Nursing Care Anxiety?

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Hey guys just thought this might be relevant here:)

Just wondering how would i plan my nursing care for a patient who is a inpatient in a mental health unit due to wanting to commit suicide via hanging and is diagnosed with severe depression. He is also relatively anxious.

How would i go about my nursing care in relation to his anxiety as thats what i want to focus on:)

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Hi,

The first thing I would do is establish if the depression is chronic or acute. is the patient communicative ie able to be interviewed? Have there been previous suicide attempts by the patient? Has anyone in his family committed suicide? Family history of mental illness? Previous diagnoses of mental health conditions?

Are there any substance abuse issues? I assume upon intake into the facility they ran a tox screen? From a care point of view, sleep is probably the thing the patient needs most. Once they have had some sleep, natural or otherwise, reassess...

One last important question....did the patient enter the facility on a voluntary basis or no?

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His depression has been ongoing so i would have to say chronic the patient is communicative but displays very negative emotions about himself, he would be classed as involuntary as he tried to commit suicide but a friend saved him.

Anything else i could do for his anxious behaviour would a anxiety rating scale help?

Also one more thing is Nursing Assessment the same as nursing care?

Thanks

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

what are his symptoms of the anxiety? you can see a list of them (see the defining characteristics) on this website: [color=#3366ff]anxiety

is nursing assessment the same as nursing care?

no. an assessment is the collection of data about the patient. it consists of:

  • a health history (review of systems)

  • performing a physical exam

  • assessing their adls (at minimum: bathing, dressing, mobility, eating, toileting, and grooming)

  • reviewing the pathophysiology, signs and symptoms and complications of their medical condition

  • reviewing the signs, symptoms and side effects of the medications/treatments that have been ordered and that the patient is taking

nursing care is assisting the patient in performing their activities of daily living and carrying out the physician's orders.

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