Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

[nursinghopeful23]

Hello all,

I'm a current nursing student and I am doing research on post-traumatic stress disorder. If any of you can answer based off of experience or guides you look to that would be great!

Have you ever encountered a patient with PTSD?

Can nurses screen for PTSD (I know we cannot diagnose) or are you trained to be on the look out for the signs?

If you work with adolescent girls (with PTSD), what kind of settings would/have you see them in?

Any kind of guides that you as nurses use?

Thank you!

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Have you ever encountered a patient with PTSD?

Yes...many of them, all day long.

Can nurses screen for PTSD (I know we cannot diagnose) or are you trained to be on the look out for the signs?

We can and do!

If you work with adolescent girls (with PTSD), what kind of settings would/have you see them in?

N/a for my area of concentration.

Any kind of guides that you as nurses use?

DOD and the Dept of the Army have a lot of information on PTSD treatment. They've done a ton of studies as well. The information is out there...Google Scholar is your friend. Also, the link below will give you the CPG (clinical practice guidelines) that are currently used in the military/VA systems.

Management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Reaction (2010) - VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines

[Alisonisayoshi, LVN]

Not a nurse yet, but I do charity crisis work with women/girls with eating disorders. I'd say a huge portion of them have PTSD. Probably more than half, in my experience.

[nurse lala, BSN, RN]

Like SoldierNurse22, I work with clients with PTSD daily. Nurses do complete simple screens and those who have passed competency can complete a more in depth assessment. I believe there is no valid tool to screen for PTSD in children, so a licensed independent practitioner would need to make that diagnosis.

Thanks to the collaboration between the DOD and the VA, and the support of congress, PTSD has received a wealth of new research enriching our understanding and producing novel approaches to treat this disease.

Please visit DSM-5 Validated Measures - PTSD: National Center for PTSD for some excellent resources and links to more.

[nursinghopeful23]

Thank you for the resources and input!! The paper I'm writing has to relate to nursing care and after looking at research I wanted to hear from nurses currently in the field.