stages of life

[Medsport, LPN]

I'm trying to work on my ineffective behaviors and am having trouble with the stage of life: growth and developmental tasks part. We are supposed to use it for part of our main paper, but I guess I did'nt get enough information yesterday. It was our first day in the peds clinical and we did'nt get alot of time on the floor. I did have a couple hours but thought our ineffective beh. were the same as the head to toe (I know I'm a little slow sometimes). I did'nt know we were supposed to look at the whole body, even the genital area. So some of the areas I left blank. For the stage of life part we are supposed to tell what stage thery are in for Erikson, Freud, Piaget and Kogkberg. I did'nt ask about her sexual history (again I did'nt know until my gf informed me today), so what can I put for if the client is meeting the norm or not? The instructor gave me a 17y. old girl and said she would be good to do a paper on, but she was just admitted and they did'nt have a concrete diagnosis yet. I don't know if I will be able to find anything on her next week in the hosp. computer or not. Plus we will have new assignments and be busy with "real" charting for the first time also. I thought I had a pretty good day yesterday (except for the 2 h. ride andgetting lost on the way there). But now my gf has me stressed out again and I'm wondering if I'm cut out to do this again...

[Medsport, LPN]

I forgot to mention, I need to work on my "small talk" more or at least talk to the patient and having trouble what to put in our clinical log for our goals and feelings of the clinical experience and our strengths and weaknesses.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

i guess you could always fib and say she refused to talk about sex. you didn't hear that from me. do you have a list somewhere of the developmental tasks that your 17 year old should be achieving that you can refer to in writing your paper?

i think what you are looking for with the communication relates to therapeutic communication skills? i have a bunch of links on that that you might want to look at. review some of the principles of therapeutic communication and you will get plenty of ideas of the ways you can respond back to patients that will take care of your small talk! it will also give you ideas of what to write in your clinical log regarding the area of communication where you are weak or strong in talking and responding back to people.

http://www2.nemcc.edu/rlansdell/web/communication%20test-taking%20strategies_files/frame.htm - a really nice slide show on therapeutic communication. includes techniques, scenarios and blocks to communication.

http://www.childbirths.com/euniversity/therapuetic.htm - therapeutic communication. a discussion about therapeutic communication that includes a nice listing of examples of appropriate open-ended responses to make to patients to get them to talk.

http://academic.luzerne.edu/nfrusciante/nur203/powerpoints/therapeuticcommunication_files/frame.htm - a slide show on therapeutic communication. talks about the components, goals, therapeutic and non-therapeutic techniques.

http://faculty.mc3.edu/rbenfiel/nur109/nur109communication/sld001.htm - communication. a slide show (18 slides)

http://www.education4skills.com/thecom/contents.html - therapeutic communication skills tutorial - page of links to subjects covered

http://www.unc.edu/courses/2004fall/nurs/090/001/class6/index.html - therapeutic communication. some online information and practice modules from the university of north carolina chapel hill school of nursing. click on the links on the left side of the page to access activities.

http://monsoon.he.net/~eri/realaudio/therapeutic/thera.htm - a lecture series on therapeutic communication and the nursing process on cds that you can access at this website from education resources, inc. you need a real player to view the video.