Assess Clients Ability to Cope with Life Changes and Provide Support
Introduction
Coping is the ability of an individual to establish, maintain and regain psychological integrity when this integrity is disrupted by factors (Heffer & Willoughby, 2017). Individual coping can be adaptive or maladaptive. Adaptive coping resolves the stress, while maladaptive coping does not resolve the stress and may result in a worse situation for the patient. An example is an individual who starts drinking alcohol because of the loss of a loved one. Alcoholism may not resolve the stress, but it may result in other mental conditions such as depression and other physical health problems. This essay will discuss the importance of psychosocial integrity as a priority concept. In addition to this, it will assess the healthcare disparities, inequalities, and interventions associated with the priority topic. It will further discuss legal and ethical considerations associated with the priority topic. In addition to this, participation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and quality improvement associated with the priority concept will be highlighted.
The priority topic selected is the preservation of the population’s psychosocial integrity. This can be achieved by assessing the client’s ability with life changes and providing support. This concept topic is related to the NCLEX examination blueprint. The nurse provides and directs nursing care that promotes and supports the emotional, mental and social well-being of clients experiencing stressful events and clients with acute and chronic mental illnesses. The learning strategies used in learning this priority topic are question and answer technique, short case scenarios, and rationale. The two learning resources used in the NCLEX exam plan are ATI practice questions and UWorld.
Importance
All changes threaten the homeostasis of patients. Due to this, clients must effectively cope with psychological, social, physical, and economic changes in an adaptive coping mechanism. The priority concept is essential to professional practice. Nurses must be aware of strategies that can help the patient develop positive coping strategies to prevent the harmful effects of ineffective coping strategies. Stress significantly affects the physical, social, and mental well-being of patients. Stress can result from significant life events such as divorce, moving, illness, financial problems, parenthood, and the death of someone you love. It can also result from daily stressors.
Failure to assess the ability of patients to cope with changes and provide support by nurses can negatively impact professional practice. Patients with poor coping strategies can have adverse effects such as alcoholism, substance use disorders, and even suicide. This can put a strain on the healthcare delivery industry, which can cause burnout and job dissatisfaction for nurses. Stress can have a negative impact on the patient population if support is not provided. Unresolved stress can physically, emotionally, and psychologically affect the body. It can result in anxiety, weight changes, chronic pain, tension, distress, dangerous behaviours towards others or self, depression, irritability, forgetfulness, loss of focus, fatigue, hypertension, headache, poor concentration levels, sleep impairments, muscular tension, trembling, increased vulnerabilities to diseases such as myocardial infarction and infections (Yaribeygi et al., 2017).
Healthcare Disparities, Inequalities, and Interventions
The individuals who may be negatively affected if the priority concept is not resolved include individuals with high-intensity stress levels, individuals who have stress for longer periods, individuals who lack effective protective mechanisms against stress, and individuals who have poor coping mechanisms against stress. Nurses can utilize many healthcare resources to support evidence-based practice related to the priority concept. These include nursing textbooks, scholarly articles in reputable behavioural journals, and websites of reputable organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The scholarly articles can be obtained from Cochrane, Google Scholar, Medline, and Pubmed databases.
The healthcare disparities that may arise due to the priority concept is age. Older adults may lose their breadwinner, take the new role of caregiving for their spouse, care for their grandchildren, and lose other roles due to old age and chronic conditions that may disrupt their ability to do activities of daily living. An evidence-based solution to ineffective coping is to conduct a patient assessment to determine problems that may result in patient ineffective coping (Carpenito, 2017). This will help to implement a patient-centred care plan. The three nursing interventions that can be implemented include setting a working relationship with the patient throughout the care continuum, using empathetic communication, and encouraging cognitive-behavioural relaxation, such as music therapy (Carpenito, 2017). The prioritized intervention is creating a working relationship with the patient since a therapeutic relationship establishes trust, reduces feelings of isolation, and facilitates positive coping. The two patient education considerations are educating the patient on positive coping strategies and the adverse effects of stress if they are unresolved.
Legal and Ethical Considerations and Intervention Challenges
The patients have a right to informed consent and patient autonomy (Bernstein, 2019). This may, however, not be the case since the patient may refuse to undergo treatment and may force the nurse or healthcare provider to initiate a mandatory psychiatry hold. This may contradict the principle of patient autonomy. The legal issue that may arise is disclosing patient information to authorities revealed in therapy. HIPAA laws prohibit sharing patient information without the patient’s knowledge (Cohen & Mello, 2018). However, the patient may reveal an intention to harm others, necessitating informing the police. One strategy for preventing the ethical dilemma is providing the patient with enough information and explaining the dangers of stress to ensure the patient agrees to treatment. One technique to prevent legal consequences involves the hospital legal office guiding the nurse on the appropriate course of action. One anticipated challenge in preventing ineffective coping strategies is the failure of patients to have positive coping strategies and strong psychosocial support. The challenge of successfully resolving ineffective coping strategies is the failure of the patient to adhere to the recommended nursing interventions.
Participants and Interdisciplinary Approach
This implementation of this priority concept will require a multidisciplinary team approach. The participants will include a psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health nurse, registered nurse, and the patient. The psychiatrist, psychologist, and mental health nurse will work with patients with mental health issues and help them develop positive coping strategies. A registered nurse will conduct an initial patient assessment, implement interventions and provide a patient referral. A multidisciplinary team is essential in enhancing communication, promoting teamwork, and generating innovative solutions that can improve patient outcomes (Haines et al., 2018).
Quality Improvement
The benefit of addressing ineffective strategies and providing support will enhance patient safety and prevent patients from self-harming in the clinical environment. Addressing the priority concept is also beneficial to the nursing profession since nurses will help patients with poor coping strategies, leading to job fulfilment and satisfaction in helping the patient. One resource that can be utilized in the clinical environment is electronic health records containing patient health information to help implement a patient-centred care plan. One resource that can be utilized to promote professional knowledge is using computers to search for scholarly articles that can increase nurses’ knowledge on providing support to patients with poor coping strategies.
Conclusion
Nurses must assess the ability of patients to cope with life changes and provide. They must be aware of the effects of failure of addressing this on the patient and nursing profession. Nurses must also be aware of individuals at higher risk and implement evidence-based nursing interventions to help these individuals. The resources that can address this concept include EHRs, computers, scholarly articles, and nursing textbooks. Assessing patients’ ability to cope with life changes and providing support is important to patients since it will help protect them from the adverse health and social effects of stress.
References
Bernstein, E. R. (2019). Informed consent: Process and practice in the context of office-based oral surgery. Office-Based Maxillofacial Surgical Procedures, 125-141. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22371-7_7
Carpenito, L. J. (2017). Nursing care plans. LWW.
Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st century. JAMA, 320(3), 231. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.5630
Haines, A., Perkins, E., Evans, E. A., & McCabe, R. (2018). Multidisciplinary team functioning and decision-making within forensic mental health. Mental Health Review Journal, 23(3), 185-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/mhrj-01-2018-0001
Heffer, T., & Willoughby, T. (2017). A count of coping strategies: A longitudinal study investigating an alternative method to understanding coping and adjustment. PLOS ONE, 12(10), e0186057. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186057
Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI Journal, 16, 1057. https://dx.doi.org/10.17179%2Fexcli2017-480
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Question 
Analyzing one’s performance on the integrated, comprehensive assessments and reflecting on areas of opportunity and strategies to promote NCLEX-RN success and transition into practice.
Assess Client’s Ability to Cope with Life Changes and Provide Support
The student will apply the priority concept (topic) to evidence-based professional practice upon which nurses can resolve or positively impact. There is a focus on the individual’s healthcare disparities as well as ethical and legal implications for professional practice. The student will discuss how an interdisciplinary approach promotes quality improvement for the patient and evidence-based professional practice, driving positive outcomes.