Introduction
In the medical surgical setting, all the patients need to be on the hands of competent staff that will ensure that they have a quick recovery. These staff should be competent in terms of care and supervision. They should be able to monitor the progress of their patients, detect any irregularities and prescribe medication to improve their condition. Thus, they should be able to identify the roles of surgeons, doctors and other care givers in the hospital setting (Secker et al, 1999). To determine their competence, nurses should exhibit a clear understanding of core mental health principles, health practices and role boundaries.
Problems experienced in the Medical Surgical Setting and their Solutions
Other than these, nurses need to have interpersonal skills while dealing with mental patients (Baker, 2001). They should treat their patients with a lot of care and professionalism and follow the nursing ethics to the latter. Failure to this may lead to the disempowering of patients; a move which may affect the recovery rate of the patient. Therefore, the skills and professionalism that are displayed by a nurse play a critical role in the recovery of the patient.
As stated earlier, nurses need to understand the roles of surgeons, doctors and other personnel in the healthcare industry. To add on this, they also have to be able to diagnose disorders which may develop to mental patients after surgery. It is the role of nurses and physicians to detect the mental disorders of their patients (Borus et al, 1988). The earlier the disorder is detected, the higher the chances of success in treatment. The patients thus stand a high chance of recovery due to the early detection. Therefore, nurses should be able to detect the various disorders which may affect patients with mental disorders. Late detection of these disorders may lead to further complications. Despite this, nurses are only able to detect a small portion of these complications. A study conducted by Borus et al (1988) showed that nurses were only able to detect a sixth of anxiety disorders and a seventh of depression disorders. These figures show a high level of incompetence in nurses. They should therefore undergo vigorous training to improve on their skills and competence.
Mental patients are vulnerable to secondary diseases which pose a great risk to their health. Nurses should therefore improve on the healthcare which they provide to their patients by detecting these comorbid factors as early as possible (Oladeji and Gureje, 2008). Nurses should therefore be able to identify conditions such as delirium by using effective and efficient methods to determine the condition. The screening tool is a method which can be used to detect the condition. It contains a total of eight steps some of which include: inattention, hallucinations and sleep disturbance (Bergernon et al, 2000). Nurses should have the skills to use this tool in the detection of delirium. They should also be familiar with the eight steps that are involved to be able to carry out their tasks at ease.
Recovering patients in medical surgical settings need to have a variety of approaches to choose from in the course of their treatment. This ensures that they are given the right to choose the treatment which will be administered to them (Repper, 2000). They should be encouraged to make this decision on their own. Nurses should therefore empower their patients to make such decisions. This can only be achieved if the nurses have good interpersonal skills. Such skills help in the development of a good relationship between the nurse and his/her patient. This will ensure that patients have a diverse environment for recovery. Nurses are therefore advised to use a hegemonic nature while providing services to their patients. This will ensure that the patients have a wide range of options of recovery to choose from.
References
Barker, P. (2001). The Tidal Model: developing an empowering, person-centered approach to recovery within psychiatric and mental health nursing. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 8(5), p. 233–240.
Bergeron, N., Dubois, M., Dial, D. and Skrobik, Y. (2000). Intensive care delirium screening checklist: evaluation of new screening tool. Intensive care medicine, 27(5), p. 859
Borus, J., Howes, M., Devins, N., Rosenberg, R. and Livingston, W. (1988). Primary health care providers’ recognition and diagnosis of mental disorders in their patients. General hospital psychiatry, 10(5), p. 317-321
Oladeji B.,& Gureje O. (2008). Mental health morbidity and impact. International of public health, 1 (1), p. 384
Repper, J. (2000). Adjusting the focus of mental health nursing: incorporating service users’ experiences of recovery. Journal of mental health, 9 (6), p. 575
Secker, J., Pidd, F. and Parham, A. (1999). Mental health training needs of primary health care nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 8, p. 643–652.