Role of the nursing in promoting mental health awareness
- Diagnosing & Treating Mental Health Illnesses Nurse practitioners specializing in psychiatry make significant contributions to mental health awareness. ...
- Empowering & Informing their Patients Remember what we said about nurses fighting the stigma around mental health at its roots? ...
- Extending Support & Compassion ...
- Fighting Social Stigmas & Rallying Community Support ...
- Final Thoughts ...
How can nurses help people with social mental illness?
For example, nurses need to be wary of attributing physical symptoms to the mental health problem or of neglecting to offer routine screening or health promotion interventions. People with SMI may also need help from nurses to successfully undergo a health promotion intervention.
Should nurses advocate for mental health care?
Whatever the healthcare setting or life stage, nurses can advocate both to promote the mental health of their patients and to improve care at the policy level.
What is the connection between nurses’ mental health and nursing care?
Nurses’ mental health and nursing care are connected — if the former is diminished, the quality of the latter usually suffers. Numerous studies have demonstrated a clear link between nurses’ mental health and the quality of the patient care they provide.
How can health care organizations support nursing staff with mental health issues?
Health care organizations can support nursing staff by creating a culture that values and promotes good mental health. Additionally, numerous resources and strategies exist to help nurses cope with the challenges of the profession, including peer support groups and self-care strategies. Nursing is both physically and psychologically demanding.
How can nurses help with mental health?
Provide Case management. Teach self-care activities. Administer and monitor psychobiological treatment regimens. Practice crisis intervention and stabilization.
How can mental health be promoted?
Any activities that promote exercise, sleep, and good nutrition. Projects that encourage help-seeking and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. Initiatives that encourage gratitude and mindfulness. Creating spaces for communities to gather, build relationships and identify common needs.
What is the best way to promote mental and?
10 tips to boost your mental healthMake social connection — especially face-to-face — a priority. ... Stay active. ... Talk to someone. ... Appeal to your senses. ... Take up a relaxation practice. ... Make leisure and contemplation a priority. ... Eat a brain-healthy diet to support strong mental health. ... Don't skimp on sleep.More items...•
How do you promote good mental health and wellbeing?
Tips for improving your mental wellbeingRelax and reduce stress.Find ways to learn and be creative.Spend time in nature.Connect with others.Look after your physical health.Try to get enough sleep.
What is mental health promotion?
Mental health promotion involves actions to strengthen the policy environment and the use of strategic communication for network building, stakeholder engagement, enhanced mental health literacy, and behavior change.
What are the interventions that address the social determinants of mental health?
These include school and workplace mental health programs, early childhood interventions, social support and community engagement, women empowerment, anti-discrimination programs, and other interventions that address the social determinants of mental health. In order to maximize impact, mental health promotion activities must be linked closely ...
Is mental health related to human rights?
Mental disorders are inextricably linked to human rights issues. The stigma, discrimination and human rights violations that individuals and families affected...
How many people have SMI?
If the criteria are broadened to include non-psychotic disorders, the number of people with SMI is estimated to be 4 per 1,000 (Ruggeri et al, 2000).
Why are people with SMI more likely to die?
People with SMI are more likely to die prematurely of preventable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke than the general population. The increased risk of these diseases in people with SMI is attributed to the mental health condition, the effects of treatment, and the attitudes and skills of health practitioners; for example, mental health nurses may overlook signs of physical illness because they focus on the person’s mental health (Hoang et al, 2013; Jones et al, 2008). One example is smoking: people with SMI are more likely to smoke and more likely to find it harder to stop, but just as likely to want to quit as any other smoker. Despite this, they are far less likely to be offered support for quitting (Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2013).
What are the warning signs of psychosis?
Warning signs and symptoms of psychosis include changes in mood, thinking, perception, socialising and intellectual performance ; these changes can then be followed by frank symptoms of psychosis (Perez et al, 2015; NICE, 2014). If nurses suspect psychosis, they need to refer the person for specialist assessment without delay (Box 2). Nurses working in emergency, primary and mental health care are the health professionals most likely to see young people presenting with their first psychotic episode.
How long does psychosis treatment take?
Family intervention is a structured therapy which involves the patient and the family or carers meeting for 10 sessions over three months to a year. It aims to reduce the risk of relapse and improve family members mental health and wellbeing.
What are the two areas of nursing that are relevant to nurses working outside of mental health?
This article focuses on the two areas that have the most relevance to nurses working outside mental health: early detection and intervention, and managing physical health.
What is the box 2 of Psychosis?
If nurses suspect psychosis, they need to refer the person for specialist assessment without delay (Box 2). Nurses working in emergency, primary and mental health care are the health professionals most likely to see young people presenting with their first psychotic episode. Box 2. Psychosis: when to refer.
What is the impact of mental illness on life?
Severe mental illness is associated with reduced life expectancy and poor physical health. Early detection and intervention increases the likelihood of improved health and social outcomes, but people experiencing their first episode of psychosis often experience delays in accessing treatment. This article summarises a review ...
COVID-19, Burnout, and a Lack of Mental Health Resources
The current experience of working as a nurse during COVID-19 reveals the need for more mental health days for nurses, point-blank. Stress is clear in bedside nursing and extends to nurses working in outpatient facilities and from home as well.
How Workplaces Can Prioritize Nurses' Mental Health
We hear it all the time: Nurses are burnt out. In fact, nurses are burnt out on hearing about how burnt out they are. Change needs to happen.
How Nurses Can Cope During the Pandemic
It's not easy to cope with burnout on a regular day; it's even harder to cope during a pandemic. It's important first to acknowledge you are suffering from burnout, then you can address it.
Meet Our Contributors
Gina Fox has been a registered nurse for 13 years in Ohio and has worked in telemetry, intensive care, and emergency units. She is currently a care coordinator and runs a ministry. Fox lives with her husband and furbabies, Rascal and Bandit.
What are the health-promoting activities that nurses do?
Nurses are knowledgeable regarding the importance of health-promoting activities such as healthy eating, physical activity, stress management, sleep hygiene, and maintaining healthy relationships . However, this knowledge may not translate into nurses’ own self-care. Nurses may not follow recommended guidelines for physical activity ...
Why is nursing so stressful?
In addition to poor nutrition and lack of physical activity, the Surgeon General cites stress as another reason for the obesity epidemic in the United States.18There is considerable evidence that chronic stress is associated with weight gain, abdominal adiposity, and obesity; prolonged stress is associated with binge eating and increased consumption of sugar, fat, and salt.19The nursing workplace is stressful for several reasons. The high demands and low control often associated with nursing practice and unfavorable work schedules (eg, work overload, shift work, long work hours) all contribute to decreased job satisfaction and increased burnout and stress.4,17,20Shift work, particularly 12-hour rotating shifts, is associated with increased rates of obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and sleep disturbance.4Nurses who experience workplace stress are more likely to binge eat and consume more fast foods and fewer fruits and vegetables.21There is hope, however, because nurses who exercise and get adequate sleep appear to be at less risk for obesity, even when they are required to work unfavorable schedules such as 12-hour night or rotating shifts.22
Why is it important to have a nurse leader?
Perhaps most importantly, leaders can work to create an open environment in which nurses feel comfortable discussing workplace stressors and barriers to healthy behaviors. Effective nurse leaders encourage healthy work relationships and can serve as role models for health promotion.
What are the health promoting behaviors of perioperative nurses?
Noncommunicable, lifestyle-related diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes have reached epidemic levels in the general population,1and perioperative nurses may be at risk. Nurses are at the forefront in the battle to fight this epidemic, and with nursing as the most trusted of all professions,2they are in a key position to counsel their patients regarding the importance of engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors such as eating a nutritious diet, participating in regular physical activity, getting adequate sleep, reducing stress, and avoiding tobacco and excessive alcohol intake. However, the knowledge that nurses possess regarding health-promoting behaviors may not translate into nurses’ own self-care. The following case study describes a nurse who is struggling to practice health-promoting behaviors and how her particular job requirements specifically add to the difficulty of adopting and adhering to a healthy lifestyle.
What are health screening behaviors?
Health screening behaviors, defined as engaging in routine physical examinations and disease screenings to detect and treat preclinical health conditions,8have received considerably less research attention than health risk behaviors in nurses. However, stress and social support are two facets that could influence health screening behaviors. Su et al9found that Taiwanese nurses with higher job stress were less likely to undergo Pap smears than those with lower job stress. In another study, Brazilian nurses with higher levels of social support were more likely to undergo mammograms and Pap smears than those with lower levels of support.10
Why is sleep important for nurses?
Sleep disturbances, including getting too much or too little sleep, increase the risk of all-cause mortality.24Sleep is an issue for nurses, particularly those taking overnight call or working 12-hour shifts. Both day- and nightshift hospital nurses working 12-hour shifts report an average of 5.5 hours of sleep per night, with progressively increasing drowsiness for each consecutive shift worked.25This sleep debt comes at a cost, because sleep is needed for healthy immune system function and memory processing.26Additionally, sleep deprivation is associated with reduced vigilance and reaction time and cognitive impairments in memory and executive function.27
How much exercise should a nurse do?
The American Heart Association’s recommendations include a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate (or 75 minutes of intense) physical activity per week, in addition to a varied diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and low in trans fats and sugar.12Research suggests that nurses are not necessarily following these guidelines. Tucker et al15surveyed 3,132 hospital-based RNs and found that only 50% met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for physical activity, and 62% consumed fast food at least twice weekly. In a cross-sectional survey of 325 British nurses, fewer than half (45.98%) met government guidelines for physical activity, and more than half (53.9%) reported consuming foods high in fat and sugar on a daily basis.16This inactivity comes at a price; a recent literature review found that the prevalence of overweight nurses (ie, nurses with a body mass index [BMI] of 25 to < 30) ranges between 30% to 53%, similar to or higher than the 33.1% prevalence of overweight people in the general population.17Although 4 of 11 research studies included in this review found obesity rates (BMI ≥ 30) in nurses to be below the national average of 28%, the majority reported obesity levels similar to the general public, and some studies found nurses’ obesity rates as high as 61.4%.17
Diagnosing & Treating Mental Health Illnesses
Empowering & Informing Their Patients
- Remember what we said about nurses fighting the stigma around mental health at its roots? Let’s talk more about that. Nurses eradicate the stigma by making psychiatric care and rehabilitation facilities safe and healthy spaces for patients to heal. They empower patients and caregivers with information about the complex symptoms of mental health dis...
Extending Support & Compassion
- Nurses are mighty pillars of support who fight the pain of mental health illnesses in numerous healthcare settings and environments. They help students process the emotional turmoil and cognitive changes of transforming from adolescents to young adults in schools. Prenatal nurses help expecting and young mothers overcome the mental challenges of giving birth and coping w…
Fighting Social Stigmas & Rallying Community Support
- Nurses worldwide champion the fight against social stigmas that discourage the reintegration of healed patients eager to return to their lives. Millions of people battling mental health and substance use disorders struggle to fight for housing, jobs, and a respectable living. After a prolonged battle with drug addiction or bipolar disorder, many patients struggle to reclaim their …
Final Thoughts
- Once you identify the cause that ignites your passion for mental health awareness, you can map out a strategy. Nurses with advanced specializations in psychiatric care can educate communities on preventive care and risk factors. They can empower families and individuals with the tools to regulate their emotional and mental wellbeing and enjoy healthy life quality. However, serving a…