Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay
My personal research interest is to determine the most effective interventions that can prevent the use of physical restraints on children in the inpatient psychiatric unit. Physical restraints are used in psychiatric facilities to prevent patients from harming themselves or others. However, I feel that the use of physical restraints on children can be prevented most of the time if there is a protocol in place that is based on the patient’s age and level of psychological development. The patient population that is of specific interest to me are children between the ages of 6-12 that have been admitted to an inpatient psychiatric facility.
I feel that determining these interventions is important because utilizing physical restraints during inpatient treatment can cause injuries, cause embarrassment and humiliation, and can cause severe psychological distress for the patient, (Eblin, 2019). Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. I also feel that it can cause the child to have a negative view of inpatient treatment which will discourage them from seeking help in the future. Based on my experience, it can delay treatment and prolong the length of stay because the patient may no longer be cooperative. These are all factors that can prevent us from having the best outcome for the patient.
I feel that this clinical problem is of importance because all patients have the right to compassion, respect, and effective treatment. Based on my experience and as stated in the text, some clinical practices are based on tradition or unit culture. These practices are in place because that is the way they have always been done and there is no evidence to support it, (Polit & Beck, 2017). Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. When a practice can possibly do more harm than good to a patient it should be evaluated. I feel that because children are still in the early developmental stage, they should have a treatment plan specifically designed to help them thrive in the environment.
This target population should be studied because children with mental illnesses will eventually become adults with mental illnesses and as health care providers, we can assist them with becoming productive members of society. These patients will require long-term care and I feel that it is our responsibility to develop a positive culture around mental health treatment while they are young. Putting patients in a position that will cause them more psychological distress is exactly the opposite of what we should do. We need to focus on developing interventions that are clinically significant and be sensitive to each patient’s needs, (Polit & Beck, 2017) Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay.
The specific interventions that I am interested in addressing for this population include, having the staff with the best rapport with the patient intervene before situations escalate. Also, to include the child’s parent(s) as a resource in the treatment plan. Based on my clinical experience, I have seen patients escalate to uncontrollable behaviors when certain staff are present as opposed to others. The staff members that have developed a good rapport with the patient can deescalate these situations without any additional interventions. It is also my experience that the parents are not very involved during treatment. Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay I feel that if the parent is a positive influence on the child they should be used as a resource to possibly calm, orient, and help their child cope and express their feelings throughout treatment.
In conclusion, I feel that any treatment or intervention that can cause additional psychological distress, trauma, or humiliate a patient should be avoided. As health care providers we should desire to maintain our patient’s dignity at all times regardless of age. Children with mental illnesses are still developing and we should strive to provide care that promotes their desire for wellness as they grow Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. This will help them see treatment as a positive enforcement in their lives.
References
Eblin, A. (2019). Reducing seclusion and restraints on the inpatient child and adolescent behavioral health unit: A quality improvement study. Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 32(3), 122–128. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1111/jcap.12248
Polit, D. F., Beck, C. T., & Polit, D. F. (2017). Resource manual for Nursing research, generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice, tenth edition (pp.7-8). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer. Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay.
Responses
Response 1: Physical restraints
The post is informative in its introduction of the rationalizations for reducing the use of physical restraints among children between 6 and 12 year of age in inpatient psychiatric units as the nursing research topic of interest. In fact, the proposed research focus shows a depth of knowledge and understanding of a problem that plagues psychiatric care of children. It proposes that developing and applying a protocol to guide the use of physical restraints based on the patient’s age and psychological development will ensure that they are only used when necessary and the negative impacts are minimized. This is a novel approach since it is noted that although physical restraints are an important tool within the inpatient psychiatric care environment to prevent harm to the patients and others, their use is not necessary in some cases Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. This is of particular concern since the use of physical restraints is associated with injuries, embarrassment, humiliation and psychological distress to the patients as negative consequences, all issues of concern in as far as ensuring favorable health care outcomes is concerned. In addition, the selection of the study population has been justified through noting that children have a large potential to be productive as adults and the proposed strategy creates a positive culture that supports them towards this objective. This is an understandable point since children are impressionable and it is only right to plan their care with a view to reducing their psychiatric concerns rather than increasing them. This is an indication that the researcher intended to realize meaningful change. Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. The research outcome is anticipated to present a roadmap that concludes the debate on how to safely use physical restraints in psychiatric care of children. Overall, addressing the research topic is of value to nursing care since it acknowledges that physical restraints are necessary in the psychiatric care of children, but notes that they have negative consequences that can be minimized through the use of practice protocols (Babbie, 2016).
Response 2: Depression
The post focuses on strategies for improving treatment of depression among adolescents (between 15 and 19 years of age) within primary care settings as the research topic of interest. It brings attention to depression as a condition of concern, especially in the face of increasing prevalence among adolescent and young adults. Adolescents are identified as the patients of interest since they are at heightened vulnerability and susceptibility for being underdiagnosed and left untreated thereby confounding the depression as a psychiatric issue even as the individual grows older. It proposes that the issue of depression among adolescents should be addressed through promotion, prevention, detection and treatment programs. Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. Such programs would acknowledge the occurrence of depression among adolescents and proactively apply the appropriate interventions. Although the proposed solution addresses the issue of concern, an indication that the researcher intendeds to bring about meaningful change to psychiatric care, it does not highlight the position that nurses can play in the solution. It talks of using training to improve nurses’ proficiency in managing the programs, but does not discuss how this is related to increasing screening rates. Having skills does not automatically imply that they will be applied Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay. As a nursing research interest, there is a need to explore the value of nurses in the solution. For instance, proposing protocols in which the trained nurses play significant roles, or highlighting the nurse-patient relationship and how nurses can initiate the relationship through trust and applying communication skills in ongoing care. The research outcome is anticipated to present a roadmap that advances psychiatric care in general, and care for depression among children (Babbie, 2016).
Reference
Babbie, E. (2016). The basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Nursing Interest and Experience – physical restraints Essay