| How to Write a Nursing Care Plan for Depression Posted: 03 Jul 2010 05:17 PM PDT Depression can be difficult to treat, especially in individuals who have lost confidence in medical intervention. As a nurse, your job is to provide a realistic and effective framework that comes with structure, benchmarks and specific nursing interventions. Depending on the severity of the depression and a number of mitigating factors, your nursing care for depression may span several weeks or more than a year. Difficulty: Moderately Easy Instructions Diagnose the Patient
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Step 1 Ask questions and listen carefully to assess the severity of the depression. Salient details may include duration, intensity, family history and any precipitating events. -
Step 2 Refer to the DSM-IV or the Beck Depression Inventory to pin down a more specific diagnosis. You may want to use questionnaires that come with both volumes, though some nurses prefer a more qualitative approach. Write Your Plan -
Step 1 Record your North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) diagnosis carefully, including any history and mitigating observations that contribute to its authority. -
Step 2 Define the care outcomes you expect. Keep a realistic and conservative timeline for this step of the process, as patients tend to recover at different speeds. Err on the side of extra time to better manage the expectations of patient and family. -
Step 3 Write a list of nursing care interventions in the plan. These can be medicinal, psychological, behavioral, dietary or all four. When in doubt, speak with a physician about the optimal combination of medication and lifestyle changes that relate specifically to the type of depression present. -
Step 4 Explain the nursing care plan to the patient. Once again, you want to create an atmosphere of support and optimism, backed by available clinical data. -
Step 5 Solicit the patient’s opinion to ensure everybody is on the same page as you move forward with treatment. Read more: How to Write a Nursing Care Plan for Depression | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2102726_write-nursing-care-plan-depression.html#ixzz0sfTM0SxU
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| nurses and drugs addiction Posted: 03 Jul 2010 05:03 PM PDT Nurses are known as hardworking, compassionate caregivers. But the long hours, emotional and physical stress of the job and easy access to drugs can provide an environment ripe for substance abuse. For health care professionals, drug abuse can not only cause personal harm and put patients at risk but can lead to the loss of license. Significance
1. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that roughly 10 percent of U.S. adults are drug abusers. The American Nurses Association says the number of nurses who are dependent on drugs mirrors that figure: approximately 10 percent. According to a 2009 article on the Modern Medicine health website, there are nearly 3 million registered nurses (RNs) working in the U.S., which means that nearly 300,000 nurses–or one in 10–may be substance abusers.
Identification
2. A nurse who is addicted may be the one who appears to be working the hardest. Employees who are stealing or abusing drugs often volunteer for overtime, arrive early or stay late. Nurses may think their knowledge of drugs enables them to be in control of the medication. Some nursing specialties, including oncology, psychiatry, anesthesia and critical care have been found to have greater levels of substance abusers because of intense emotional and physical demands, according to an April 1998 American Journal of Public Health study.
Accessibility
3. Nurses work with drugs every day and sometimes leftovers become part of a nurse’s addiction. Registered nurse Patricia Holloran writes in her 2009 book, “Impaired: A Nurse’s Story of Addiction and Recovery,” of being introduced to the painkiller nasal spray butorphanol (Stadol) when her doctor changed her migraine prescription. This was also the powerful drug she would inject into women in labor. When there were leftovers, she would take them to help her sleep after a long shift at work. She became addicted and recounts in the book her struggle with drugs and getting treatment.
Ramifications
4. Drug abuse among nurses is a dangerous situation. In addition to risking patient mistreatment, including incorrect care, errors in medication and even death, nurses who are drug addicts face serious career consequences, including losing their licenses and jobs. There are also short- and long-term emotional costs because abuse can touch family, friends and colleagues.
Treatment
5. Because they violate personal and professional codes of ethics in taking drugs, nurses may feel increased shame when their addictions come to light. Addicted nurses should enter an intervention program, not only for their health, but to save their jobs. By entering an intervention program, nurses commit to rehabilitation therapy, drug testing and 12-step programs. A number of medical facilities have supervisory programs that allow recovering nurses to return to duty. Read more: Nurses & Drug Addiction | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6393337_nurses-drug-addiction.html#ixzz0sfQCZIFE
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| About Drug Addiction Posted: 03 Jul 2010 04:49 PM PDT Definition For Drug Addiction? Addiction/alcoholism is a chronic disease affecting the brain, and everyone is different. Drugs/alcohol affect different people in different ways. One person can take and abuse drugs, yet never become addicted, while another merely has one experience and is immediately hooked. Alcohol is similar, some can drink and not get addicted while others are destined for alcoholism from the start. Definition For Drug Addiction Addiction is characterized by someone having to use the drug(s) repeatedly, regardless of the damage it does to: - Their health - Their career - Their family - Their relationships with friends and the community Addiction is not limited to drugs and alcohol. People can be addicted to many things, such as food, gambling, shopping, or most anything that gets in the way of a healthy lifestyle. When things get out of hand, and people behave compulsively, regardless of the consequences.
When the person is no longer in charge of their life, regardless of the triggering mechanism, they are addicted. The addiction can take over a person's entire life. Nothing else matters. Is there a cure for drug or alcohol addiction? The first question many people have about a Definition For Drug Addiction is simply "Is there a cure?" The answer is, sadly, no, once you HAVE to use a drug you will always be addicted to it. There is currently no pill you can take to remove your cocaineaddiction. In order to get a more complete understanding of why there is no cure, you first have to take a deeper look at addiction to learn how to live with it. What’s the difference between Drug Abuse and Addiction? The next quest tion generally ask is how can I tell drug abuse from drug addiction. That’s a little more complicated: Click here to learn the differences between drug abuse and addiction. Addiction/alcoholism is a disease of the mind body and SPIRIT Let's establish one important point of understanding Alcoholism. We are body, mind and spirit, and because of that, addiction is as much a disease of the spirit as it is of the body and mind. Unlike other chronic diseases, like diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, the spiritual component of addiction/alcoholism will play a major role in a person's recovery.
source : http://www.drug-addiction-support.org/Definition-For-Drug-Addiction.html
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| Drug Addiction Treatment : The Principles Posted: 03 Jul 2010 04:35 PM PDT Principles of Effective Drug addiction Treatment - Addiction is a complex but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior. Drugs of abuse alter the brain’s structure and function, resulting in changes that persist long after drug use has ceased. This may explain why drug abusers are at risk for relapse even after long periods of abstinence and despite the potentially devastating consequences.
- No single treatment is appropriate for everyone. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to an individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.
- Treatment needs to be readily available. Because drug-addicted individuals may be uncertain about entering treatment, taking advantage of available services the moment people are ready for treatment is critical. Potential patients can be lost if treatment is not immediately available or readily accessible. As with other chronic diseases, the earlier treatment is offered in the disease process, the greater the likelihood of positive outcomes.
- Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual, not just his or her drug abuse. To be effective, treatment must address the individual’s drug abuse and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems. It is also important that treatment be appropriate to the individual’s age, gender, ethnicity, and culture.
- Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical. The appropriate duration for an individual depends on the type and degree of his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that most addicted individuals need at least 3 months in treatment to significantly reduce or stop their drug use and that the best outcomes occur with longer durations of treatment. Recovery from drug addiction is a longterm process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment. As with other chronic illnesses, relapses to drug abuse can occur and should signal a need for treatment to be reinstated or adjusted. Because individuals often leave treatment prematurely, programs should include strategies to engage and keep patients in treatment.
- Counseling—individual and/or group—and other behavioral therapies are the most commonly used forms of drug abuse treatment. Behavioral therapies vary in their focus and may involve addressing a patient’s motivation to change, providing incentives for abstinence, building skills to resist drug use, replacing drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding activities, improving problemsolving skills, and facilitating better interpersonal relationships. Also, participation in group therapy and other peer support programs during and following treatment can help maintain abstinence.
- Medications are an important element of treatment for many patients, especially when combined with counseling and other behavioral therapies. For example, methadone and buprenorphine are effective in helping individuals addicted to heroin or other opioids stabilize their lives and reduce their illicit drug use. Naltrexone is also an effective medication for some opioid-addicted individuals and some patients with alcohol dependence. Other medications for alcohol dependence include acamprosate, disulfiram, and topiramate. For persons addicted to nicotine, a nicotine replacement product (such as patches, gum, or lozenges) or an oral medication (such as bupropion or varenicline) can be an effective component of treatment when part of a comprehensive behavioral treatment program.
- An individual’s treatment and services plan must be assessed continually and modified as necessary to ensure that it meets his or her changing needs. A patient may require varying combinations of services and treatment components during the course of treatment and recovery. In addition to counseling or psychotherapy, a patient may require medication, medical services, family therapy, parenting instruction, vocational rehabilitation, and/or social and legal services. For many patients, a continuing care approach provides the best results, with the treatment intensity varying according to a person’s changing needs.
- Many drug-addicted individuals also have other mental disorders. Because drug abuse and addiction—both of which are mental disorders—often co-occur with other mental illnesses, patients presenting with one condition should be assessed for the other(s). And when these problems co-occur, treatment should address both (or all), including the use of medications as appropriate.
- Medically assisted detoxification is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug abuse. Although medically assisted detoxification can safely manage the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal and, for some, can pave the way for effective long-term addiction treatment, detoxification alone is rarely sufficient to help addicted individuals achieve long-term abstinence. Thus, patients should be encouraged to continue drug treatment following detoxification. Motivational enhancement and incentive strategies, begun at initial patient intake, can improve treatment engagement.
- Treatment does not need to be voluntary to be effective. Sanctions or enticements from family, employment settings, and/or the criminal justice system can significantly increase treatment entry, retention rates, and the ultimate success of drug treatment interventions.
- Drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously, as lapses during treatment do occur. Knowing their drug use is being monitored can be a powerful incentive for patients and can help them withstand urges to use drugs. Monitoring also provides an early indication of a return to drug use, signaling a possible need to adjust an individual’s treatment plan to better meet his or her needs.
- Treatment programs should assess patients for the presence of HIV/ AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases as well as provide targeted risk-reduction counseling to help patients modify or change behaviors that place them at risk of contracting or spreading infectious diseases. Typically, drug abuse treatment addresses some of the drug-related behaviors that put people at risk of infectious diseases. Targeted counseling specifically focused on reducing infectious disease risk can help patients further reduce or avoid substance-related and other high-risk behaviors. Counseling can also help those who are already infected to manage their illness. Moreover, engaging in substance abuse treatment can facilitate adherence to other medical treatments. Patients may be reluctant to accept screening for HIV (and other infectious diseases); therefore, it is incumbent upon treatment providers to encourage and support HIV screening and inform patients that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has proven effective in combating HIV, including among drug abusing populations
source : http://www.nida.nih.gov/PODAT/Principles.html
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