Mental Health Nursing Requirements

Prepared by: Edmarie P. Tabacolde,MAN

Pls follow instructions:
• Strictly handwritten
• Use black ballpen
• Portfolio should be covered with clear plastic cover and white cartolina.
• Front cover: should have nursing insignia (golden yellow) name of the school, student and
instructor

I. Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

1. Describe characteristics of mental health and mental illness.
2. Discuss the purpose and use of Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM
IV- TR)
3. Identify historical landmarks in psychiatric care.
4. Discuss the current trends in the treatment of people with mental illness.
5. Discuss the American Nurses Association standards of practice for psychiatric mental health
nursing.
6. Describe common student concerns about psychiatric nursing.
Critical thinking questions:
1. In your own words, describe mental health. Describe the characteristics, behavior, and abilities
of someone who is mentally healthy.
2. When you think of mental illness, what images or ideas come into your mind? Where do these
ideas come from- movies, television, personal experience?
3. What personal characteristics do you have that indicate good mental health?

II. Neurobiologic Theories and Psychopharmacology

1. Discuss the structure, processes, and functions of the brain.
2. Describe the current neurobiologic research and theories that are the basis for current
psychopharmacologic treatment of mental disorders.
3. Discuss the nurse’s role in educating the clients and families about current neurobiologic
theories and medication management.
4. Identify pertinent teaching for clients and families about brain imaging techniques.
5. Discuss the categories of drugs used to treat mental illness and their mechanism of action, side
effects and special nursing considerations.
6. Identify client responses that indicate treatment effectiveness.
7. Discuss common barriers to maintaining the medication regimen.
8. Develop a teaching plan for clients and families for implementation of the prescribed
therapeutic regimen.
Critical thinking questions:
1. It is possible to identify a gene associated with increased risk for the late onset of Alzheimer’s
disease. Should this test be available to anyone who requests it? Why or why not? What
dilemmas might arise from having such knowledge?
2. What are the implications for nursing if it becomes possible to predict certain illnesses such as
Schizophrenia, through the identification of genes responsible for or linked to the disease?
Should this influence whether people who carry such genes should have children? Who should
make that decision, given that many people with chronic mental illness depend on government
programs for financial support?
3. Drug companies research and develop new drugs. Much more money and effort is expended to
produce new drugs for common disorders rather than drugs needed to treat rare disorders, such as
Tourette syndrome. What are the ethical and financial dilemmas associated with research
designed to produce new drugs?

III. Psychosocial theories and therapy

1. Explain the basic beliefs and approaches of the following psychosocial theories:
psychoanalytic, developmental, interpersonal, humanistic, behavioral, existential, and crisis
intervention.
2. Describe the following psychosocial treatment modalities: individual psychotherapy, group
psychotherapy, family therapy, behavior modification, systematic desensitization, token
economy, self- help groups, support groups, education groups, cognitive therapy, milieu therapy,
and psychiatric rehabilitation.
3. Identify psychosocial theory on which each treatment strategy is based.
4. Identify how several of the theoretical perspectives have influenced current nursing practice.
Critical thinking questions:
1. Can sound parenting and nurturing in a loving environment overcome a genetic or biologic
predisposition to mental illness?
2. Can children raised in a hostile environment without parental love, support, and consistency
avoid mental health problems as adults? If so, how, or what factors could help a person
overcome a neglected or traumatic childhood?

IV. Treatment Settings and therapeutic programs

1. Discuss traditional treatment settings.
2. Describe different types of residential treatment settings and the services they provide.
3. Describe community treatment programs that provide services to people with mental illness.
4. Identify barriers to effective treatment to homeless people with mental illness.
5. Discuss the issues related to people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.
6. Describe the roles of different members of a multidisciplinary mental health care team.
7. Identify the different roles of the nurses in varied treatment settings and programs.
Critical thinking questions:
1. Discuss the role of the nurse in advocating for social or legislative policy changes needed to
provide psychiatric rehabilitation services for clients in all settings.
2. When are programs for special populations, such as mentally ill adults who are offenders or
homeless, considered successful?
3. How can the nurse reconcile the trend for short inpatient hospitalization with the long-term
needs of some clients with severe and persistent mental illness?

V. Therapeutic Relationship
1. Describe how the nurse uses the necessary components involved in building and enhancing the
nurse- client relationship.
2. Explain the importance of values, beliefs and attitudes in the development of nurse- client
relationship.
3. Describe the importance of self – awareness and therapeutic use of self in the nurse- client
relationship.
4. Identify self-awareness issues that can enhance or hinder nurse- client relationship.
5. Define carper’s 4 patterns of knowing and give example of each.
6. Describe the differences between social, intimate, and therapeutic relationship.
7. Describe and implement the phases of the nurse- client relationship as outlined by Hildegard
Peplau.
8. Explain the negative behaviors that can hinder or diminish the nurse-client relationship.
9. Explain the various possible roles of the nurse.
Critical thinking questions:
1. When it is possible to accept a gift from a client? What types of gifts are acceptable? Under
what circumstances should the nurse accept gifts from a client?
2. What relationship- building behaviors would the nurse use with a client who is very distrustful
of the health care system.
3. What preconceptions do you have about mental health clients?
I. Therapeutic communication
1. Describe the goals of therapeutic communication.
2. Identify therapeutic and non-therapeutic verbal communication skills.
3. Discuss verbal communication skills such as facial expression, body language, vocal cues, eye
contact,
and understanding of levels of meaning and context.
4. Discuss boundaries in therapeutic communication with respect to distance and use of touch.
5. Distinguish between abstract and concrete messages.
6. Tabulate Therapeutic communication techniques with the following format:
Therapeutic communication techniques Examples:
(in English and Visayan language) Rationale
1- 25
7. Tabulate Non- therapeutic communication techniques with the following format:
Non- therapeutic communication techniques Examples:
(in English and Visayan language) Rationale
1-19
Critical thinking questions:
1. Explain why the nurse’s attempt to solve the client’s problem is less effective than guiding the
client to identify his or her own ways to resolve the issue.
2. The nurse is working with a client whose culture includes honoring one’s parents and being
obedient, keeping private matters within the family only, and not talking with strangers about
family matters. Given this client’s belief system, how will the nurse use therapeutic
communication effectively?
II. Client’s Response to illness
1. Discuss the influences of age, growth and development on a client’s response to illness.
2. Identify the roles that physical health and biologic make up play in a client’s emotional
responses.
3. Explain the importance of personal characteristics, such as self- efficacy, hardiness, resilience,
resourcefulness, and spirituality, in a client’s response to stressors.
4. Explain the influence of interpersonal factors, such as sense of belonging, social networks, and
family support, on a client’s response to illness.
5. Describe various cultural beliefs and practices that can affect mental health or illness.
6. Explain the cultural factors that the nurse must assess and consider when working with the
clients of different cultural backgrounds.
7. Explain the nurse’s role in assessing and working with clients of different cultural
backgrounds.
Critical thinking skills:
1. What is the cultural and ethnic background of your family? How does it affect your mental
illness?
2. How would you describe yourself in terms of the individual characteristics that affect one’s
response to illness such as growth and development, biologic factors, self- efficacy, hardiness,
hardiness, resilience and resourcefulness, and spirituality.
3. Which of these categories of factors that influence the client’s response to illness- individual,
interpersonal, and cultural- do you think is most influential? Why?