Discuss the role of the professional nurse in relation to a public Essay

Discuss the role of the professional nurse in relation to a public health issue - Essay Example Analysis of the distinct needs and problems of mentally unfit people, as a result of alcohol abuse will be initially discussed. The role of professional nurses in order to deal with the problem will also be discussed in detail. Consumption or abuse of alcohol may be a reason or a result of mental depression and ill health. Alcoholic abuse severally affects the personal as well as professional lives of the patients. These problems may take the form of family conflict, job loss and financial problems (Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse, 2002). These issues eventually lead to serious mental problems like increased levels of anxiety and depression. But the abuser initially experiences placebo effect on consumption of alcohol, a state of feeling illusionary pleasures. Later the exploitation of alcohol starts to exert a depressing effect on the central nervous system, resulting in behavioral and mood changes (Vadlamudi, Adams, Hogan, Wu, Wahid, 2008). This results in increasing alcohol consumption to an extent that the mental health recovery becomes even more difficult. The role of nursing in influencing the mental health of great many people is highly important. The unique skills practiced by nurses in dealing with variety of patients puts a lot of pressure on their duties. Mental health nursing can be considered as one of the most multifarious and challenging fields of nursing. A mental health nurse may have to work in a group which possibly consist of general practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and assistants or individually in dealing with public health issues. These mental health patients who feel themselves extremely excluded and rejected need not only medical but also emotional help. Hence it becomes very important to endeavor as much as possible to bring

Post operative pain assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Post operative pain assessment - Essay Example The scale of the problem can be analyzed through a large number of clinical studies which have proved that patients often experience poor pain management and assessment by the medical professionals. Although the percentage of patients who complain about post-operative pain is low but the overall situation presents significant concerns. In the recent years medical professionals have tried to use technology based pain assessment techniques but the results do not show any significant improvement from patient’s perspective (Mackintosh). The paper is divided in different sections including tools, communication, training, patient education and recommendations. All of these will be discussed critically with the help of contemporary healthcare practices. There is a wide range of standardized post-operative pain assessment tools which are used by nurses. These can be distinguished in to two fundamental categories including uni-dimensional and multi-dimensional. Research indicates that multi-dimensional tools are rarely used in the post-operative pain assessment especially within the clinical setting. This is because they consume significant time while being highly complex in nature. Hence the most commonly used tools for pain management and assessment are uni-dimensional. The distinctive feature of these tools is that they focus on one or two major aspects of pain experienced by patients, for instance, they are usually used for reducing the pain intensity with respect to its location (Mackintosh). Fundamentally patients are required to mark the pain location on a body diagram which is then used by nurses. Despite of various benefits attached to the use of uni-dimensional pain assessment tools one must use them with precautions because they are specially targeted to reduce certain aspects of pain. Extensive precautions are also necessary because uni-dimensional