NSG 7220 Week 1 Discussion South University • Online Nursing Essays

The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week based on the course competencies covered.

For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.

Practicum Topic of Interest

In this assignment, you will discuss in detail your topic of interest for your practicum. You will also be required to list at least two individual behavioral objectives (which include verbs that can be measured) at the beginning of the semester, on the basis of overall objectives of this course, as well as your topic of interest. An example may be as follows (these are just examples):

By the end of this course, you will:

• Critically appraise the evidence related to a given subject and its application to current nursing standards and patient safety.
• Analyze the use of information technology in improving the delivery of healthcare to individuals.

Briefly describe your preceptor and his or her academic qualifications and experience, and provide a brief description of the practicum site. Describe your practicum topic of interest and any challenges, issues, or concerns you might have about investigating this topic. What objectives have you set, and how do you plan to meet these objectives? How is your practicum topic impacted by evidence-based practice? You will be choosing one topic to focus upon during the eleven weeks. If you are repeating this course, choose a different topic than what you chose in the last term. If you choose to continue with the same topic, obtain permission from the course instructor. Assignments or articles may be submitted for grading only once.

Please meet with your preceptor to discuss an appropriate topic of interest for your practicum site. Depending upon the type of site and population, there are a number of topics that may be appropriate. Each week, you will be retrieving various articles pertaining to your topic of interest. In Week 1, you will be introducing your topic of interest. In Weeks 2–8, you will find articles (or evidences) that support various areas of your topic.

My preceptor, holds multiple certifications and degrees. She is a DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHS-C.  She is a career nurse with progressive education and experience since the 1980’s. Lisa is owner and primary practitioner of Your Family Walk In clinic, where I will complete my clinical hours for the DNP program.  The clinic sees a wide variety of clients in a primary care setting.  When discussing my idea for the DNP project, Lisa expressed the immense number of adolescents she sees that have mental health issues spanning across a broad spectrum from depression an anxiety, social phobias, drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, and suicidal ideations.  Lisa recently completed additional certifications in mental health and will be onboarding a clinical counselor to meet the needs of the client population. The alignment of her practice gap was coincidentally similar to the topic I wanted to develop.

My topic of interest revolves around identifying risk factors related to adolescent mental health in the primary care setting. More specifically, I want to improve the process for identifying risk factors for adolescents with mental health issues that result detrimental behavior. 15% of suicides occur in adolescents and young adults 10-24 years old (Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2023).  According to the CDC (2023), action steps to improve suicide statistics include improving access and delivery of suicidal care. Early or more efficient screening is one way to reduce these staggering numbers. 

I am still working out much of the logistics of narrowing down the topic and honing in on the specific improvement.  I have two ideas for the improvement initiative. The first is to improve a current screening tool, the second is educating staff in the use of screening tools.  I spoke with a colleague who is a licensed mental health counselor and she affirmed that the screening tools used for adolescents are the same as adults, leaving a gap that could benefit from developing a modified screening tool more specific for adolescents.  Without yet having spent time at my clinical site, assessing the clinic’s current process for screening is needed to evaluate if education is a viable option for the project.

My behavioral objectives are:

1. Evaluate how the clinic site is assessing mental health risk in the selected patient population.
2. Analyze the current screening tools used for adolescent mental health and associated risk factors for self-harm or suicidal ideation.

I plan to meet these objectives by observing what the clinic uses for screening tools now and interviewing staff about their knowledge of mental health screening and related screening tools.  I will also identify commonly used screening tools and identify if the clinic uses these routinely. Research into both topics will help me further develop these ideas into a viable topic.

The challenges and concerns I see with this project are the IRB process, since the population is a vulnerable population. Vulnerable populations are defined as group of people who can be easily coerced in decision making or may be unable to give informed consent (National Library of Medicine (NLM), 2022).  I am also concerned about identifying the specific mental health issue to focus on.  While self-harm and suicidal ideation are well documented as a concerning health topic for adolescents, I believe that screening that would identify early behaviors (depression, anxiety, etc.) that often progress to self-destructive behaviors would be a benefit.  Lastly, I am concerned that at this point in the program, I feel completely unprepared and have no real idea of the best way to develop this idea.  I feel like I have been dropped in the middle of the ocean with no compass, but have to get to shore!

This topic is impacted by evidence-based practice because if clinicians utilize screening tools either more frequently or there is a more sensitive and effective tool to screen adolescents for mental health issues, than we can potentially reduce the number of deaths by suicide or decrease the instances of self-harm or other self-destructive behaviors. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 (CDC, 2023)

References

Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (2023). Facts about suicide. Retrieved October 24, 2023 from https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html

National Library of Medicine (NLM). (2022). Vulnerable populations. https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D035862.html