Clinical Decision Making - 9781401838454

This unique resource contains 40 psychiatric nursing case studies and questions, based on real-life client situations. Organized by difficulty level, the cases in this book and questions about each case history help to keep the focus on the client and the nursing process. Questions and answers are designed to address the need for empathy, attitude adjustment, opened-mindedness, trust building, maintaining confidentiality, limit setting, delegating appropriately, collaborating with other professionals and making decisions. Each scenario is practical and realistic. Critical problems arising in psychiatric nursing are addressed throughout the book, including those both common and rare. The user has an opportunity to decide appropriate nursing action if encountering each of the problems presented, to reflect on whether the nursing staff in the scenario made the best decision, and to provide a rationale for his or her answer. The user can then consult the suggested answer/rationale for remediation, and find what a reasonable and prudent psychiatric nurse would do in that particular situation. Legal and ethical concerns are addressed throughout the cases, which simulate concerns arising in similar real-life situations that nurses find while practicing. Clients with psychiatric problems are encountered in a variety of settings -such as medical or community- so nurses not specializing in psychiatric nursing are represented in some of the cases.