Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

Please read the instructions and include all of the requirements. Please use the rubric as a guide when you write.

Suicide Precaution Policy

Patients with suicidal ideations are at risk of harming themselves or even others around them. In most cases the patients have attempted to commit suicide which fails due to various reasons including intervention by other people. Such patients are likely to have the urge to repeat the actions again to achieve their goal. Therefore, there is need to treat them with extra precaution even when they await admission services (Navin et al., 2019). The author of this paper intends to highlight on the measures applied in a health care setting to ensure suicidal patients are safe.Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

Providing a Safe Environment

Health care providers have a responsibility to ensure that everyone in the observation unit is safe from harm that is likely to be caused by the suicidal patients. Thus, they have to keep vigilant of all the clients that have been reported to have suicidal ideations. The observation area with such client should be free from objects that can be used to inflict injury like flower vases or other loose items. Such objects are a risk since the client can throw them to other clients or health car providers. The waiting unit should also have a separate area for the care provider where they can store their tools of work where the client cannot access them (Navin et al. 2019). The separate areas however should be designed in a way that the care giver can see the client and what they are doing. The observation unit should also have an alarm system that can be used by both the client when they feel overwhelmed or care providers when they need to alarm others or ask for reinforcement.During the admission process, the nurse should ensure that the patient will be free from harm during their hospital stay. The nurse should inspect their belongings to ensure that they don’t have contraband items that can be used to inflict self-harm. Those items include razorblades, belts and charger cords. Clients should also be dress in hospital that ensures they don’t items hidden in their pockets.Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

ORDER A PLAGIARISM -FREE PAPER NOW

Client Monitoring

Client assessment is essential during admission and hospitalization period. The monitoring process is a collaboration of the caregiver and the client’s family to identify the patients need. Ideal assessment should be conducted twelve hourly or after every change of shift. The evaluation process involves assessing the client mental status (Jansson &Graneheim, 2018).  There is need to know if the client is distressed or having anxiety that can trigger suicidal actions. The client’s family should be involved since they are the ones who spend most of the time with the client and can easily tell changes in behavior. Both objective and subjective data is essential during the assessment. Therefore, the caregiver should ask the client questions whose response will determine their mental status. However, when a client denies suicidal ideations doesn’t guarantee that they are free from conducting any self-harm activities. During the examination, the care giver should ensure that the client understands the need to call for help if they feel overwhelmed. They could use a bell or word of mouth before they get into aggressive actions that would inflict harm to themselves. All the information obtained during the assessment should be properly document by the care provider involved. The information is used by other nurses to evaluate the progress of the treatment process.Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

Nurses Consideration

Nurses get to interact with suicidal patients on face-to-face bases. Therefore, they ought to have consideration that ensures that all the parties involved are safe. The nurses should ensure that they conduct a face-to-face evaluation in 24 hours t determine any changes that occur. They should also ensure they have visual contact with the client for every 15 minutes. That will ensure that the any action meant to inflict harm will be noticed and stopped before much damage is done. The care providers should also consider they safety is the client becomes irritable and violent. They should take cover and call for back-up instead of confronting the client directly. They should also consider the need to observe the client as they take medication. In most cases the clients do not have insight or knowingly decline to take medication. Consequently, they get rid of the medications given when the caregiver cannot see, leading to poor progress in treatment process. The nurse should also ensure that the patient copes effectively in the new environment and that it does not trigger them to cause more harm (Hofstra et al., 2020). The CNA, LPN and RN should collaborate as a team to reach a common goal of preventing suicide and clearing suicidal ideations in the patient.Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

Conclusion

Suicidal patients are at risk of self-harm as well as harming those around them. Therefore, nurses have a role to modify their environment while receiving care to ensure that are limited or no items that can be used for the same. Care of such clients largely involve their families since they are in a position to tell the major behavioral changes that they have observed. Assessment and documentation are important in the treatment of the patient since they allow the caregivers to evaluate the progress (Jansson &Graneheim, 2018).  However, all the categories of nurses and other caregivers should collaborate to ensure that they offer services as a team.Suicide Precaution Policy Essay

References

Hofstra, E., Van Nieuwenhuizen, C., Bakker, M., Özgül, D., Elfeddali, I., de Jong, S. J., & van der Feltz-Cornelis, C. M. (2020). Effectiveness of suicide prevention interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. General hospital psychiatry, 63, 127-140.

Jansson, L., &Graneheim, U. H. (2018). Nurses’ experiences of assessing suicide risk in specialised mental health outpatient care in rural areas. Issues in mental health nursing, 39(7), 554-560.

Navin, K., Kuppili, P. P., Menon, V., &Kattimani, S. (2019). Suicide prevention strategies for General Hospital and psychiatric inpatients: a narrative review. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 41(5), 403-412. Suicide Precaution Policy Essay