Author: ntriggs

From working on this team project, I learned that the EBP process requires a lot of hard work and collaboration from a team in order to get results to the question at hand. Some skills we learned was how to identify which resources are the best to use and how to cite these resources in text and in a resource page. As well as being able to identify key points in the articles we found. I think the most important skill we learned and practiced in the class was being able to work as a team productively and efficiently. Making sure every team member does their job and do it correctly can be difficult but I feel that this course helped us prepare for that challenge. The teamwork skills we learned will also transcend beyond just EBP and into our clinical practices. Being able to work together as a team is a very important skill for a nurse to possess. Nurses need to be able to collaborate with different aspects of a health care team every day in order to present the best care possible for the patient. 

After completing the CITI assignments and watching Ms Ever’s boys, I think that my assumptions on ethics have not really changed that much. I think that the nurses is to provide continuous care to the best of their ability to their patients. In regard to the movie I thought that Ms. Ever was doing that in the beginning. She made sure that the efforts of the study were truly for the benefit of her patients and the overall population. However, once she knew that her patients were purposely being neglected proper treatment I felt that is when she needed to make a stand and say something. 

Because of the actions of Ms Ever and the other members of the Tuskegee experiment, nurses and anyone else that may be involved in a research of any sorts have been able to learn valuable information regarding ethics in research. Looking back at the mistakes and the harm made from the actions of Tuskegee has allowed for constant improvement of how research is done and carried out. I think that it has provided a baseline on what is now considered ethical as a standard practice of research and what the limits of what a nurse would find to be ethical. In the case of Ms Ever she knew that she had an ethical conflict by not providing the patients with the proper treatment but didn’t want to interfere with the study, moving forward I think that nurses now have been able to make sure that their ethical beliefs won’t have to be compromised for the study. 

When it comes to doing any research I feel that the nurse plays an equal role to anyone else conducting the research. One of the most important roles that I think a nurse will have is making sure that the patient is still receiving adequate care that does not interfere with the study. The point of conducting research is to try to figure out if the way things are being done is the best way to do those things. If the nurse is expected to do things one way to gather valuable information then the nurse should continue to do so, given the nurse is fulfilling all of their responsibilities to the patient. However, if a nurse feels what they are doing is wrong or unethical I feel that they have a responsibility to report the issue they have. Once again a nurse’s responsibility is to make sure a patient is receiving the best and proper treatment that the nurse can give. So, if the nurse finds something to be unethical that is when they need to say something. 

After going through evidence appraisal and synthesis, I was unaware at how successful cultural competency was in the clinical setting. The results from our articles have shown that there has been positive results in a clinical setting regarding care for clients when they have been given culturally competent care. In regard to incorporating this concept into my future as a nurse, I feel that it is an important concept. Being culturally competent is an important skill in every day life as well as being a nurse, but in nursing it has been shown to increase the quality of care. So as a nurse the goal should be to provide the best care possible and based off the research done it shows that this is a way to do so. The consensus of the group was that incorporating some sort of cultural competency was important to add to care. 

Our team collaborated well for this aspect of the paper. We all made sure that each part of the paper that we needed to get done got done. This included making sure that each aspect that we did all flowed well and made it seem like it was one paper. Any issues we had we made sure to talk the issue out and made sure it was resolved before submitting the assignment. 

I found this simulation experience to be very helpful and overall, somewhat enjoyable. I have never really had any experience with truly deal with a person that is experiencing a mental health crisis and despite them being actors it was still helpful to get a sense of what that experience would be like. My expectations going into the simulation were that it was going to be somewhat of just a conversation between my groupmates and myself. In some cases, it was more than others but for the most part it mostly consisted of us really trying to get the patient to talk to us. Almost prying the information from them. I was also kind of expecting to follow a script more so than having a conversation that flowed and asking the questions that needed to be asked throughout that conversation. I felt that for the first patient my group also was kind of expecting the same thing. We kept asking the questions that we needed to but there was no rhyme or rhythm to the way we did it, we would get our answer and then pretty much just move on from it. After the first patient we realized how awkward and difficult it was making things, so we were able to make the adjustments and have more of a fluid conversation with the remaining patients. I felt that getting past that awkwardness of a first interview was one of the most difficult parts of the mental health exam. However, the awkwardness of that first interview will help us in the long run and allow us to really be able to focus on what needs to get accomplished in the mental health exam.

1. I think that there is a stigma associated with mental illness because for many people they still see it as some negative thing that shouldn’t be talked about. While I do think that this stigma is changing greatly and very rapidly I still think that there is a negative stigma related to mental illness because this stigma has been around it for so long. Both our grandparents and parents lived during a time that having a mental illness or talking about mental illness was a bad thing. While the more younger generation is more open to talking about mental illnesses and how difficult they can be for a person to deal with and that there shouldn’t be such a negative stigma surrounding the topic.

2. I think that a person’s culture plays a significant impact on the way that a person may view or respond to mental illness. While this may not be considered one’s culture or not but, I think that men typically have a different response to mental illness. For many men they see mental illness as a weakness that they can’t control, potentially making them less likely to respond positively to mental illness. Being tough is often a characteristic that many men find to be important to have. A part of the reason that many men may have a negative response because in many things like movies or other forms of media have depicted men to be these strong and brave beings that don’t have anything wrong with them. I feel this makes men more likely to have a negative response towards metal health or talking about mental health.