2) Explain why the issue/concern is important to nurse practitioner practice and the issue’s impact on health outcomes.  Provide support for the importance of the issue from scholarly nursing sources current within the last 5 years.

Teen depression is relevant to nursing and nurse practitioner practice. Firstly, nurse practitioners play a significant role in providing individualized mental healthcare in a primary care setup (Davis & Leon, 2021). Providing mental health care for teen depression in a primary care setup offers many merits. It improves access to mental health services within the local community and provides cost-effective services compared to specialty care (Davis & Leon, 2021). Secondly, nurse practitioners play a key role in health promotion and prevention of teen depression. This is accomplished by educating the public and patients (Davis & Leon, 2021). Health promotion and prevention enable teens to avert or cope with risk factors, hence lowering the incidence of depression. Thirdly, nurse practitioners play a significant role in periodic risk assessment via screening teens for depression (Davis & Leon, 2021). Periodic risk assessment promotes the timely diagnosis of depression and initiation of treatment. Fourthly, nurse practitioners promote an interdisciplinary approach to teen mental healthcare by working in concert with specialists (Davis & Leon, 2021). In this context, nurse practitioners assess patients and determine the need for referral for specialist management. Nurse practitioners accomplish this by upholding holistic care.

Furthermore, depression impacts health outcomes among teenagers. To begin with, depression is associated with physical manifestations that impact treatment and healthcare outcomes (Lee et al., 2020). For instance, it can trigger back pain, arthralgia, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, headache, appetite changes, and sleep disturbances (Lee et al., 2020). These physical manifestations impede the ability of a person to execute their routine tasks. Also, they worsen the morbidity associated with depression and lower patients’ quality of life. These physical symptoms are likely to lower adherence to treatment plans, which impacts healthcare outcomes. Besides physical manifestations, depression causes emotional manifestations that impact health outcomes (Lee et al., 2020). Patients are likely to be withdrawn from friends and loved ones, demonstrate apathy and anhedonia, and exhibit pessimism and irritability (Lee et al., 2020). These symptoms lower the quality of teens’ social lives and their ability to care for themselves. As such, long-term symptoms increase the risk of suicidal ideations.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) play a key role in mitigating the impact of depression on health outcomes. As earlier stated, they are involved in screening and diagnosing teen depression. To accomplish this, NPs use standardized risk assessment tools and the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (Lee et al., 2020). The two approaches enable nurses to determine the severity of depression. By so doing, they design care plans that address each patient’s physical, emotional, and social needs. Holistic care can be achieved by collaborating with parents, teachers, and other healthcare providers. In this context, parents and teachers are key informants that enable nurses to make accurate diagnoses. The nursing process will enable NPs to formulate and assess patients’ needs and select the best pharmacological non-pharmaceutical approach to manage patients. Regardless of choice, care plans should be optimized to achieve the best outcomes.