NSG 4076 Week 10 Project – Evaluation of Plan Effectiveness Criteria Aggregate Interviews

In evaluating the effectiveness of our care plan, two patients who were frequent flyers to the hospital were chosen for an interview. The first patient that was interviewed was M. Underwood. M. Underwood is a 42-year-old male who suffers from frequent alcohol-induced suicidal ideations. When speaking with Mr. Underwood about the information he was presented at his last discharge, he stated that the information he was given has been what has kept him from coming back to the hospital. He stated that he was not aware that there were so many things that he could do to distract himself when he was feeling the urge to drink. Mr. Underwood states that he has been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a day for three weeks now, and he is proud to announce that he has been sober for 18 days currently. For Mr. Underwood, this is a huge accomplishment because when he was admitted several times a week, his blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit due to the amount of alcohol he consumed daily. My preceptor and I consider this a success so far. Mr. Underwood has not been readmitted to the hospital, and he has been sober for 18 days, so that shows that our interventions may be working and having the desired effect on the aggregate.

The second person who was interviewed for this evaluation was N. Gronek. N. Gronek is a 28-year-old female who suffers from frequent bouts of depression and self-harm attempts due to heroin withdrawal. At the time this interview was done, N. Gronek was being released from a 21-day inpatient rehabilitation program in Tampa that she was referred and transferred to at the time of her last admission to Gracepoint. N. Gronek states that she has been sober for 21 days. She states that this is the first time that she has been to an inpatient rehabilitation center, and she thinks that this is the first step in helping her get sober for good. One of the issues that N. Gronek identified as a source of stress for her was living with her sister. N. Gronek’s sister is a heavy intravenous drug abuser, and N. Gronek states that she will not be living with her sister any longer. She states that she contacted her father during her time in rehab and that she will be living with him because he wants to help her stay sober. N. Gronek was able to identify her plan for refraining from heroin use, which she states is to refrain from interacting with known intravenous drug users, attend daily Narcotics Anonymous groups, and follow up with outpatient mental health services three times a week during her transition period from inpatient to outpatient. It is the hope of N. Gronek to go to college to become an addiction counselor. She states that her time in the inpatient rehabilitation center helped her to realize that there are people out there, including herself, whose lives have been completely destroyed by substance abuse, and she wants to help people get back onto a healthy path in their lives.

Conclusion

Throughout this capstone project, I have learned a lot of very valuable lessons from my preceptor and my patients. I have discovered that when people are suffering from mental health issues, they are significantly more likely to be at risk for self-harm, which is a problem that needs to be addressed. The care plan that I have helped to implement is something that I will be following up on in the future. I have discussed this project with the administration at Gracepoint, and they have agreed to let me continue to work with them in the future to come up with ideas on how to improve their patient care. I will be continuing with my master’s degree to be a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner in January, and this project is something that I plan to work on throughout the duration of my master’s program. I have discovered a passion for working with patients who are suffering from substance abuse issues, and I think that if more people were to take an active role in patient care for this population, we could see a decrease in the amount of substance abuse that our nation is currently facing.

References

Azuz, C., Asher, Z., & Curnow, R. (n.d.). U.S. government concerned with synthetic drug usage; Liberation party losing some South Africans support; Celebrities boycotting Beverly Hills hotel in support for human rights. Student News (CNN). Retrieved from https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp? sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx ?direct=true&db=rch&AN=32U0277728730SNN&site=eds-live