Term Paper

As part of the course students must write a term-paper on a vaccine, an antimicrobial or a disease caused by a microorganism and explore information provided by the CDC, WHO, and literary sources for a total of at least five resources. The term paper should include a summary of the research and provide the Web sites and references utilized for the research. Each student must have a different disease, antimicrobial or vaccine to research. The term paper must be typed with 1” margins, double spacing and a 12 point Times Roman font. The paper should also include a reference list. A minimum of five references must be utilized. The American Psychological Association format must also be utilized for the paper. The paper should be between five and seven pages in length (not including cover page, abstract, references, exhibits, etc.). The following guidelines will be utilized to grade the paper:

Content • Provides substantive and relevant development of ideas • Provides logical, accurate, and sufficient level of detail • Demonstrates an in depth understanding of the ideas in the assigned reading and critically evaluates/responds to those ideas in an analytical, persuasive manner. • Has appropriate references 65%

Organization • Creates a clearly identifiable introduction, body, and conclusion. • Provides unified paragraph structure–each paragraph develops only one central idea. • Utilizes APA format 20%

Language • Incorporates appropriate medical terminology, avoids irrelevant and redundant words, phrases and other distracting information and has appropriate spelling; • Avoids errors in sentence boundaries such as fused sentences and sentence fragments • Avoids plagiarism; uses paraphrase and quotes skillfully 5%

Presentation • Clear and logical • Creative and interesting • Effectively relies information 10%

The diagnosis of psychiatric emergencies can include a wide range of problems—from serious drug reactions to abuse and suicidal ideation/behaviors. Regardless of care setting, the PMHNP must know how to address emergencies, coordinate care with other members of the health care team and law enforcement officials (when indicated), and effectively communicate with family members who are often overwhelmed in emergency situations.

In this week’s Discussion, you compare treatment of adult psychiatric emergency clients to child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Compare treatment of adult psychiatric emergency clients to child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients
• Analyze legal and ethical issues concerning treatment of child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients

To Prepare:

• Review the Learning Resources concerning emergency psychiatric medicine.
• Consider a case where an adult client had a psychiatric emergency. If you have not had a personal experience with an adult client who had a psychiatric emergency, you can conduct an internet or library search to identify one.

POST

• Briefly describe the case you selected.
• Explain how you would treat the client differently if he or she were a child or adolescent.
• Explain any legal or ethical issues you would have to consider when working with a child or adolescent emergency case.

PMHNPs may find themselves working in a wide variety of settings—each having their own unique challenges and inherent legal issues. For instance, what do you do in your state of practice when you are providing a therapy/treatment session and a client reports active suicidal ideation? What do you do if you are covering inpatient psychiatric consults and are called to see a patient in the ICU who overdosed on prescription medication requiring intubation? What do you do if you are a PMHNP on an inpatient unit and a client who admitted themselves on a voluntary basis suddenly states that they have decided to sign themselves out of the hospital so that they can go home to kill themselves? These are just some of the legal questions that PMHNPs must know the answers to specific to their state of licensure/practice.

In this Assignment, you investigate your state’s laws concerning voluntary and involuntary commitment. You also analyze a case to determine if the client is eligible for involuntary commitment.

Scenario for Week 7 Case:

You are a PMHNP working in a large intercity hospital. You receive a call from the answering service informing you that a “stat” consult has been ordered by one of the hospitalists in the ICU. Upon arriving in the ICU, you learn that your consult is a 14 year old male who overdosed on approximately 50 Benadryl (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) tablets in an apparent suicide attempt. At the scene, a suicide note was found indicating that he wanted to die because his girlfriend’s parents felt that their daughter was too young to be “dating.” The client stated in the suicide note that he could not “live without her” and decided to take his own life. Although he has been medically stabilized and admitted to the ICU, he has been refusing to talk with the doctors or nurses. The hospital staff was finally able to get in touch with the clients parents (using contact information retrieved from the 14 year old’s cell phone). Unbeknown to the hospital staff, the parents are divorced, and both showed up at the hospital at approximately the same time, each offering their own perspectives on what ought to be done. The client’s father is demanding that the client be hospitalized because of the suicide, but his mother points out that he does not have “physical custody” of the child. The client’s mother demands that the client be discharged to home with her stating that her son’s actions were nothing more than a “stunt” and “an attempt at manipulating the situation that he didn’t like.” The client’s mother then becomes “nasty” and informs you that she works as a member of the clerical staff for the state board of nursing, and if you fail to discharge her child “right now” she will make you “sorry.” How would you proceed?

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Evaluate clients for voluntary commitment
• Evaluate clients for involuntary commitment based on state laws
• Recommend actions for supporting parents of clients not eligible for involuntary commitment
• Recommend actions for treating clients not eligible for involuntary commitment

To Prepare for this Practicum:

• Review the Learning Resources concerning voluntary and involuntary commitment.
• Read the Week 7 Scenario in your Learning Resources.
• Research your state’s laws concerning voluntary and involuntary commitment.

The Assignment (2–3 pages):

• Based on the scenario, would you recommend that the client be voluntarily committed? Why or why not?
• Based on the laws in your state, would the client be eligible for involuntary commitment? Explain why or why not.
• Did understanding the state laws confirm or challenge your initial recommendation regarding involuntarily committing the client? Explain.
• If the client were not eligible for involuntary commitment, explain what actions you may be able to take to support the parents for or against voluntary commitment.
• If the client were not eligible for involuntary commitment, explain what initial actions you may be able to take to begin treating the client.