Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
CURARE Journal of Nursing, cilt.2, sa.2, ss.31-40, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)
Objective: This research was carried out to examine senior nursing students’ assessment of the physical health status of individuals diagnosed with mental disorders.
Material and Methods: The study was carried out using a descriptive and retrospective design to examine the clinical practice forms of 118 students who performed the clinical practice of Mental Health and Diseases Nursing in the nursing departments of two private universities in the 2021-2022 academic year. The clinical practice forms include patient demographics, patient history, mental state examination, daily living activities, treatment, laboratory findings, and nursing care plan.
Results: According to the clinical practice forms the students completed, the mean age of the cases they followed was 32.90 ± 12.35 years; of the patients, 62.7% were male (n = 74), and 46.6% were diagnosed with bipolar disorder (n = 55). All students were determined to have evaluated patients’ vital signs and height and weight; however, 73.7% did not evaluate pain. The area the students were determined to have evaluated most in terms of daily living activities was sleeping activity and the area they evaluated least to be sexual activity.
Conclusion: The need exists to develop senior nursing students’ practical skills as well as their theoretical knowledge on evaluating the physical health status of patients with mental disorders. By developing students’ knowledge and skills, their self-confidence and motivation regarding physical examination will also increase. This is considered to be able to contribute to the holistic evaluation of patients.