Mental Health Conditions and Patient Care
Mental Clouding
Mental clouding disorders awareness: Usually caused by an organic disorder affecting the brain and psychic sphere.
Stupor
Apparently not as deep as a coma and with no neurological deficits.
Qualitative Disorders of Awareness
Delirium
Disturbances in deep consciousness occur.
Oniroid States
Disorientation and confusion.
Crepuscular State
Spatiotemporal disorientation and automatic acts.
Disorders of Orientation
Alopsychic
Orientation of the self in space and time coordinates.
Autopsychic
Orientation regarding the person’s own ego, somatic or psychic.
Memory and Attention Disorders
Hyper-hiperdispersion.
Pain
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with potential or actual tissue damage.
Allodynia
Pain due to a stimulus that does not normally provoke pain.
Causalgia
Sustained burning pain.
Dysesthesia
Unpleasant abnormal sensation.
Hyperesthesia
Increased sensitivity to stimuli.
Hypoalgesia
Diminished sensitivity to noxious stimulation.
Types of Pain
Acute Pain
Caused by harmful stimuli triggered by skin wounds or disease.
Chronic Pain
Persists for more than one month after the initial illness.
Somatic Pain
Occurs when a stimulus excites nociceptive receptors.
Neuropathic Pain
Results from disturbances or chronic lesions in the central or peripheral nervous system.
Psychogenic Pain
Psychological problems, such as anxiety or depression.
Terminal Patient Care
We must accompany, touch, listen, answer questions, and understand patients facing death. Treat others as we would wish to be treated.
Neurosis vs. Psychosis vs. Psychopathy
Neurosis
Source: Psychological factors considered exogenous.
Symptoms: Anxiety, feelings of inferiority.
Affect: Anxious, often depressed.
Time Experience: Negative past, threatening future.
Communication: Possible and usually easy.
Psychosis
Source: Endogenous psychological causes.
Symptoms: Altered reality.
Affect: Variable, changing, often inappropriate.
Time Experience: Disruption in biographical evolution and sense of self.
Communication: Difficult, sometimes impossible.
Psychopathy
Origin: Constitutional disposition.
Symptoms: Social and/or personal dysfunction and suffering.
Affect: Cold, aggressive, indifferent.
Time Experience: Exclusive present, without influence from past or future.
Communication: Superficial, linked to self-interest.
Burnout
Background Variables: Overload and monotony of tasks.
Modulating Variables: Resistant personality, coping strategies.
Affective Variables: Psychological and physical consequences.
5 Scales of Burnout
- Background: Overload, monotony
- Burnout: Exhaustion, depersonalization, lack of accomplishment
- Personality: Commitment, challenge
- Coping: Social support
- Implications: Psychological, socio-familial
Neonatal Hospitalization
3 Protagonists: Children, parents, healthcare team. Parents and team modulate growth.
Critical State: Altered vital signs.
Crisis: Opportunity for personality development in a critical situation.
Nursing Process Assessment
3 Stages: Structure, functionality, processes.
Psychological Disorders
2 Signs: Emotions, conflicts in social/family relationships.
Body and Mind
Body: A mechanism.
Mind: Rational activity.
Chronic Diseases in Adolescents
Developmental complications: Body image problems, independence, peer relationships.
Coping with Chronic Diseases
- Learning about the disease (more knowledge, less fear)
- Taking charge (comfort with treatment)
Tools for Control
Identify and accept emotions, express or share them comfortably.