Mental Health Nursing: Client Experiencing Mania

Follow along with this series of vignettes where nurses interact with clients experiencing a wide range of mental health challenges. In each situation there are two scenarios, the novice scenario helps students to see and anticipate some of the more common errors that a student nurse may make when first dealing with these clients. In contrast the expert scenario shows students how a mental health nurse with more advanced skills and knowledge would handle these situations. This series of examples is a valuable learning tool for nurses preparing to enter the mental health field. Our next example demonstrates a nurses who is finding it quite challenging to care for a client who is suffering from a condition called manic depression. The novice nurse is really struggling as she tries to maintain control over a home visit she is making to her client. In the second scenario the expert nurse also finds it difficult to maintain control over the visit, but manages to do so in a much more skillful and confident manner. The expert nurse also makes an important follow-up telephone call after her visit.