Mental Health Nursing: Depression & Suicide

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. Most of us can relate to being "down" or "blue" at various points in our lives, but occasionally mental health nurses are called upon to care for persons with severe depression. In these two vignettes you'll see how to avoid some of the common mistakes made by novice nurses, and how an expert nurse is able to help a depressed and suicidal client.