MENTAL HEALTH
• Compassion – For RMNs, compassion is an absolute necessity as mentally ill care home residents will routinely test their resolve. For instance:
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• People with psychosis may utter unspeakable words all day long.
• Residents with dementia may be constantly confused about who their carers are and perhaps forget their names.
• Some patients may physically attack nursing staff.
• Resilience – Unlike a general nurse, an RMN may have to find unconventional solutions to the problems faced by mentally ill residents. Sometimes, there is no easy solution and they may simply have to apply patience and resilience.
• Adaptability – RMNs need to be adaptable, especially if they are caring for several residents in a care home.
Although these are the three essential skills, an RMN will also need to possess other qualities to be successful in a care home environment.
Patients with dementia oſten have other issues besides their mental health conditions. For example, immobility; malnutrition; pressure sores; and they are at a greater risk of falling, slipping or choking.
An RMN will also have to perform other duties in a care home, including properly dressing wounds; assisting with urine catheters and other devices; managing the diets of diabetic residents; and proposing and implementing a viable care plan for COPD patients.
As they are also trained in dementia care, a mental health nurse can assess a resident’s mental health/condition; determine a patient’s risk level; understand the various dementia-related problems; and manage residents who exhibit challenging behaviours.
Although mental health illnesses such as dementia do not yet have a cure, RMNs can still help residents to look and feel better; eat healthily and obtain proper nutrition; and communicate intelligibly.
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RMNs should also be able to detect any physical problems experienced by an elderly, mentally ill resident. This is an essential skill since this type of patient is unlikely to be able to inform staff about how they feel.
The number of mental health nurses working in the UK continues to decline every year. This is due to the various challenges they face on a daily basis, such as discrimination from the general public; an increased risk of being assaulted; a lack of government support; and nursing shortages, which creates a more hostile work environment.
Mental health nursing can be stressful and the emotional impact is oſten demanding. For instance, conversations with mentally ill residents can be bizarre, disturbing and upsetting. For this reason, care homes should implement measures to protect their nurses’ wellbeing. Supervisors must ensure that there are adequate staffing levels to prevent potential employee burnout. Elderly residents, especially those with a mental illness, can push a nurse’s patience to the limit. RMNs and other staff members may need to take actions that could possibly be misinterpreted as cruelty by the relatives and the general public. As a consequence, mental health nursing is one of the most stressful professions in the world. However, if an employer takes appropriate account of nursing turnover, this will allow individuals sufficient time to recharge their batteries.
In the UK, many care homes accept people with mental health disorders. One of the main challenges they face is that the majority of mental health conditions are chronic, which means that the patient will have the illness until the day they die. It is therefore vital that care homes employ an adequate number of RMNs as they can provide a level of care that regular nursing staff cannot. Besides tackling mental health issues, RMNs should also be able to perform other critical medical tasks. Finally, they should also possess hard skills, such as pain management, and soſt skills, such as compassion.
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