Nursing Care Plan for Schizophrenia

Grey’s Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy is a series shown on American drama television that covers rape, abuse, shootings, miscarriages, and mental illness. The movie began with the story of a homeless woman who goes to the hospital claiming that some things snakes included were trying to grab her. The woman later collapses due to an old pacemaker which gets fixed, and the woman’s parents contacted through the help of the ID number in the pacemaker which aided in getting the parents contacts. The parents are shocked to see their daughter alive having thought that she had been abducted in college and buried her. It turned out that the lady had schizophrenia which is a mental disorder that develops in late adolescence and early adulthood. The parents had no idea that their daughter had a mental illness and reckoned that their daughter had got murdered (Serrone et al., 2018).

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is characterized by hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinating is a situation whereby the individual has false beliefs. For example, the woman addressed in Grey’s Anatomy; Claire Nolan went running to the hospital complaining that snakes were chasing her. Her thoughts are affected in a way that she cannot recognize a parent but later know who they are at the end of the episode. Claire lacks awareness that she is suffering from a severe mental problem. The help of medication can manage schizophrenia if undetected; it can cause harm to someone’s life. In season 14, the disorder is managed, and she starts to recover.

Nursing Diagnosis

Nursing management for schizophrenia involves detecting the disorder, building trust and rapport with the individual, accessing the function level and both the negative and positive symptoms. It also involves assessment of the previous medical history such as the pacemaker in the case study and the evaluation of the support system (Townsend, & Morgan, 2017). The nursing care plans for schizophrenia will involve impaired verbal communication and social interaction.

Impaired verbal communication

Impaired verbal communication demonstrates as delayed, reduced or the absence of the ability to receive information. It can be as a result of biochemical alterations in the brain, absence of stimuli or the side effects of drugs. The patients get evidenced by difficulty in communicating verbally, maintaining the usual communication pattern and cognitive problems whereby they have poor speech. The nurse should access the statement incoherence of the patient to establish a baseline for the care plan and the psychotic medication duration to aid in clear thinking. The nurse should plan short periods with the clients during the day because they are less stressful. The nurse should use simple words because the patients have problems in processing complex sentences. The desired outcomes are the ability of the patient to express their thoughts and feelings coherently (Townsend, & Morgan, 2017).

Impaired social interaction

The impaired social interaction is related to the difficulty in communication and concentration. The individual spends time alone, lack of emotional response and avoid interacting with the people. The nurse should intervene by assessing if the medication has reached the therapeutic levels because the schizophrenia symptoms subside with the medicines. The nurse should avoid touching the client as these may get misinterpreted as a sexual gesture. The goals set should be realistic to avoid pressuring the client. Use of coping skills such as assertiveness and communicational skills will help the patient deal with the world. The desired outcomes are that the patient will seek supportive social status.

Conclusion

In conclusion, schizophrenia, as addressed in Grey’s Anatomy, is a disorder affecting the mental health of an individual. It can be corrected when detected by the use of different therapies. Different nursing care plans can be employed to manage the disease.

References

Serrone, R. O., Weinberg, J. A., Goslar, P. W., Wilkinson, E. P., Thompson, T. M., Dameworth, J. L., ... & Petersen, S. R. (2018). Grey’s Anatomy effect: television portrayal of patients with trauma may cultivate unrealistic patient and family expectations after injury. Trauma surgery & acute care open, 3(1), e000137.

Townsend, M. C., & Morgan, K. I. (2017). Psychiatric mental health nursing: Concepts of care in evidence-based practice. FA Davis.