Care Plan for Dual Diagnosis to Mental Health Patients Essay

Care Plan for Dual Diagnosis to Mental Health Patients - Essay Example It gives pressure to the life and health of the individual that leads to stress. Stress then causes imbalance in the body and weakens it eventually leaving him vulnerable to diseases. In response to the diseases and negative health conditions, healthcare is provided by the medical professionals like doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and hospital staffs (Buchhols and Henke 2008, p. 364). They ensure that the health condition of the patient is treated and monitored. Probably various tests are required to identify the infection or imbalances in the body so the doctors can prescribe medicines and administer some treatments to the patient. Doctors are then assisted by nurses especially in carrying out some tasks like blood pressure check, injection, breathing of patient and many more (Zaman, 2005, p. 143). In making the rendered healthcare services easier, care plans are created for the healthcare professionals like nurses. It allows an organized and easy-to-follow procedure for a f aster and more effective healthcare assistance given by nurses to their patients (Kongstvedt 2007, p. 19). Care plan is then part of the so-called nursing process. Nursing process is known to be the foundation of the nursing practice as it is the systematic way of making personalized care that considers the individual needs of the patients (Sam 2007, p. 1). It compensates for the downside of healthcare standards as standards only consider the general characteristics of diseases and the conditions of patients. With the nursing process, care for the patients is faster and organized as solutions to the health problems are administered. The nursing process then started in the 1950s as Lydia Hall coined the term as she related it to the standard procedure in providing health assistance by nurses (Bomar 2004, p. 257). The process then serves as the foundation to cater the specific health needs through efficient ways of deciding, solving and administering the care. The process then starts when a patient seeks the care of the nurse until the patient receives the desired care and result (Sam 2007, p. 1). NANDA or the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association determines the communication needs of the nurses among them (Herdman 2008, p. 228). The same group also clarifies the difference between the medical diagnosis and nursing diagnosis. The former focuses on the changes in disease while the later centers on the patient. Since the nursing process provides the foundation for the healthcare rendered by nurses, it contains six main stages summarized as ADOPIE which means Assess, Diagnose, Outcome, Plan, Implement, and Evaluate (Ralph and Taylor 2005, p. 2). Assess or assessment is the primary stage wherein the nurse check the patient holistically as the overall condition of the patient must be identified (Timby 2008, p. 17). A way of assessing the patient is done using a nursing model. The value of the first stage is to know the health problems or diseases of the patien t which may be an existing or a probable occurrence of a disease (Hatfield 2007, p. 18). It is then done to create a startup for the other stages in the nursing process to occur. Standardized and widely-recognized tools for assessment must be used to properly identify the specific needs of the patient. The data is then collected using the health background and history, interview and physical check-up (Ralph and Taylor 2005, p. 2). The second stage is the diagnostic stage wherein the data gathered from assessment are