The Position of PTSD based on the Healthcare Outcomes

PTSD is classified among mental disorders that are frequently diagnosed among patients in mental health. It results due to direct or indirect exposure to a traumatic event which distorts the victim’s thinking. Common symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include frequent flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, and avoidance of people or places associated with the traumatic event among others (O’Toole, Solomon, & Bergdahl, 2016). In most cases, the criteria for classifying PTSD is the same regardless of the triggering event. The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and CDC-10 suggests standard criteria for classifying all types of PTSD. However, there are some symptoms that vary depending on the traumatic events that PTSD patients are exposed to. For example, PTSD resulting from a tragic accident can present differently from that resulting from physical assault such as rape. Also, direct or indirect exposure to a traumatic event determines the severity of symptoms that patients display while at the hospital.

According to me, PTSD should be classified based on the traumatic event that triggered patients to have those symptoms. Also, management plans for the condition should vary depending on the traumatic event that the patient was exposed to. For instance, people who develop PTSD due to an interpersonal encounter such as rape tend to develop depression which makes them stay alone by avoiding coming in contact with people of the opposite gender. On the other hand, those who develop PTSD due to a road accident or military killings triggers a person to be engaged in odd behaviors such as excess drinking of alcohol (Jordan, Eisen, Bolton, Nash, & Litz, 2017). As such, approaches for managing these people should vary.

Role of the Interprofessional Team in Facilitating Improvements in the Management of PTSD

            In the mental health unit, an interprofessional team consists of psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, and psychologists among others. Each member of the team plays a vital role in ensuring that patients admitted with mental illnesses recover to their normal state before discharge. In that case, all members in the interprofessional team can necessitate improvements in the management of PTSD depending on the severity of the traumatic events that patients have been exposed to (Molander et al., 2017). Psychiatrists perform most of the prescribing work, and so they can develop a tendency of prescribing medications depending on the complexity of PTSD exposed by the patient.

On the other hand, psychiatric nurses can administer medications appropriately as prescribed. They can as well help psychiatrists to diagnose and prescribe medications depending on the patients’ symptoms. Besides, the interprofessional team can hold merit meetings to discuss and agree upon new practices that will consider other factors such as the type of traumatic event that the patient was exposed to while designing the management plan instead of relying on the general management of PTSD. In this case, the team will be in a position to manage each PTSD patient comprehensively and depending on the severity of the sickness.

Still, the interprofessional will have to undergo several challenges which can hinder their progress in implementing the discussed improvements in the management of patients with PTSD. For example, psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists may fail to collaborate in diagnosing and prescribing medications for PTSD patients with varying severity. Also, resistance from some of the interprofessional team members may slow or block the entire process of necessitating the change in the management of patients with PTSD.

The Position of others that could support the Interprofessional Team’s Approach

            The approach of improving the management of PTSD patients based on the nature of the traumatic event aims at improving outcomes of all patients in the mental health unit. As such, there is a likelihood that this approach will be supported by other health care personnel from other hospitals. Firstly, the approach is evidence-based and patient-centred. It aims at managing PTSD patients at personal levels, and not based on the general guidelines for managing PTSD (Newton et al., 2015). Thus, some health care practitioners will definitely support this approach. Following this, the approach can then be disseminated to other hospitals so that all patients can benefit from it.

The Position of others who could go Contrary to the Interprofessional Team Approach

            As much as there are those who will be ready to support the new approach towards managing PTSD based on its severity, some health care professional will tend to oppose the approach. Still, there is evidence as to why they would opt to do so. Firstly, the American Psychiatric Association already laid down full diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis and management of PTSD in the DSM-5. Thus, those who have gone through the guidelines will hesitate to adopt the abrupt change which has not been verified by authorized bodies (Leclair et al., 2018). Besides, others will fail to adhere to the new approach because it is more involving than the current management approach. Hence, they would rather stick to the current approach which has been verified by solid evidence than switching to a new approach that has not been researched on to determine its effectiveness.

Reference

Jordan, A. H., Eisen, E., Bolton, E., Nash, W. P., & Litz, B. T. (2017). Distinguishing war-related PTSD resulting from perpetration-and betrayal-based morally injurious events. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 9(6), 627.

Leclair, L. W., Dawson, M., Howe, A., Hale, S., Zelman, E., Clouser, R., … & Allen, G. (2018). A longitudinal interprofessional simulation curriculum for critical care teams: Exploring successes and challenges. Journal of interprofessional care, 32(3), 386-390.

Molander, R., Hodgkins, K., Johnson, C., White, A., Frazier, E., & Krahn, D. (2017). Interprofessional Education in Patient Aligned Care Team Primary Care-Mental Health Integration. Federal Practitioner, 34(6), 40.

Newton, C., Bainbridge, L., Ball, V., Baum, K. D., Bontje, P., Boyce, R. A., … & Wagner, S. J. (2015). The Health Care Team Challenge™: Developing an international interprofessional education research collaboration. Nurse education today, 35(1), 4-8.

O’Toole, S. K., Solomon, S. L., & Bergdahl, S. A. (2016). A meta‐analysis of hypnotherapeutic techniques in the treatment of PTSD symptoms. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 29(1), 97-100.