This research paper explores the correlation between a traumatic amputation and negative psychological effects. All of the studies we used showed a clear correlation between a traumatic amputation and negative psychological effects. Many of the patients in these studies had at least one psychological comorbidity following amputation, with the most common being major depressive disorder, PTSD, and phantom limb syndrome. Our research paper also focuses on the importance of follow up care for the patient’s mental health after an amputation. We discovered that many patients expressed that they would want to talk about their mental health after their amputation if they received the opportunity and support.
Category: EPB 1 Posts
One thing I learned from this project is that the mental health of patients is often neglected when there is a larger physical problem that needs to be cared for. In the future, when I am practicing, I will make sure to consider how my patients mental health may be affected and what I might be able to do to help them. While there is a strong correlation between amputations and negative psychological effects such as depression and anxiety as it is a huge physical change, simply just being in the hospital may cause a patient’s mental health to suffer. I will work to make sure I take care of both my patients physical and mental health. I would want potential employers to know that I am willing and able to contribute to evidence-based practice initiatives while working, and that I work well in a team environment.
Our team process throughout this project went very smoothly overall. We were able to complete our work on time, and each of us did an equal amount of work. Usually, we would try to do most of the project in person, so we could ask questions and help each other if we had questions. One thing I learned about myself as a team member is that I like to work with others, and that working with others helps me be more productive over all.
I wouldn’t say my opinions on nurses’ contribution to ethical research has changed, but more so I gained a deeper understanding of nurse involvement in ethics. While conducting research in an ethical way may seem black and white that is not always the case as shown in “Miss Evers’ Boys”. Miss Evers believed she was doing the right thing at first in helping her friends get treatment for syphilis. However, she later found out the motives of the doctors, and that many of the men were under the impression that they were receiving treatment, but were not, and essentially left to die. Miss Evers continued with the study and provided comfort treatment to the men in the study.
In this case especially, it is very important for nurses to know the historical evolution and principles of research ethics to prevent something like the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment from happening again in the future. It is important for healthcare professionals to gain insight from where there have been ethical conflicts in the past and work to make their research safe, transparent, and ethical for everyone.
Throughout working towards the course objectives and doing research and appraising evidence I was able to get a good idea on which research is ethical (objectives 1+2). Objective 3 states “recognize the important leadership contributions that each nurse can make to implement EBP to promote safe, quality, nursing care”. This objective resonates with me the most when thinking about promoting safe and ethical research and nursing care. By keeping this in mind, I will be able to work towards providing quality evidence based care and continue to be an advocate for patients.
One assumption I have about the nurse’s role in evidence implementation and ethics is that they use evidence that best supports quality patient care. In generating evidence for research, I think that nurses can utilize their own experiences with patient care to provide a good basis for the research they want to conduct. All research should be ethical, so patients should be able to consent if they are going to be part of a research study. Nurses are also the main patient advocates so they can help voice the patients’ needs and concerns and help make them comfortable. I think the nurse’s role in research involves using past practices and working to improve patient outcomes and finding more efficient ways to do procedures. Implementing the research might involve presenting the evidence to the floor and working to figure out the best way to assimilate it into patient care.
Through evidence appraisal and synthesis, I discovered a lot more about the variety of psychological effects that can occur after a traumatic amputation. The literature appraisal and synthesis did not really change my assumptions on the topic of amputations, but rather affirmed our research question and topic. It was interesting to see recurring themes of some of the most common psychological effects (depression, PTSD) throughout each of the research articles. No matter what field of nursing I go into, something that I can take with me from this research is that the mental health of patients is equally as important as their physical health, especially after a traumatic event. It is important to take the patients mental wellbeing into your care, as it can have a big effect on their healing. My teammate and I arrived at similar conclusions about the finding of this research. We both agreed that it was interesting to see the similarities and patterns of healing in many of the patients following an amputation. Our team process is going smoothly, we were both able to split up the work evenly, and help each other if there were any questions.
Our team did need to revise our topic and question slightly. Our topic involves mental health and psychological affects after an amputation. We ended up getting rid of the time component as it wasn’t necessary and thinking more about what specific negative psychological effects we could look into such as anxiety, anger, hostility, and the tendency towards social isolation. It was a bit challenging to revise our PICOT question at first, but I feel that we were able to make some good improvements. A success we experienced was finding three good articles for our paper. We looked into a lot of articles regarding amputation and decided ours should be focused more on traumatic amputations versus planned amputations. I think focusing on traumatic amputations will make it easier to explore negative psychological effects. Our process of finding the articles worked well as we each picked a few we though would work, and then went through the articles together to pick the most relevant ones.
I think that this team project will be accomplished through setting out clear goals and ideas to keep us on track. Our communication plan involves splitting up the work evenly and keeping a google doc of all our ideas and notes that we can put towards our project. We have been using this to help decide on our topic for our final paper. We can hold ourselves accountable by setting clear due dates for when we need to get a section of the project done and reminding each other about what work we need to complete. Our plan for conflict management involves being open with each other if we feel someone is not doing enough work and making checklists for each of us to stick to, although I do not think we will face any barriers during this project. One benefit to completing this project as a team is that we can bounce ideas off each other and learn how to collaborate while doing research. This will be helpful in future nursing practice as healthcare workers of different professions often come together to work with each other on research and finding the best way to provide quality patient care.
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