C.C is a nurse practitioner working in a small private high school. She provides comprehensive care to the students and staff at the school. She coordinates the health education program of the school and consults with the administration to identify the educational and health promotion needs of the population.
She works in a Catholic high school. She meets resistance about providing health education about some of the topics typically taught to the adolescent age group. Substance abuse prevention; HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted disease prevention; and pregnancy prevention are topics that are highly controversial at her school. However, C.C. realizes that it is imperative that she reach the teens about these difficult topics.
Discuss the recommended schedule of health promotion and preventive health visits for adolescents and the appropriate topics for inclusion during each visit.
Answer the specific questions above. Then, continue to discuss the 3 topics listed below for your case:
1. Discuss appropriate interventions for adolescents suspected of having an eating disorder. Describe how they would initiate conversations with adolescents about this issue.
2. Describe the physical changes of adolescents that include natural processes of biology and genetics
3. Discuss the prevalence of violence among adolescents. Identify ways that health care practitioners can help prevent and educate adolescents about these issues.
C.C. Case Study
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
C.C. Case Study
Nurses usually interact with patients from different cultural backgrounds and with varied social, cultural, and religious beliefs. To be able to provide quality care that adequately meets the needs of these patients, nurses must be able to provide culturally-competent care (Gradellini et al., 2021). Gradellini et al. (2021) define cultural competence in nursing as the nurse’s ability to integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes into therapeutic communication to facilitate the delivery of care that addresses the cultural, religious, and social needs of patients. In the given case study, C.C. must demonstrate cultural competence to be able to provide quality health promotion education to adolescents in the Catholic High school.
Recommended Schedule
In order to avoid facing resistance from adolescents with a strong Catholic faith, it is recommended that the nurse practitioner designs health promotion and preventive health visits for adolescents in a manner that does not clash with prayer hours. This requires that the nurse understands the prayer schedules of adolescent for proper planning. Notably, the nurse should involve adolescents in the planning of health promotion and preventive health visits for them (Viksveen et al., 2022). According to Viksveen et al. (2022), involving adolescents in decision-making regarding issues that are affecting their health expands service delivery for them and contributes to the delivery of culturally-appropriate care. During each visit, the nurse practitioner must be careful to include only those topics that the adolescents feel comfortable discussing in public.
Appropriate Interventions for Adolescents
Adolescents with an eating disorder require interventions that will enable them to adopt healthy eating behaviors. Eating disorders are categorized as psychiatric disorders. They can be treated using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. However, nurses who are engaged in health promotion and prevention should always consider non-pharmacological interventions. Rienecke (2017) recommends the use of enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy as the best intervention for adolescents and younger adults with an eating disorder. The nurse practitioner should implement cognitive behavioral therapy in the presence of family members. The best way to initiate a conversation with adolescents about the issue is to explain to them that a problem exists including the importance of addressing it. It is also important to explain to the adolescents about the available interventions and the benefits of the best one that will be implemented (Viksveen et al., 2022). The nurse should also assure the adolescents of privacy and confidentiality of data as well as planned respect for their cultural and religious beliefs.
Physical Changes for Adolescents
Nurse practitioners who are working with adolescents must understand physical changes that occur in them and how those changes might affect healthcare delivery. The physical changes that occur in both adolescent boys and girls include; the growth of hair in the underarms and the pubic area, pimples on the face, and a growth spurt in height (Best & Ban, 2021). Girls’ brseasts increase in size and they develop hip enlargement. Boys usually experience a deepening of their voice and hair growth on the face (Best & Ban, 2021). These physical changes usually cause psychological disturbance in some adolescents, a factor that might affect the way they interact and communicate with their healthcare providers.
Prevalence of Violence Among Adolescents
The rate at which adolescents engage in violence might differ from that of adults and other age groups. A study conducted by David-Ferdon et al. (2021) revealed that approximately 44% of adolescent students in a school setting experience at least one type of violence during the study period. Healthcare practitioners can help to prevent violence among adolescents by educating them about its negative impacts and how to live peacefully.
References
Best, O., & Ban, S. (2021). Adolescence: physical changes and neurological development. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5):272-275. doi: 10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.272.
David-Ferdon, C., Clayton, H. B., Dahlberg, L. L., Simon, T. R., Holland, K. M., Brener, N., Matjasko, J. L., D’Inverno, A. S., Robin, L., & Gervin, D. (2021). Vital signs: Prevalence of multiple forms of violence and increased health risk behaviors and conditions among youths – United States, 2019. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(5), 167–173. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7005a4
Gradellini, C., Gómez-Cantarino, S., Dominguez-Isabel, P., Molina-Gallego, B., Mecugni, D., & Ugarte-Gurrutxaga, M. I. (2021). Cultural Competence and Cultural Sensitivity Education in University Nursing Courses. A Scoping Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 682920. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682920
Rienecke, R. D. (2017). Family-based treatment of eating disorders in adolescents: current insights. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, 8, 69–79. https://doi.org/10.2147/AHMT.S115775
Viksveen, P., Cardenas, N. E., Ibenfeldt, M., Meldahl, L. G., Krijger, L., Game, J. R., Andvik, M. M., Cuddeford, O., Duerto, S., Mustafa, M., & Tong, M. (2022). Involvement of adolescent representatives and coresearchers in mental health research: Experiences from a research project. Health Expectation: An International Journal of Public Participation in Health Care and Health Policy, 25(1), 322–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13383