Using Instrumentation in Psychiatric Nursing to Assess Documentation of the Nursing Process for Emergent Non-Psychiatric Patient Events

Ongoing education of experienced psychiatric nurses is imperative given the historically complex health presentations of psychiatric patients. Psychiatric patients tend to have medical co-morbidities and often do not have the financial resources for preventative health care. The hospitalization for acute psychiatric stabilization, is an opportunity for psychiatric nurses to teach and advocate for patients’ physiological and psychological health. Documentation of patients’ changes in condition and overall clinical presentation, is necessary to ensure patients’ health care needs are met. Keywords: nurses, patients, psychiatry, documentation, nursing process