Suicide is something everyone should take seriously. If someone knows anyone who are in attempt or has attempted to do this, he/she must be subjected to a suicide intervention. Suicide intervention refers to the fast and short-term help catered to patients who has attempted to commit suicide. This is done to help them decrease or reduce their tendency to harm their selves and also to help them cope up with their own problems. Fan Ko Sun and the whole team from Taiwan have realized the challenged imposed by the many cases of suicide around the world to the mental health professionals.
They made a study that discusses the different environmental factors during the times when a suicidal patient receives help from health professionals and what kinds of help or support the patient gets from the professionals. This article was chosen because it relevant and can be readily applied. Many has investigated on the nursing of patients who are suicidal but some factors were not emphasized but are of great importance to the nursing of those type of patients.
It was stressed that the attitudes of the nurses towards their patients were important, but how about the effects on the environment in the ward and how the health professionals respond to provide the appropriate care suicidal patients need? Sun and the rest of the team applied the grounded theory approach in collecting the necessary data. For their study, they had 15 suicidal patients and, also, 15 nurses. They adopted a protocol in getting observations. Both the patients and the nurses were subjected to interviews.
The interview for the nurses was to extract how they care about their patients, how do they communicate, and what makes the job difficult for them. The patients, on the other hand, were asked on how they have received care from their nurses and how do they see the ward. Both parties were asked why they think people attempt to commit suicide. They have found out that there are two important factors in the suicide intervention—involvement of people with team working and the ward environment.
In suicide intervention, a team must be made comprised of a psychiatrist, a registered nurse, a social worker, and occupational therapist and the patient. This team has to cooperate well to make sure that the whole thing will be effective. Regarding the environment in the ward, they found out that the ward provides a decrease in the tendency of the patient to harm their selves because the place is calm, closed, and because the place is different from the outside world where harmful objects is just within reach.
Also, in a ward, patients can interact with people who have interest on their cases. But there are also some dangers wherein the patients can still commit suicide. Some patients were also uneasy being with other patients. They’ve also found out that the attitudes of the nurses can become helpful or can become a constraint in performing their task as a helper for the patients. They have also found out that the attitudes of the nurses can contribute to the mentality of their patients.
The study suggests that the nurses be cooperative the whole time they conduct the nursing of their patients. The nurses should not have negative thoughts about the cases of their patients. This hinders the patients from trusting the nurse. The nurses should be cautious with their words. They should be more sensitive. They should also be sincere to their work. And as a health professional, they must support their patients to make them stronger.