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Advanced Mental Health Nursing Assessment, Formulation and Decision-Making

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Advanced Practice in Mental Health Nursing

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide an understanding of advanced clinical assessment skills in mental health practice that considers the interface between physical and mental health, comorbidities, complexities and environmental and social factors. Advanced mental health assessment and decision-making require intuitive and analytic clinical reasoning, critical thinking, professional knowledge and shared decision-making. It also requires the integration of nursing knowledge, with knowledge from other fields (medicine, psychology, sociology, pharmacology). In addition, a comprehensive assessment needs to be underpinned by the principles of recovery, trauma-informed care and a strengths-based approach. Therefore, it stands to reason that these concepts will be incorporated in this chapter by focusing on the knowledge and skills required to build an account of why and how problems arise, developing collaborative formulation and goal settings, whilst managing the challenges and pitfalls of the essential part of the therapeutic process.

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Polhuis, D., Grealish, A. (2022). Advanced Mental Health Nursing Assessment, Formulation and Decision-Making. In: Higgins, A., Kilkku, N., Kort Kristofersson, G. (eds) Advanced Practice in Mental Health Nursing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05536-2_5

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