Introduction
Speaking about the lecture, it is necessary to describe my preconceived ideas and opinions regarding the mental health and mental illnesses. The lecturer shared his own life experience regarding his travelling, which actually influenced his outlooks concerning the psychiatric practice. Moreover, the lecture was about the personal experience of the lecturer and the importance of daily routines for supporting human mental health. The lecturer provided several examples of how different age groups react to their working responsibilities and its reflection on the nursing practice. Taking this point into consideration, it should be admitted that the paper lingers upon the discussion of issues regarding the reflection practice, especially its benefits and importance in terms of mental health nursing. To be more precise, the lecture lingered upon the benefits of reflective approach in terms of communication with patients, decision-making process, professional growth, and life experience. Moreover, the lecture emphasized the importance of reflection in interpersonal communication with patients. Doubtless, it is an essential point regarding the practice of mental health nursing.
Preconceived Ideas
The lecturer assumed that young specialists usually try to complete more activities that they physically are able to per particular period of time. He also emphasized that it is quite natural and useful for such age because in the future such specialists would need less time for solving challenging situations with patients. For me, the assumption that the mental health depends on a wide range of minor details has emerged for the first time in this lecture. Initially, the preconceived idea was that mental health problems are caused by some drastic circumstances in the life of an individual or his or her genetic background. In a like manner, I thought that personal experience does not have anything to do with mental health nursing. As a conclusion, the lecturer highlighted the point that there was no any particular strategy of coping with nursing duties.
How The Preconceived Ideas Have Changed
To the broadest extent, I changed my preconceived ideas due to the understanding that being a mental health nurse implies a set of certain traits of character rather than particular skills.
As a consequence, it is quite appropriate to state that mental health nursing is similar to teaching so that a nurse is supposed to act more like a tutor rather than a medical staff (Bulman & Schutz 2013). In other words, as it has been mentioned before, minor details of the average human daily activities comprise the state of the mental health. Therefore, as Tengland (2001, p.12) claims, the mental illness is measured by the degree of the empirical capacities of an individual: abilities to communicate, count, read, write, cook, take care of themselves, and etc. To put it in a simpler way, an individual cannot be fully regarded as mentally ill in case he or she performs average human activities normally or with a certain extent of deviations, which still end with the same result. Therefore, a reflective approach is quite applicable to this aspect.
Related Literature Review
Accordingly, the literature supports the changes of my preconceived ideas by main outline of the necessity of the interpersonal communication as the vital aspect of the mental health nursing (Bulman & Schutz 2013). To be more exact, the main purpose of this aspect is to teach an individual to lead a normal social life through socializing (Park & O’Carroll 2007, p.106). Moreover, special multi-skilled communication groups are created. Actually, these groups are focused on some other aspects, which go far than a daily interpersonal communication. In fact, these groups communicate with an individual in order to socialize with him or her through particular terms. Therefore, the reflection is important: communication cannot be conducted without any kind of reflection, it does not necessarily have to be verbal one. The patient just needs to feel like a real individual in the interpersonal communication. Furthermore, this fact can be referred to the lecturer’s idea of pushing hard. An individual under the treatment is supposed to be immersed in a normal social environment step by step in case his or her physical aspect of the mental health can allow that. Likewise, the literature highlights a so-called theory of lifespan approach. This theory states that a human being changes his or her states of mind, outlooks, or behavioural patterns throughout the entire life (Elder, Evans & Nizette 2012). In such a way, these changes surely undergo certain influences from the external environment. It is important to admit that mental health should be traced during the entire process of an individual mental development. As a result, it will reduce the evidence of mental disorders, which are not presupposed genetically. Thus, the ability of reflection is also important because a nurse is supposed to react in accordance with age, gender, and cultural peculiarities of a patient. In other words, the reflection should not be the same for all patients and cases.
What Surprised Me Most
Speaking about personal surprises concerning the lecture, it is necessary to primarily emphasize the fact that the lecturer was known to have a mania. As for me, my culture regards such illness as the reason to isolate such person. However, I realized that the lecturer was quite capable of public speaking and sharing his knowledge. What is more, the lecturer was answering numerous questions and was extremely surprising in his ability to lead such complex conversation. Hence, the isolation of people with mania occurred to be a more of a cultural prejudice rather than a real necessity, which is based on the public and health considerations.
Barriers and Limitations
It should be admitted that the barriers and limitations concerning the mental health nursing may emerge due to the difficulties of communication that may prevail. This can be explained by the fact that many mentally ill people are unable of leading a logical conversation (France & Cramer 2001, p.105). As a consequence, it makes certain obstacles in the interaction with patients. As for my own part, I expect that the reaction of a patient is still hard to predict, that is why the lack of rational thinking can result in making wrong decisions. It is needless to say that such cases will harm both a nursing person and a patient, as well. Such problem is so complicated because of the evident fact that communication is mainly comprised by speech activity. It is increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that many patients experience problems with a normal speech production (France & Kramer 2001, p.102). For this reason, non-verbal communication is also important.
It is obviously significant to outline the evidence of aggressive behaviour of patients, which can be regarded as a potential barrier for effective nursing performance. The main purpose in this sort of cases is not the self-safety considerations but consequences for the aggressive patient. Doubtless, any human being possesses an instinct of self-defence while mentally ill people do not have it in the majority of cases. It should be noted that I will be expected to keep a proper balance between proactive behaviour towards aggressive patient and safety concerns. By the same token I consider the following requirement to be quite challenging, as well. One of the main objectives of mental health nursing is the mentalization of a patient. In fact, it means restoring him or her to a normal life so that this person will be able to experience the entire spectrum of emotions and feelings without demonstration of vulnerability to any of these experiences (Bateman & Fonagy 2012, p.42).
Lecture Outcomes
Finally, lecture outcomes made me think about my further experience. Thus, the gained knowledge will be used in the wide range of fields of the professional activity. It is the reason the students appreciate this knowledge. Furthermore, fundamental concepts related to mental health will be taken into account as the basis for the entire professional practice. This knowledge will be primarily applied to the research of patients’ backgrounds. In other words, as the lecturer admitted numerous times, the mental health is comprised by a wide range of minor aspects, which will be thoroughly examined. This lecture has made a considerable impact on the perception of the nursing practice. It has revealed the implications, which seemed to be complicated before. However, it is better to put them in the following way. Actually, since the evident issues are complicated, they are important for a discussion in terms of the practical approaches’ perspective, which has been presented in the lecturer’s share of his own former preconceived ideas and evidence of life and academic experience. Eventually, these are the main findings of the lecture, which are considered important for further professional activity: pushing hard, different extents of reflection, mentalization of a patient, and reflective communication. In general, it is necessary to conclude that reflective approach serves a wide range of functions, which will be important for me as a professional in future. Finally, it is possible to say that this lecture provided me with valuable knowledge about reflective approach in mental health nursing. I will apply this approach to my future communication with patients, decision-making process, and even my personal life experience.