Medical & Health // My Experience as a Psychiatrist Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
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My Experience as a Psychiatrist and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
My clinical experience as a Psychiatrist and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner gave me new ideas to help toddlers, school-aged children, and teenagers stay on track. This experience encouraged me to move forward and create treatment plans and programs for them. Careful attention and care were given to toddlers, school-aged children, or adolescents with autism or with intellectual incapacity. Children with autism would show impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, an obvious pattern of repetitive behavior with narrow, restricted interests, and unfortunate social interactions (Lord, Elsabbagh, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018, p. 508). As a Psychiatrist and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, it seemed difficult to handle these children with autism because of their inability to connect and respond to me. However, when I met William, a school-aged child, I recognized the idea I should learn more about autism than meet the eye.
As well, my clinical experience with William made me realize my biases, feelings, and prejudices. My first reaction to seeing William as unfavorable made me think that my clinical experiences would need further encounters and sessions of training to delve into his profound traits. I thought I could handle him in the first meeting. However, I was quite wrong to proclaim because I had difficulty finding what William thought and felt. I wanted to know why William got very apprehensive about social situations and why making friends for him would be tough. Without knowledge about autism, I would not know why William preferred to be alone rather than with children. I would be surprised that William would be a bit blunt and rude. Because of this clinical experience, I learned that William behaved and responded to me as he was because of this autistic behavior (Masi, DeMayo, Glozier, & Guastella, 2017, p. 183). As a Psychiatrist and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, I had to ignore those biases, feelings, and prejudices. I had to manage controlling my attitude so that I could focus on providing counseling and nursing care services for him. I knew it would be challenging to deal with William and those children with autism; however, I should exert my effort and energy to extend my patience because William like any other needed care and support. According to a source, “autistic children necessitate a sense of acceptance and safety because of their condition” (Lord, Elsabbagh, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018, p. 508). Clinicians and medical experts can improve the conditions of people with autism “by providing timely and tailored help to family members while revolving appointments and admission to community support systems, by delivering accurate information regardless of the unfiltered media input, and by anticipating changes and transferals” (Lord, Elsabbagh, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018, p. 508). I had to remember that autistic children like William deserved so much more – care, love, and support. Because of this experience, I considered William my main concern due to his behavioral and mental condition.
Besides, I always had assumptions about people with mental illnesses. For me, those people with mental illnesses were unable to behave and stay focused. Those people did not need care and support because they were unable to respond and react to things. In other words, they could not feel anything as I thought. Aside from that, I thought that people with mental illnesses could not recover from their mental problems. However, I was wrong to think about them. I was to believe that people with mental illnesses would not need clinical care. I then realized that those individuals with mental illnesses deserved support. Such awareness gave me new ideas to reflect on how to deal with individuals with autism (Lord, Elsabbagh, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018, p. 508). In William’s case, any psychiatrist and mental health nurse practitioner could then appreciate how they would respond to William’s needs. In the end, my awareness regarding the matter during my clinical experience made me a better psychiatrist and mental health nurse practitioner by profession.
Table 1. Counseling and Interviewing William Using DIEP Model
| D | I | E | P |
| DESCRIBE | INTERPRET | EVALUATE | PLAN |
| Counseling and interviewing a school-aged child named WilliamI integrated methods to deal with William and his issues in class. | My clinical experience handling William meant a lot.It helped me realize to focus on his health and mental conditions because he needed help. | Helping William makes his life wonderful. My experience remains valuable because it teaches me to know autism. | Using this clinical experience, I can help more toddlers, school-aged children, and teenagers receive their needs, such as safety, acceptance, and a sense of competence. |
Indeed, this clinical experience changed my perspective on autism and my client. I just learned to deal with clients and patients of all ages with various health and medical conditions. My clinical experience allowed me to explore new issues and problems like William’s case and find solutions to the problems. Of course, I could tell the truth that dealing with people with mental conditions remained a challenge. Experience would be a teacher to guide me perform my tasks. I just learned to integrate the DIEP Model to describe how this clinical situation could affect my career or advance my nursing practice.
References
Lord, C., Elsabbagh, M., Baird, G., & Veenstra-Vanderweele, J. (2018). Autism spectrum disorder. The Lancet, 392(10146), 508-520.
Masi, A., DeMayo, M. M., Glozier, N., & Guastella, A. J. (2017). An overview of autism spectrum disorder, heterogeneity, and treatment options. Neuroscience Bulletin, 33(2), 183-193.
2017/1083
