Week 3

I believe movies can go way helping a students understand psychiatric-mental issues better than the regular classroom lecture. The movies I have watch in this class have given me a better understanding of mental health issues.
Pros; movies are visual medium which means better education, because we retain information for a long time when we visualize it. Movies bring to life the inanimate and gives us an insight to an issue.
Con; movies is art form, therefore they can bias one's personal imagination, and these imaginations is sometimes contradictory to the truth. Some movies can also portray certain subjects or themes in a way which is far from real, which can make students misunderstand the real issue.

week 3: Pros and Cons of using movies to help students understand Mental Disorders!

In my opinion, I love the idea of using movies to help students to understand psychological disorders because they can a great learning tool.

Pros:
The positive aspects of watching these movies are they can be a wonderful  reinforcement which can help expand learning beyond the textbook and lectures given in the class room. A great movie can assist an individual in get a feel for what many people living with mental illness feel. A great movies can allows us students to have a glimpse of the “clinical picture” of a client with a mental health disorder.
For student such as myself who are visual learners, movies can be a great tool for my processing and understanding. Movies are also at times way more interesting then just the textbook or class work. they can give you great insight at the end of the day.

Cons:
At times through, the use of movies are often an exaggeration of reality and one may not get the opportunity to really see/assess the true clinical picture of a mental disorder. In that case, a student will not get the opportunity to see the true sign and symptoms of a particular disorder which will be a missed opportunity to learn what to look out for. When a student has the opportunity to see a character play a good role, they can really see some noticeable symptoms that can be picked up to help those we encounter in our everyday lives. We can help our family and friends by studying a good written movie/role. I have not seen a great movies where the focus has been placed on nursing interventions for the client when they are admitted and ongoing treatment. Movies can also be long at times. A good movie can be a great learning movies but cannot be reliable tool of study.

Nana B. Osei-Bonsu
November 7th, 2015

Week 2 Psych Blogs!

Blog Entry 2: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Blogs

As the flied of nursing has progressed, the use of technology and information has become a very common practice. One such use of technology by mental health workers, consumers, as well as psychiatric nurses is the blogging. I enjoy the trend pf blogging and have followed many bloggers over the years. I myself have never taken the time to blog but I enjoy reading many underground gossip blogs, fashion blogs, and urban news blogs. I can see why many will feel empowered to journal their thoughts, experiences, and day to day unique prospective. After doing some research of several psychiatric-mental health nursing blogs, I the following three to be the most insightful and thought provoking mental health and I believe many will enjoy as well.

1. World of Psychology:
   http://psychcentral.com/resources/Mental_Health/Blogs/
   Psych Central’s premier longest-running blog, focused on the expansive subject that is psychology, human behavior, mental health and illness, and the intersection of technology with all of these things. It is overseen by Dr. John Grohol, and features a regular set of contributors and guest bloggers from many different areas in the field of clinical practice, research and treatment.
   
   
2. Pick the Brain: Grow Yourself
   http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/category/community-posts/
    Produced by Erin Falconer since 2008, this blog is dedicated to depression and other mental health issues, and offers coping skills such as meditation as well as motivation and psychology topics. The blogs are visually inviting and promote an atmosphere of acceptance.
   
   
3. Healthy Place: America’s Mental Health Place
   http://www.healthyplace.com/
   This blog offers non-judgmental acceptance of all mental health issues. Individuals are given free autonomy to confess their previous suicide attempts, as well as  how they have coped from day-to-day with mental illness.

Nana B. Osei-Bonsu

Coppin State University

Helen Fuld School of Nursing

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing

Clinical Instructor Africa Walker

NURS 432: Week #2

I have previous experience with blogs. In the rising surge of technology use of the early 2000s I had a myspace.com and xanga.com page. On these sites I could blog various content and keep in contact with classmates, volleyball teammates, and family. Recently I have accessed a behavioral health blog run by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). Their address is www.community.apna.org/browse/blogs.com. This blog is inviting with muted, calming colors and threads on numerous topics. One thread I  particularly interested in is “Prescribing for children and adolescents in mental health” by Lisa Hrina (http://community.apna.org/blogs/lisa-hrina/2015/09/17/prescribing). While this blog peeked my interested in has not materialized my responses, zero to be exact, on the website. From other threads I have read on the website the nurses are empathetic towards their patients. More over there are notes from the President of the APNA every month. The blog from the president is inviting and warm to her constituents, whom she calls her, “colleagues.” If I decide not to participate in this websites blog I would still keep this as a resource for behavioral health nurses.

Week 2

This is my first time contributing to a blog, although I have read several blogs but I have ever been part of  a blog, be it social or educational. The blog that I recently looked up that pertains to mental health is  bipolarburble http://natashatracy.com/topic/bipolar-blog/. There are many blogs on it but I would talk about a particular blog that caught my attention; "I need a break from Bipolar", the blogger got about 42 responses and quite a number of them were empathetic. For example, one blogger replied feeling sad to her this and went further to say he/she felt like the original blogger did all the time.

Florence Amaikwu

 

Week two Blog

 

I am not a blogger I sometimes do get invitation by family and friends to visit their blog site which I do most of the time when I have the time. The blog site that I found very interesting is located at http://www.mentalhealth.gov/blog/index.html. This is U.S. Department of Health & Human Services blog site. It contains several blogs about different psychiatric disorders. It is very informative and educative. It has different blogs on major mental health illness such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders and psychotic disorders. It breaks those mental health illness on age groups too. I will recommend everyone to check out this blog site. It is also a very good site to locate available resources in the community.

Week 2

This was first week at Spring Grove with my clinical group. Although,  I have many years experience working with patients with mental disorders, it's nothing like working in your "own neighborhood." I was nervous at first, but while I waited for my patient to come downstairs, the other patients taught me how to play "Spill & Spell", a fun game that helped me feel more relaxed.
I met my patient and as we talked, I began to feel comfortable. I enjoyed group with Professor West and my classmates, we laughed and enjoyed music and dancing while learning more about each patient. While my patient didn't dance, he did seem to enjoy himself. I am now looking forward to clinical and many new learning experiences. Going to Spring Grove wasn't as bad as I assumed it would be.