Nurses play a central role in healthcare. Their advocacy and leadership roles place them in a strategic position in the design and implementation of various healthcare programs (Iriarte‐Roteta et al., 2020). This healthcare program draws nurses and other healthcare professionals. Nurses will provide their input and insights into design decisions. In this regard, they will be expected to give their experiences and perspectives on aspects of patient experiences, identify apparent barriers to healthcare communications during the program, and give ideas on how to ensure sound utilization of healthcare resources. These roles border on their primary nursing roles and experience handling various healthcare resources and communicating with their patients, patient families, and other caregivers.
Role as an Advocate
Nurse advocates play a role in educating communities on aspects of their health and healthy living. In the context of mental healthcare and this program, they play a role in educating communities on various mental health illnesses, the need for mental healthcare, and the impacts of these illnesses on wellness. In the process, they will educate teenagers on why they are vulnerable to these illnesses and where to seek help. Nurse advocates have a role in program design. Their experience and expertise can help inform output strategies and methods, such as the use of posters, flyers, and verbal communication, as well as the best language and communication techniques to be employed during these communications. They also impact design by coordinating with other caregivers to see how best to make the program successful. As Samuriwo (2022) reports, collaborative paradigms diversify healthcare approaches and ensure vast expertise and knowledge are used in critical healthcare decisions. Nurses can help in this regard by collaborating with other caregivers and helping them realize the plan.
Role of Nurses in Implementation
Nurses are integral to healthcare delivery. In this program, they will form part of the team that delivers actual care to the target population. In this regard, they will be expected to utilize a mixed approach to ensure that teenagers are educated on aspects of mental health illnesses and mental healthcare. Psychiatric nurses, for instance, will educate teens on various mental health illnesses and the available community resources valuable for addressing mental health concerns. This role varies slightly with design. While design involves passing theoretical provisions on the program and is mainly a boardroom affair, implementation is hands-on and entails actual executions of the plan. For example, in the design, nurses will propose the communication technique to be used while they will communicate with the clients in implementation.
Members of the Healthcare Team Needed the Most
In the design and implementation of the program, members of the healthcare teams needed the most, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and social workers. Psychiatrists will play a role in educating teens on various mental health illnesses. Psychiatric nurses will help them understand the nature of their illnesses and the need for mental health care. Pharmacists and physicians will educate them on somatic presentations and medications that may have similar presentations and how to distinguish them. Social workers will educate the teens on community resources valuable in addressing mental health presentations.
The culmination of this program will see a robust group of teens knowledgeable on aspects of their mental health. The provisions of this program will help them make better life choices that impact their health positively. It is a representation of nurses’ and other caregivers’ responsibility and mandates for life maintenance and preservation.
References
Carbonell, Á., Navarro‐Pérez, J., & Mestre, M. (2020). Challenges and barriers in mental healthcare systems and their impact on the family: A systematic integrative review. Health & Social Care in the Community, 28(5), 1366–1379. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12968