Strategies for Conducting Proper Assessment of Depression Symptoms

Running head: DEPRESSION CASE STUDY
DEPRESSION CASE STUDY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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DEPRESSION CASE STUDY
Question 1:
The nurse who would be attending the patient named Berry need to outline the strategies
for conducting proper assessment of the major symptoms that the patient is suffering.
Researchers are of the opinion that the interpersonal communication that needs to be set for a
mental health patient is a bit different from the patients who are coming with physical issues.
The first important aspect that needs to be developed with the patient is a bond of trust (Hall et
al., 2015). The nurse had to communicate in a way by which the patient can rely on the nurse,
open himself up, and reveal different personal and professional problems he is having. The issues
that he mentions and the ways that the issues are portrayed will give the cues to the nurse about
the symptoms of a particular disorder. The nurse should have critical thinking skill and reasoning
skill so that she can correctly link the symptoms with the disorder and thereby conduct her
diagnosis. In order to develop trust, the nurse should first try to build up a rapport with the
patient in order to make him comfortable and free from restlessness (Williams, LLten & Bower,
2016). In order to develop a rapport, the nurse should communicate with compassion and
empathy and try to show her genuine concern for the patient. Researchers are of the opinion that
patients try to concentrate on the body language of the nursing professional as such, cues help
them to develop assumption about the genuine feeling of the nurse. Non-verbal communication
skills also play great role in establishing communication with a patient and therefore, nurse
should try their best to display a positive and caring body language. Body posture, eye contact,
facial expression, touch and many other all have significant effects in the initial interaction with
the patient (Baby, Gale & Swain, 2018). Therefore, the nurse who would be assigned to Berry
would make sure that her body language makes Berry comfortable and make him feel that he can
rely and trust her with his confidential information and also on the nurse’s ability to treat him.

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DEPRESSION CASE STUDY
The approach of the nursing professional should be person centred where the patient should be
kept in the focus of the interaction (Sheridan et al., 2015). The nurse should approach in a way
by which she makes Berry feel that she is always present for him, have patience to listen to him
and to make him better by assuring him that she is there to help Berry. The control of
overcoming the preconceived ideas and biasness about a person is another interpersonal skill that
a nurse should be careful. While interacting with Berry, the nurse should keep herself in the in a
place of extreme respect for the patient, especially for the things that he would be revealing in
the session. With the help of active listening skills and proper two way mode of communication
skills, the nurse should try to understand Berry, donor his wisdom as well as their integrity and
thereby understand what is better for Berry and how he is leading life. Open-ended questioning
with the aim of getting the answers required for clinical reasoning is an important interpersonal
skill that would help the nurse to correctly assess condition of Berry and diagnose his illness.
Question 2:
One of the most important symptoms that are identified in the case study is the shortness
of breath. Researchers are of the opinion that panic disorders often accompany shortness of
breath (Barrosos et al., 2018). This symptom is found to be quite similar to that of Berry. This is
mainly caused by change in the normal breathing pattern when panic attacks a human being.
When such attacks occur along with anxiety, the breathing of the individual becomes shallow as
well as restricted (Murphy et al., 2016). The lungs do not get filled with full complete breath
rather quick and short breath also occur. This condition is known as hyperventilation. Berry is
also seen to go through same situations. Over-breathing causes the carbon-dioxide levels to get
decreased in the blood. This reduction of the blood can cause many physical symptoms that
include tingling, cheat pain, dry mouth and numbness (Barrosos et al., 2018). Similar issue has