Nurses coping with suicide

As an RN student, I get to go to all the different departments and I will say I am saddened at how many people are overdosing on narcotics.

Emax Health’s article submitted by Kathleen Blanchard, RN takes a look at Medscape’s forums which have been abuzz lately with comments like the above.  Nurses and nursing students must find ways to cope with seeing more suicide cases on their shifts due to the hopelessness bred by the recession.  With less jobs and cuts in funding for homeless shelters, some area nurses are seeing trends that are altogether new and signs of increasing despair:

As an ER nurse for 13 years, I am now seeing female patients who have attempted hanging themselves…a very new thing in this area (New Mexico). Also, many more overdoses in the population of already unstable people. I fear this increase is a sign that there is more hopelessness, and without drastic steps to increase support for social and mental health programs, it doesn’t look like this will improve. Our nation’s emergency medicine systems need more support for mental health issues. In our hospital, the crisis counselors have been cut in half, and there are long waits, sometimes 12 hours, for a mental health evaluation. – eMax Health

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