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Crisis assessment
Student name
Course
Date of submission
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Introduction
The client is a 21-year-old junior in nursing school named Barbara. Barbara's father,
aged 45, has been a heavy drinker for many years and has recently lost her job. Barbara has
trouble coping due to this situation. Her father's alcoholism puts a lot of stress on the family,
and with the loss of employment, Barbara would like to leave school. Barbara's mother has
multiple sclerosis and wants Barbara to drop out of school and take care of her at home.
Barbara's family is going through multiple crises, and they need help coping before
the situation gets overwhelming. Barbara is worried about her father and mother, and
education, and it is putting a lot of pressure on her that she is having trouble at school. When
parents make mistakes, it's the children that suffer the most. Barbara is having trouble in
school and general coping. The family problems have put so much stress on her that she has
finally decided to talk to her instructor. Often, parents overwhelm their children with stuff
they cannot handle, and it is wrong since it affects their education and life in
general(Townsend & Morgan, 2017).
Another crisis is the father losing the job and being a drunkard. When the
breadwinner of the house is unemployed, a financial crisis is always looming(Townsend &
Morgan, 2017). The family is generally stressed on how to cope and pay bills and maintain.
Barbara's father is an alcoholic too, and this is not positive for the unemployment. Getting
another job will be hard, considering his alcoholic history. Multiple sclerosis attacking the
mother is also a crisis because this makes both parents unreliable. The mother even wants
Barbara to quit nursing school and go back home to take care of her leaving Barbara with no
parent to rely on financially and emotionally. Thus the trouble is coping.
Crisis counselling
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As a nurse, one has to be delicate when dealing with such emotionally overwhelmed
patients(Halter & Varcarolis, 2014). Barbara's family is currently going through a lot and
needs one to approach them with sensitivity. As a nurse, I would practice empathy while
letting the family members say their side of the story. The ethical principles of nursing
practice must be maintained, most especially the principle of autonomy(Naef et al., 2021). I
will ensure each family member is ensured of confidentiality to make it easier for them to
open up about their feelings. As a nurse, I will see each family member alone then hold a few
sessions of all of them together to express their feelings and frustrations to one another.
While handling each member of Barbara's family by themselves, a nurse should listen
with focus and understanding(Naef et al., 2021). All this while closely observe the patient
notice facial expressions and body language. As a nurse handling this crisis, I will respond
with respect, empathy, sensitivity, and genuineness. Ensure that the patient does not feel
judged to be willing to let go of sensitive information. I want to assess the root cause of most
of their family issues, like the father's drinking and why he did not seek help before. I would
like to know why Barbara chose the nursing school and what passions she had, and how all
her family problems are affecting her productivity and participation both academically and
socially. Assess why the mother would consider asking her child to leave school in the first
place.
For this assessment to be comprehensive, I will use open-ended questions like "how
do you feel about your father's/husband's unemployment" This will encourage subjects like
Barbara and her mom to express their feelings. Ask their father why he drinks a lot to figure
out the root cause of his drinking problem. I will use open-ended questions to determine why
and how the father lost his job and how the loss has affected him. Also, the use of closeended questions to get specific important details about the family members, like to the father,
I would ask, "are you considering rehabilitation or seeking any help to stop your
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alcoholism?" This will inform me whether he is aware of its effects on his physical health and
his family. Ask Barbara whether she wants to leave school at all as her mother may want her
to.
While handling the family together, ask them to express some of the issues they
expressed to you without making them feel uncomfortable. As a nurse, you should ensure
your patient's right to confidentiality is maintained and avoid putting family members on the
spot(Slemon et al., 2017). Ensure the conversation is regulated and calm. Barbara should tell
her mother how she feels about being asked to leave school to care for her. Empathy and
sensitivity should be maintained to have a successful discussion with all the family members,
and it would help to ask them alone whether they would be willing to share some bits of
information with the others.
Goals
The goal of this intervention is first to acknowledge the presence of a difficult situation in the
family. They should then be able to understand each person's feelings and where they are
coming from. Every member of Barbara's family should be able to fit in each other's shoes to
understand how they feel and why they behave the way they do. Another goal is to improve
the family's communication and enable each member to speak out their feelings and opinions
without fear. They should then be able to find grounds of agreement on specific matters, no
matter how small(Naef et al., 2021). Another major goal is to ensure that Barbara's father gets
the professional help he needs in dealing with alcoholism to take care of his family. Barbara's
father should also start thinking of replacing his lost income source so that the family does
not feel strained. Lastly, they should all agree on Barbara's education and the way forward in
her nursing school.
Referrals and follow-ups
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Barbara's father could use the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism) resources that have a wide variety of treatment options. Barbara's mother could
benefit from Mental Health Resources (MHR), which provides mental health assistance to
adults suffering from disease follow-ups. They are always encouraged as they will do no
harm but good. Follow-ups can be done on individual members of the family to keep track of
their progress. I would set the first follow-up at a closer date from the intervention and then
push the next one up to two months later, depending on the first follow-up results. Follow-ups
encourage the family members to keep up with therapy or any other positive mechanisms
they employed to help them cope.
Conclusion
Barbara's family is one of many families undergoing a crisis, and it takes courage to
seek help. Mental health awareness is important, and one should speak out when it becomes
overwhelming and affect one's life activities. As a nurse handling such cases, one should
ensure the nursing ethical principles and integrity are maintained. The nurse should ensure
sensitivity and empathy are part of her foundations in dealing with the crisis. Referrals to
specialists who can further help the family are important and later follow up on the progress
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References
Halter, M. J., & Varcarolis, E. M. (2014). Varcarolis’ Foundations of psychiatric mental
health nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Naef, R., von Felten, S., Petry, H., Ernst, J., & Massarotto, P. (2021). Impact of a nurse-led
family support intervention on family members’ satisfaction with intensive care and
psychological wellbeing: A mixed-methods evaluation. Australian Critical Care.
Slemon, A., Jenkins, E., & Bungay, V. (2017). Safety in psychiatric inpatient care: The impact
of risk management culture on mental health nursing practice. Nursing Inquiry, 24(4),
e12199.
Townsend, M. C., & Morgan, K. I. (2017). Psychiatric mental health nursing: Concepts of
care in evidence-based practice. FA Davis.
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