Professional Roles - Nursing
Professional Roles - Nursing
Informed
Laura is a GP Nurse seeing a person in their practice for a routine contraception medication follow up and notices they are looking quite thin, and they have mentioned periods have stopped altogether. The person's blood pressure is a little low, they have cold hands and are dressed in several layers of oversized clothes. Laura is concerned these may be signs of an eating disorder and raises this with the person, asking if they would consider an appointment with GP or Mental Health Practitioner at the surgery. Laura also flags concerns at the next practice team meeting.
Skilled
Nadia is a Mental Health Practitioner (MHP) at a GP Surgery who has assessed a person for anxiety and poor sleep, but during the full mental health assessment asks about diet which appears to be restrictive. Nadia asks more questions around this and weight loss and asks if it’s ok to weigh the person. The person opens up and shares a fear of weight gain which is leading to restriction and over exercising. Nadia discusses and submits a referral to the Community Eating Disorder Team for further specialist assessment.
Enhanced
Steph is a Staff Nurse in the Adult Community Mental Health Team who has assessed someone for issues with mood and sleep. The person has used self-harm as a coping strategy in the past. As part of the assessment Steph asked about diet and the person discloses that they have been trying to lose weight for some time and tried all sorts of diets, and for the last 6 months has been bingeing and purging which they are finding more and more distressing, often staying up late at night to do this when the family are asleep. The person is not underweight, and their physical risk is low, but their psychological risk is a concern. Steph discusses with this with the MDT and it is agreed a short course of CBT-T treatment will be beneficial. Steph is trained in CBT-T and has access to regular supervision to support her. Steph is aware of the signs and risks that may mean further support is required from the specialist eating disorder team.
Specialist
Charlie is a Nurse in the Community Eating Disorder Service. They are trained to assess patients for eating disorders and trained in specialist psychological treatments such as FBT. Charlie is aware of how to assess, manage and/or escalate physical, psychological and social risks of eating disorder patients including flags for that refeeding or hospital admission maybe required. Charlie works as a care coordinator for people with eating disorders within the wider MDT. Charlie provides and coaches mealtime support and is also able to offer training sessions to students and those in other mental health settings.