Natalie is a 21 year old woman who was admitted to an acute psychiatric unit following a suicide attempt.

Natalie is a 21 year old woman who was admitted to an acute psychiatric unit following a suicide attempt.

Natalie is a 21 year old woman who was admitted to an acute psychiatric unit following a suicide attempt. She had taken an overdose of quetiapine (~800 mg). A flat mate found her difficult to rouse in the bath in the early evening (~ 2 hours latter) and called an ambulance. Natalie had previously presented with generalised anxiety disorder and hypomanic symptoms at the student health clinic and she had been prescribed quetiapine (200 mg daily) after consultation with a visiting psychiatrist. Context Natalie was admitted to the emergency department. She initially presented with drowsiness, tachycardia (160 / min), hypotension (90/60) and akathisia. After gastric lavage and 2mg lorazepam IV she was monitored for 8 hours before transfer to the psychiatric ward at 2200 hrs. You are the nurse assigned to care for her on the morning shift and to complete an initial assessment. Handover Natalie is a 21 year old student who attempted overdose yesterday afternoon on Seroquel. She was transferred to us at 2200. She was quite drowsy at the time and not very coherent but did indicate that she had intended to die and did not anticipate her flatmates discovering her so soon. She has been experiencing considerable stressors recently: She has been struggling with her studies… She is in her second semester at University studying statistics and believes she is failing… She recently split up with a boyfriend of several years who lives in her home town (about three hours drive away) because of the difficulty maintaining a relationship over such a distance, and she appears to have depleted most of her savings by gambling on an on-line casino several months ago. Natalie was fairly sleepy so we didn’t glean much more history from her. Her obs are all fine, we’ve been checking hourly. She has a ferociously dry mouth and she’s drunk approximately 2 litres of water over night. She’ll need to see the psychiatrist this morning and have repeat bloods. Natalie has been admitted to the ward for post-attempted suicide for monitoring. The Health team (nurses) will have to gain a better understanding on Natalie’s background, and future thoughts. For instance, Natalie is a college student and therefore, will constantly be under pressure for submission of assessments. The following questions seek to establish why Natalie tried to commit suicide: ? Whether she is under any form of stress? ? What is the relationship between Natalie and the boyfriend, teachers and students at college? ? What is pushing Natalie to commit suicide? ? Does Natalie take illegal drugs/ substance?