Nursing Care Plan for Depression

Scenario:

A 50 year old female in admitted to your floor with suicide attempt. The patient was found trying to jump off her 50 foot balcony outside her apartment. The patient’s neighbor was able to prevent her from doing this and EMS was called immediately. According to the patient’s history, the patient lost her husband, two sons, and dog in a car accident 6 months ago while they were coming back from a hunting trip. The patient was apparently unable to go with her family on this hunting trip because she was sick with the flu. On assessment, the patient reports inability to sleep at night and constant episodes of crying spells. She states that her whole family is gone and that she is not able to cope with this tragedy. She states she has also lost her job because she couldn’t “drag” herself out of bed. She report feelings of social isolation, inability to deal with stress and think clearly. She reports that she wants to get out of this dark place of her life and have things go back to the way they were but feels like this will never happen without help. The patient agrees with you to a verbal contract of safety and that she will not try to hurt herself again. She states that it was her first suicide attempt ever.

Nursing Diagnosis:

Ineffective individual coping related to situational crisis as evidence by verbalization of inability to cope, reported life stress, and alteration in social participation.