Mental Health
Trauma-informed care, suicide risk, de-escalation, and nurse wellbeing.
10 articles
De-escalation Principles for Behavioral Health Crises
A bedside-focused guide to de-escalating behavioral health crises: recognize early agitation cues, rule out reversible causes, position safely, work the verbal loop, set calm limits with real choices, and debrief afterward.
Delirium or Dementia: How Nurses Can Tell the Difference
Delirium is a sudden, fluctuating, often reversible emergency; dementia is a slow, progressive decline. This bedside guide walks nurses through onset, course, attention, the CAM features, and how to escalate a positive screen.
Recognizing Suicide Warning Signs in General Care Settings
Suicide risk shows up on medical and surgical floors, not just psychiatric units. This guide covers how general care nurses recognize warning signs, use validated screening, escalate positive screens, and document and connect patients to help.
Trauma-Informed Care at the Bedside
Trauma-informed care treats every patient as if trauma may be present and adapts routine bedside care to lower the risk of re-traumatization. This guide covers the practical nursing actions, warning signs, and documentation that make it work.
Moral Distress in Nursing and What to Do Next
Moral distress arises when you know the right action for a patient but are constrained from taking it. This guide covers how to recognize it early, work the AACN Four A's framework, and escalate safely through facility channels.
Postpartum Mental Health Red Flags Nurses Should Not Miss
Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders are common and treatable, and nurses often spot them first. This guide covers the red flags, the two true emergencies, and how to screen, refer, educate, and document.
Sleep Protection as a Mental Health and Delirium Strategy
Disrupted sleep raises delirium risk and worsens mood and cognition in hospitalized patients. This article shows how nurses can protect sleep across the full 24-hour cycle as a practical, evidence-based delirium and mental health strategy.
Supporting Patients Through Anxiety During Hospitalization
Anxiety is one of the most common responses to hospitalization. This guide covers how nurses assess severity, communicate calmly, apply non-pharmacologic interventions, and know when to escalate.
Caring for Your Own Mental Health as a Nurse
Caring for your own mental health is part of practicing safely. This guide helps nurses recognize burnout and moral injury, build support, protect rest, and know when to escalate to professional or crisis care.
Recovery-Oriented Communication with Patients in Crisis
A practical, trauma-informed guide to communicating with patients in crisis: a step-by-step verbal de-escalation sequence, parallel safety monitoring and escalation, and clear debriefing and documentation.