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People aren't Assignments
In school and life, it is easy to get caught up in the fast-paced world of class, social activities, and extracurriculars. Meeting deadlines and remembering to check things off your calendar tends to trump truly reflecting on your work while it is happening. I feel that sometimes research can be the same way. During the interview process of my honors thesis concerning individuals’ experience with PCOS and its impact on their mental health, I felt connected to each of these individuals and invested in their stories. It reminded me every day why I chose to pursue this topic and that there are so many real people behind the disease I have explored. However, once data collection was over and it was time to do the desk work, that insight and connection sometimes got lost. Every once and a while, I would look back at the interview guide shown below or look at transcripts from the participants as a reminder of why I did this project.
I am forever grateful for each of the individuals that chose to participate in my study and that they trusted me enough to share their experiences during their interviews. My appreciation for my participants only grew this past spring when I had the opportunity to take Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing (NURS 411). In this particular course, we learned about the importance of mental health and caring for those with mental health disorders of all kinds. One topic specifically struck my fancy, as it was centered around the role of nurses in respecting the privacy and autonomy of others. While this is not a new topic in nursing, as we are taught about respect for all patients from day one, in the world of mental health it can be especially important. The word beneficence comes to mind most often when I think about the overlap between my research and psychiatric nursing. This is defined in the nursing sense as ensuring that the patient's best interest is considered for all of their care, regardless of the nurse's personal opinion. For example, ensuring that a patient gets their scheduled pain medications, even if they are being mean to others or saying something hurtful to the nurse, can be showing them beneficence in a somewhat difficult situation. I believe that my research project allowed me to practice the principle of beneficence through maintaining their privacy throughout the duration of the project by de-identifying data, interviewing them in a private space, and not sharing details with those outside of the research team. Even though I learned the topic itself from a clinical perspective, I think that I will continue to apply this to my research and beyond to treat everyone I interact with as I would want to be treated.
One of the other ways this was applied in the classroom/clinical setting of my psychiatric and mental health course was through the use and application of concept maps during our clinical day. These concept maps are used to get us thinking about the best interventions for our patient in their current state, be able to rationalize and analyze our interventions, and report how the patient responded to what we did during our time on the unit. As seen below, it is no small task to take care of another person. This was not the first class I have ever done a concept map for in nursing school, but it was certainly the most unique style.
Completing this assignment reminded me of the importance of beneficence and awareness towards all people. Learning how to think through the proper interventions or actions for a patient and how you should assess and monitor their response can be incredibly important for ensuring that a patient is receiving the safest and best care possible. As you can see in this concept map format, it forces you to constantly think of all the factors that could be impacting this patient and their state of mind. You must first assess their mental status, then develop concepts that are of the greatest importance for the patient, describe their purpose, then accurately record the patient’s response. This typically ended with discussing whether or not you thought your intended outcome was met based on the patient’s response. Sometimes despite your best efforts, you cannot meet your intended goal, and that is okay. It is more important to know that you were still trying to do things that were in pursuit of the patient’s best interest throughout your time with them. Without assignments such as these, nursing students or other healthcare professionals may not be doing the best thing for their patient in the long run. The lack of knowledge or critical thinking abilities can be detrimental to the well-being of patients. Similarly, if I had not participated in things like CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) courses on things like ethical research practices and protection of human subjects, I may not have been practicing beneficence and justice for my participants to the best of my ability. Furthermore, taking steps such as submitting my research proposal to the Internal Review Board of the University of South Carolina gave me an extra layer of knowledge and preparation for interviews and data collection/analysis.
As a whole, I believe that the practice of beneficence and protection of others can be universally applicable. While I personally see it best from the scope of clinical practice and data collection in research, it is not something that can be forgotten when you clock out. I have seen its impact on patients and on research subjects, and it is not something to be taken lightly. Learning both the concepts and witnessing the application has taught me that it is sometimes necessary to take a step back and remember that while some things are centered around a due date, others can greatly impact the lives of others.
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