PTSD among our reurning veterans - Speech or Presentation Example

Consequently, appropriate health interventions can be recommended for treatment. To this end, the article defines PTSD as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a mental disorder that manifests itself after a person undergoes or witnesses a traumatic event such as war, death or physical harm. Consequently, its characteristic symptoms include hyper arousal, avoidance, re-experiencing and numbing. Over and above this, the prevalence rates of PTSD in the population indicated that women had a 13% probability rate of developing it while men had 6.

2% probability rate. In total, its prevalence among the general population is 7.8%. However, of interest is the prevalence rate of PTSD among the veterans. To this end, the article acknowledged that PTSD was highly prevalent among American war veterans. For example, statistics showed that 27% to 31% of veterans from Vietnam had experienced PTSD, and 12% to 13% of Iraq veterans had been affected by PTSD. Consequently, the article focuses on the war veterans and the role of nurses as primary caregivers.

This is in recognition that while seeking medical care, the veterans first point of contact is with the nurses. Consequently, the article seeks to emphasize the need for all nurses to be conversant with the signs and symptoms of PTSD. Moreover, they are expected to be conversant of all the resources at their disposal to aid in the treating of PTSD. In addition, the nurses are expected to be conversant with the conditions of military sexual trauma and consequently recommend screening and treatment for the victims.

Seeking to establish the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among war veterans, the article identified its research basis through statistical studies conducted on past and present wars. To this end, the article cited the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study that was conducted in 1998. The results were indicative that between 27% and 31% of Vietnam War veterans had been affected by PTSD. Moreover, research conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute on veterans from the Iraq war revealed that 16 to 17% tested positive for PTSD, anxiety or depression.

In addition, studies conducted on 289, 328 veterans who had been involved in wars at Afghanistan or Iraq revealed that 21.8% were diagnosed with PTSD. Over and above this, investigations revealed that following the invasion of Iraq, prevalence rate of PTSD among veterans increased between four to seven times. Consequently, the research recognized that PTSD was highly prevalent among war veterans. To this end, the research equally ascertained that a number of cases were not reported or recognized.

Consequently, there was a need for emphasizing the role of nurses in identifying the signs and symptoms of PTSD during veteran assistance. In recognition of the prevalence rate of PTSD among veterans, there existed a gap in dispensing appropriate health intervention to the PTSD patients. This was in recognition that most cases of PTSD were not reported or offered due recognition. Consequently, the principal nursing issue is that veterans suffering from PTSD are not offered sufficient treatment.

The main reason has been due to lack of a collaborative effort by all health care providers in the dispensing of treatment. To this effect, the specific nursing psychiatric issue lies in the isolation of the symptoms of veterans suffering from PTSD. My choice in selecting the article was spurred by the wish to discover various mental