Nurses helping returning military personnel with PTSD

Abstract

The current and long standing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are producing a large population of soldiers returning home with extensive physical and mental illnesses. The most common mental health illness in soldiers is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A large portion of these soldiers are not being treated for their mental illness because they are not seeking help, they cannot find or access help and they are being misdiagnosed. This failure to get appropriate and timely mental health treatment for PTSD causes a wide array of adverse effects personally and on the community. Soldiers suffering from untreated PTSD are more likely to be unemployed, divorced, use more medical services, be abusive to their spouses, and get fired from employment. The purpose of this thesis is to promote an understanding about why many of these soldiers are not being treated for PTSD, inform nurses about how to detect soldiers in need of care and aid them to get appropriate care. This research was conducted through nursing and psychiatric databases as well as information from the Veterans Administration and books to further expand upon resources and studies on this topic.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2010

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Heglund, Stephen

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.)

College

College of Nursing

Degree Program

Nursing

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Nursing;Nursing -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0022507

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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