INTRODUCTION
Self-harm whether in an attempt to commit suicide or non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) which is a deliberate causing of harm to one’s body without the purpose to ending life, is an increasing public health concern in the United Kingdom, specifically and globally, on a broader outlook (Swannell, 2014). Statistically, more than 700,000 deaths emerge annually from suicidal events with 10 to 20 times this figure resulting in non-suicidal self injury (World Health Organization, 2019). In England, self-harm cases is estimated to be around 228,000 hospital presentations annually with the possibilities of one out of five cases repeating self-harm events annually (Tsiachristas et al, 2020). The primary aim of this assignment is to explore plausible strategies that can be adopted by newly qualified mental health nurses to improve the care for patients with self-harm tendencies. Justifications for these strategies would adopt an evidenced based rationale with analysed research subjected to critical appraisal in a bid to generate key interventions that improves self-harm care. Subsequently, an action plan is drawn to correlate observed theories on improving self-harm care with practices for newly qualified mental health nurses.
RATIONALE
Due to the ever evolving nature of the nursing profession, development of an improved approach to cater for public health issues such as self harm behaviour(s) which is the focus of this assignment is anchored on reports garnered from Evidence Based Assessments (Brunt and Morris, 2023). Despite the concept “Evidence Based Practice (EBP)” being introduced into the healthcare literature over three decades ago, it has grown to serve as a standard for international transdisciplinary healthcare providers and, has well attracted support from healthcare organizations across all levels – national, international, and professional as well as regulatory agencies, the likes of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2023) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2021)(Connor et al, 2023). By definition, Evidence Based Practice is a clinical decision making practice that integrates the best available evidence into healthcare practice while also considering the client’s preference and the professional environment of the health professional (Roe-Prior, 2022). EBP in the nursing profession reduces variation in practice which helps nurses adhere to only practices capable of improving care quality, patient outcomes and reducing costs (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019). This research through the EBP approach highlight simple yet effective procedures and guidelines that can be easily adopted by nurses specifically when carrying out the duty of care for patients who self harm. In addition, the research examined inherent policies in the United Kingdom for example the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence “NICE Guidance (2022)” designed to safeguard, support, and prevent the recurrence of self harm behaviours among victims.
The concern around Self-harm is clearly presented in the statistics published by the Children and Young People Secure Estate (CYPSE) bulletin (GOV.UK, 2024). Three reports based on the statistics emphasize on the need to improve the care allotted to self-harm patients. Firstly, the chart as presented in figure 1 revealed that self-harm incidents experienced an increase over a decade.
