Hello, I am looking for a mental health scenario and wanted to know if anyone has one I can use?  My Mental Health instructor wants me to find one.  I suggested she write her own, but she is not willing to do that at this time.  Jackie

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JWisch, RN, BSN

It depends on what she wants to achieve. Generally I think most people use a regular scenario for the physiology and change the dialogue to incorporate any relevant mental health issues. If she wanted to look at any issues more specific to mental health e.g. self harm, then you might need to develop something from scratch. At our centre scenario development is a collabarative process. We sort out programming the scenario and making it look as realistic as possible with the manikin and other equipment but we rely on a clinical expert for the physiological parameters, history and likely dialogue and curriculum mapping. In our experience trying to create scenarios without this expertise simply doesn't work as it either isn't accurate, doesn't conform with local practice or isn't what the educator wanted. A lot of them aren't that interested in doing the prep work, they just want to turn up and find it's all magically ready but they have to understand that without their expertise and guidence they won't get what they want.  

Thank you for your suggestion.  That is exactly what I thought was the case, but now I can approach her with your suggestions too.  Jackie

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JWisch, RN, BSN

Hi,

Although it is not clear what kind of scenario you are looking for and the what the learning objectives are, have you considered using a standardized patient beside the SimMan patient monitor?

 You may find a useful scenario by searching ( doing CTRL F "mental health") in: http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/rp/publications/projectreports/alinier260109.pdf

Best Wishes,

Guillaume.

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Professor of Simulation in Healthcare Education & National Teaching Fellow (2006)
University of Hertfordshire, UK

Programme Manager - Simulation
Sidra Medical and Research Center, Qatar