When pediatric clients present with mood disorders, the process of assessing, diagnosing, and treating them can be quite complex. Children not only present with different signs and symptoms than adult clients with the same disorders, but they also metabolize medications much differently. As a result, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners must exercise caution when prescribing psychotropic medications to these clients. For this Assignment, as you examine the client case study in this week’s Learning Resources, consider how you might assess and treat pediatric clients presenting with mood disorders.

Note: This Assignment is the first of 10 assignments that are based on interactive client case studies. For these assignments, you will be required to make decisions about how to assess and treat clients. Each of your decisions will have a consequence. Some consequences will be insignificant, and others may be life altering. You are not expected to make the “right” decision every time; in fact, some scenarios may not have a “right” decision. You are, however, expected to learn from each decision you make and demonstrate the ability to weigh risks versus benefits to prescribe appropriate treatments for clients.

The Assignment

Examine Case Study: An African American Child Suffering From Depression. You will be asked to make three decisions concerning the medication to prescribe to this client. Be sure to consider factors that might impact the client’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes.

• At each decision point stop to complete the following:
  • Decision #1
    • Which decision did you select?
    • Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #1 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
  • Decision #2
    • Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #2 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
  • Decision #3
    • Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
    • Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #3 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
• Also include how ethical considerations might impact your treatment plan and communication with clients.

Note: Support your rationale with a minimum of three academic resources. While you may use the course text to support

ZERO PLAGIARISM

FOUR REFERENCES

According to Creswell (2009), quantitative  research is a “means for testing objective theories by examining the  relationship among variables that can be measured and analyzed using  statistical procedures.” Qualitative research, Creswell posits, is a  “means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups  ascribe to social or human problems.”

Consider  the phenomenon of pain. Ethics committees and institutional review  boards do not allow researchers to inflict equal doses of pain on  subjects to examine their physiological response. In quantitative  research, pain can be measured physiologically by blood pressure,  changes in blood chemistry, muscle contractions, and pain scales (which  are still subjective, but at least quantifiable). Researchers using a  qualitative perspective may ask participants about their experience of  being in physical pain, whether being in pain has changed them in any  way, or what they have learned from experiencing physical pain.

For  this Assignment, consider differences in how you might frame a research  question in order to explore it using quantitative or qualitative  research methods.

By Day 7

Submit a 2-page paper that  highlights one of the research questions you shared in your Discussion  post. Design a quantitative research question related to this problem  and a qualitative research question related to the same problem. Please  use the resources to support your answer.

https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/Writing_the_Empirical_Journal_Article_BEM1.pdf