The assignment extract addressed obesity, various associated health risks and some of the challenges relating to diet and weight management. This literature search will investigate if there is any link between an individual's mental health and obesity, while outlining related challenges to effective weight management.
Are people with mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety or schizophrenia more likely to be obese than the general population? If so is there a consensus to the driving cause of any disparity, such as economic inequality, poor diet, and lack of physical activity or medication side effects. Also how can individuals with mental health problems best manage their weight and what role if any do mental health nurses have to play in this management?
Service users and patients must be able to trust nurses with their health and wellbeing. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008) code of conduct demands nurses provide a high standard of practice and care at all times, based on the best available evidence. It is therefore a professional requirement that students and practitioners are able to find and evaluate evidence that will inform their education, professional development and practice.
Evidence based nursing is defined by Cullum (2008) as the application of valid, relevant, research-based information in nurse decision-making. However clinical behaviour should not be dictated by this information alone, but rather it should be used in conjunction with knowledge of the patient as an individual, the care setting, available resources and professional judgement.
Some are critical of evidence based practice (EBP) as merely stating the obvious, or as an attempt by policy makers to limit clinical freedom and even restrict the availability of patient treatment (Griffiths, 1999). Others say EBP is overly hierarchical in its use of evidence from formal research and excludes other forms of knowledge gathered