Bingley_NR554_W7_Commitment to Action_ Teen Suicide Prevention.

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Commitment to Action: Preventing Teen Suicide Carole N. Bingley Chamberlain College of Nursing NR554: The Nurse Leader and Healthcare Policy-Fildes April 2018 Commitment to Action: Preventin... g Teen Suicide Teen suicide has become an epidemic across the United States, suicide second only to accidents as the leading cause of death among individuals ages 15 to 19 (Murphy, Xu, Kochanek, Curtin, & Arias, 2017). The rate of suicidal ideation, planning, and attempt has risen in each of the last nine years for this age group (“Trends”, 2017). The CDC estimates, via the youth risk behavior survey, that 17.7% of American high school students seriously consider suicide in a given year, 14.6% concocting plans to commit suicide, and 8.6% attempting suicide in a given year (“United States 2015 Results”, 2017). For students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, these numbers are even more striking, 20.7% having attempted suicide in the past 12 months as of 2015 (“Cleveland, OH 2015 Results”, 2017). For teens aged 15-19, suicide is more prevalent than in the adult population by a factor of 3.6, 48.3 of every 100,000 individuals in this age group committing suicide in a given year (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2017). With this public health crisis sweeping across the United States, and especially in Northeast Ohio, more effective interventions are necessary. The best medium through which improvements can be pursued is the education system, where individuals in the affected age groups are most accessible and where comprehensive suicide prevention initiatives can be implemented. Nursing Role Function Nurses on legislative staffs are most apt to advocate for education-driven solutions to the ......................................................................................continued............................................................................................................... [Show More]

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