Question

1. As a nurse in the health clinic of your local university, your patients are typically young adults who are away from home for the first time at college. The latest class of incoming freshmen numbers 2,200; you are preparing an informational pamphlet to ease their transition into college life. While developing the pamphlet, your intent is to encourage the students to live wisely without sounding like their parent. (Learning Objective 3, 4 and 5)
a. What significantly life-threatening safety issues would you specifically address with late adolescents to young adults?
b. What sexual consequences pose significant risk to this age group?
c. Why are young adults at increased sexual risk?
d. Outline why teaching late adolescents and young adults about personal safety issues is necessary.

Answer 1

a)The significantly life threatening safety issues I would specifically address with late adolescents to young adults would be :

injuries: unintentional injuries like road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in young adults. Hence, young drivers need advice on driving safely and not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Mental health :Depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents, and suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents. Hence, building life skills, psychosocial support and strengthening bonds with family should be strictly enforced to ensure mental health.

Alcohol and drugs: Harmful drinking among adolescents is a major concern in many countries. It reduces self-control and increases risky behaviours, such as unsafe sex or dangerous driving and reduces life expectancy.

Physical activity: Physical activity provides fundamental health benefits for adolescents, including improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, maintenance of a healthy body weight, and psychosocial benefits.

HIV and AIDS: Young people need to know how to protect themselves from HIV infection and must have the means to do so. This includes being able to obtain condoms to prevent sexual transmission of the virus and clean needles and syringes for those who inject drugs.

b) the sexual consequences that pose significant threat to this age group are

Unintentional pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STI) like AIDS,gonorrhea, syphillis, sexually acquired reactive arthritis etc.

c) young adults are at increased sexual risk because

The limbic system that is responsible for instinctual reactions, including risk taking, fear and aggressive behaviour, develops early. However, the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later. This part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into adulthood.

As a result of these neurophysiological differences, adolescents are less capable of understanding the relationship between behaviour and consequences and hence are at increased sexual risk.

d) teaching them about personal safety is important for better awareness of risks, improved knowledge of personal safety procedures, reduced stress, healthy mental and physical state.