NUR165 - Understanding and Preventing Suicide

Course overview

Suicide is a serious public health concern that takes an enormous toll on families, friends, classmates, co-workers, communities, and society, as well as on our military personnel and veterans. The American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP, 2014, p 2) stated that 39,518 suicides were reported in 2011 (the most recent year for which data are available), making suicide the tenth leading cause of death for Americans with someone in the country dying by suicide every 13.3 minutes. Unlike most other causes of death, suicide continues to claim more lives each year (AFSP, 2014, p 1-5). Suicide is tragic, but it is also preventable. We have only begun to understand the complexity of factors that contribute to this tragedy and will uncover some of the risk factors for suicide and bring an essence of compassionate understanding along with prevention aspects of the suicide phenomenon throughout this course.