Introduction
Nurses hold a pivotal position in health care system as we are providing direct patient care that involves, health promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Patient education is an extremely important component of our job, as it empowers our patients and their families to be independent and acquire knowledge necessary for self-care. It is critical to educate our patients and their family at every opportunity possible as it improves compliance. It starts during admission and goes beyond discharge. According to Taylor, “Patient education is the process of influencing the patient’s behavior to effect changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to maintain and improve health. Research supports the fact
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My nurse had a 21-year-old female patient who had developed an abscess under her left breast. It was drained, and the patient had an almost two to three-inch deep tunneling within her wound which was packed with a wet to dry dressing. I accompanied my nurse to help her with the dressing change. Patient’s mother was present in the room; however, we were unable to communicate with her due to a language barrier. Our patient was fluent in English and Spanish and hence she was our interpreter. She was going to be discharged later today and therefore my nurse wanted to educate the patient and the family regarding self-care. Before starting, my nurse explained to them the reason we were there for, and the steps involved in the dressing change. The patient was pushing my hand away and wanted us to stop as she was extremely sore at the sight. In response, my nurse was gentle, patient and empathized with her and stated that we will try to do it as fast as we can, and that deep breathing would help. She was communicating with the patient’s mother and wanted to teach her regarding the steps involved in dressing change so that it can be performed at home independently. She stressed the importance of hand washing to avoid any type of contamination that would lead to an infection. She was teaching this to the patient who further was translating the information to her mother. …show more content…
She had excellent communication skills that included listening and being receptive to patient’s concerns without being judgmental. She was ready with all the needed supplies necessary for dressing change. She provided the patient with a positive environment and empowered her and the family with the education needed for self-care. She provided an excellent education and made sure that her mother understood all the steps and felt confident to perform this task successfully at home. She also made sure that the patient went home with the needed supplies for two days. She provided them with printed resources and informed them to keep an eye for any signs and symptoms related to complications such as infection. By doing so. This reduces the changes of development of any future complications. The patient needed this information before discharge and the nurse fulfilled her role as an educator efficiently and her teaching strategies were suitable to the education level and understanding of the patient’s
...s, K.D., London, F. (2005). Patient education in health and illness (5th ed.). New York: Lippincott.
Although nurses do not wield the power of doctors in hospital settings, they are still able to effectively compensate for a doctor’s deficits in a variety of ways to assure patient recovery. Nurses meet a patient’s physical needs, which assures comfort and dignity Nurses explain and translate unfamiliar procedures and treatments to patients which makes the patient a partner in his own care and aids in patient compliance. Nurses communicate patient symptoms and concerns to physicians so treatment can be altered if necessary and most importantly, nurses provide emotional support to patients in distress.
Often in practice, we as nurses deal with a variety of diseases and treatments and often have to react to the illness that the patient presents with upon our interaction. While this is an essential piece of our practice, we also have a duty to our patients to be proactive in preventing specific health-related consequences based on their risk factors and to promote their health and well being. Health promotion as it relates to nursing is about us empowering our patients to increase their control over their lives and well beings and includes: focusing on their health not just illness, empowering our patients, recognizing that health involves many dimensions and is also effected by factors outside of their control (Whitehead et al. 2008)..
I have come to fully understand that in order to treat my patients in a way that is person centred, I have to treat each person as an individual and realise that every individual has different needs and different rights and preferences to me which may go against my morals and beliefs but I always have to maintain my professional boundaries and treat each individual with respect and dignity. If I was a nurse who witnessed a similar situation to Kat’s, where another healthcare professional was disregarding my patient or any patients views or requests I would go into the patient’s room and find out what the problem was. Then I would politely ask the healthcare professional to step outside of the room and I would gently remind them of the code of ethics ((Kozier, Erb's & Berman, 2010, p.97) and the Registered Nurses standards of practise (2016), and how every individual has the right to make their own independent decisions about their healthcare needs/goals based on their own values, morals and beliefs. I would further explain that the patients are our main priority and it is our responsibility as nurses’ to ensure that the patients are safe and are receiving the proper care. I would then explain to the patient what was happening and apologise to them about the situation, and I would rearrange and try to negotiate with the patient when the procedure could be performed. Then I would notify the Nurse Unit Manager on the ward to ensure that situations like this do not occur
Syx, R. L. (2008). The practice of patient education: The theoretical perspective. Orthopedic Nursing, 27(1), 50-54. doi:10.1097/01.NOR.0000310614.31168.
I enjoyed interacting with the patients, and my nurse. Karie, was amazing. She explained to me everything she did. The routine for each patient was very similar, and this repetition helped me anticipate what Karie needed and helped me feel fairly confident in assisting her with the new patients and their needs. On the other hand, I was extremely disappointed that I was not given the opportunity to administer an intravenous (IV) line. Karie was willing to allow me the opportunity after I watched her place an IV in three different patients, but her fourth patient was transported from a different hospital with peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line in place. It was beginning to get late in the day and the patients coming in was slowing down, so Karie told the nurses at the nursing station that I needed to practice IV’s, but no one had any to give. Although I was disappoint that the opportunity to insert an IV into a patient did not arise, I did gain much knowledge regarding the ODS unit. I am now familiar with the physical layout of the unit and what takes place with patients that go there. I know the role of the nurse. I was also given an opportunity to practice nursing diagnoses on a
The nursing health field didn’t start as professional and organized as it is today. It started long away in the 19th -20th century; with a lady named Florence Nightingale. She was well known for her night rounds to help assist the wounded soldiers. She was known as, “Lady with the Lamp” (Potter & Perry, 2015 pg.106). What we are learning in school today is about the fundamental of patient care, cleanliness, and management is the legacy of Florence Nightingale. According to Fundamentals of Nursing by Yoost and Crawford, it stated that nursing profession has elevated to a higher degree of professionalism and respectability. I believe that professionalism is required in the working place. As a professional nurse, I’m expected to
It is up to the healthcare professionals to assess and evaluate the patient's learning needs and readiness to learn because everyone learns differently. Healthcare is very sensitive industry because human life is attached to it. Barriers during teaching patients or learning for patients might cost life and law suite. For example, if the patient is sick, the probability for the client to have the interest to learn is unlikely. Therefore, I have to ask the patient what he needs and what interest him from other healthcare professional around. By doing so, I can increase the interest of the client/patient to learn the information I am looking to provide him/her/them. Therefore, by gathering important information from the patients how best they prefer to receive the information and involving other health care team on finding out the effective way of the information can be productive are the best way to overcome the barriers of learning in healthcare
Teaching is part of being a nurse (Angelo, 2015). Being a nurse does not only end at providing full care to the patients but also includes proper teaching about the patients’ disease and medications. Patient’s education should happen when opportunities come, especially before discharge. By teaching them prior to discharge and providing them hand-outs, pamphlets or websites to find important information about their disease and medication, they will be ready to administer their own medications and be informed about their disease. Good personality is also vital in nursing practice (Angelo, 2015). It is not only what a nurse has learned in school or the skills and knowledge that he or she acquired from clinical instructors that are important, but also the whole make-up of a nurse’s own self. For example, a knowledgeable nurse is fully equipped with the skills in dressing a wound, but will never be an effective nurse if he or she does not know how to behave while performing the skill. The facial expressions and body language showing that a nurse is uncomfortable seeing the wound makes him or her unsuitable for the job. It is important that a nurse must not only limit his or her learning inside the skills lab or hospital (Angelo, 2015). Joining associations, programs, community services, and volunteering opportunities can expand nurses’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. The tone of voice must
The main aim of this reflection is to demonstrate that I provided this care. During my training as a student nurse, I have been involved with many patients with complex needs of a with the support of a mentor, however this was, primarily, the first time since qualified and on completion of my registration that I became responsible and accountable for my practice.
My first patient that I started as student nurse on one of the long Rehab Center was a seventy two year old man who had Clostridium difficile (C.diff), Dementia, Hip replacement, and Obesity. Due to the above sickness he had many complications. I can still remember his face suffering from pain. Because of his lack of ambulation and incontinence, he had developed a very serious pressure ulcer under his sacral area. I went through to the room with my instructor and the instructor introduces me for the patient as his student nurse from Towson University and will taking care of him. However the patient was not happy and he becomes a challenging patient in my first experience day. But I may learned more from that challenging patient for my future experience.
According to Healthy People 2012 there are more then 800,000 new cases of diabetes each year, with the numbers on the rise. With this in mind, Healthy People 2012 has identified diabetes as their number five focus area. In order to reach their goal of improving the quality of life for people with diabetes they have identified diabetes teaching as their number one objective. Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of complications of diabetes, Healthy People 2012 has identified foot ulcers as their ninth objective. Through patient education Healthy People 2012 hopes to reduce the number of foot ulcers in people with diabetes, as diabetes is the number one cause of nontraumatic amputations in the United States. In order to successfully reduce the number of amputations and diabetic foot ulcers, patient teaching is essential. Patient teaching, as with the nursing process, begins with assessment in order to identify the patients learning needs (Wilkinson & Van Leuven, 2007).
Health education and promotion are two paradigms that coincide in the world of nursing. Whitehead (2003) describes the biomedical structure of health education approaches as modified allopathic pursuits in health interventions. Nurses play a pivotal role in the education and health promotion for patients under their care. The World Health Organization (2015) defines health education as increasing awareness and shaping attitudes to improve health through learning encounters. Health education is the teaching conducted by the nurse that promotes and attempts to improve the health status of an individual by encouraging them to adopt healthy behaviors.
To support this claim, the survey showed out of 60 second year students feel that they are empowered with the information they have gathered about certain diseases. To support this claim, my interviewee mentioned how patients participate without question if the medical procedure is explained properly to them. He explains it to them in the most basic way. The assurance that the procedure is proven to be effective and that they are in capable hands helped them susceptible to suggestions. Health education can be disseminated in the most common places and in this case—in the hospital. The book Community Health Nursing: Promoting and Protecting the Public's Health states that, “To be a community health nurse is to be a health educator”(Allender, Rector and Warner, 2010,p. 302), my interviewee agrees to the statement. A nurse must know how to read a patients positive behavior and must know what approaches must be used in order for the needs to be met (Maville and Huerta, 2008,p 458). According to him, in this way, the patient can also share the information with his family and friends. According to Baum (2008), participation is an important component of public health. With participation comes greater power to overcome an individual’s self-perceived inadequacies. Strong bonds in a community results from encouraging
My first patient that I started as student nurse on one of the long Rehab Center was a seventy two year old man who had Clostridium difficile (C.diff), Dementia, Hip replacement, and Obesity. Due to the above sickness he had many complications. I can still remember his face suffering from pain. Because of his lack of ambulation and incontinence, he had developed a very serious pressure ulcer under his sacral area. I went through to the room with my instructor and the instructor introduces me for the patient as his student nurse from Towson University and will taking care of him. However the patient was not happy and he becomes a challenging patient in my first experience day. But I may learn more from that challenging patient for my future experience.