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Communication skills for health and social care
Communication skills in social care
Communication skills for health and social care
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Nurses are responsible for the quality of the care that is provided. However, an inadequate nurse to patient ratio can damper the quality of care a nurse is able to provide if he or she has a bigger patient load than they should. The student nurse believes that adequate staffing is key to providing quality care and nurse retention. Inadequate staffing creates a safety issue for patients and drives more nurses to burnout. In her opinion, the student nurse feels that the best method of staffing is to look at the patient census and staff according to the ratio of nurse to patient. The student nurse’s feels that adequate staffing is accomplished when the nurse to patient ratio is low enough that nurses do not feel overwhelmed with their workload …show more content…
QSEN competencies include patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-base practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. The student nurse can incorporate the competencies into her care by using them as a framework to ensure that she possesses the knowledge, skills, and attitude to improve the quality and safety of the health care that she will provide (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). The student nurse can incorporate patient-centered care by ensuring that the patient is included in every decision and is receiving the care that they want to receive. When providing patient-centered care, the student nurse needs to advocate for the patient to ensure that their needs are being met. Evidence-based practice should always be utilized and it is the duty of the student nurse to continue to research and learn the most information possible to guarantee that this competency is being fulfilled in her practice. Safety is one of the most important competencies for both the patient and the student nurse. It is of utmost importance to ensure that in the care the student nurse will provide that she does not become too relaxed or too hurried and begin to make errors. The safety competency reminds nurses of the importance of safety in the clinical environment. Simple task like ensuring the bed is in the lowest position and that the call-light
The QSEN initiative is the progression of quality and safety of education for nurses that began in 2005 and has been continued over the past eight years. It is a multi-phase process that shows current and future nurses how to apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to their everyday nursing activities(QSEN, 2013, 1). Nurses and student nurses can use their knowledge, skills and attitudes to help prevent never events such as hospital acquired conditions. Never events are medical errors that could have been serious and preventable. They could have been caused by poor communication, lack of proper nursing skills, or simply just negligence. QSEN can also be used to improve nursing outcomes for everyone involved in the healthcare field.
Senior nursing students will complete a QSEN weekly clinical journal requirement learn how to self-assess their progress toward demonstrating these nationally-based competencies. The students will select a different competency each week to address and discuss how they applied that competency to patient care or how they hope to better achieve that competency as a graduate nurse. By the end of the clinical rotation each student will have had a chance to focus on each of the six QSEN competencies: patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety and informatics. The students’ reflection on their clinical experiences each week will teach them how to integrate the core competencies required before graduation. According to Use of self-evaluative practices puts the power back upon the student to direct and think critically about their learning (Dickensen, 2015). Demonstrating these competencies supports safety and excellence in clinical practice (QSEN,
Many nurses face the issue of understaffing and having too much of a workload during one shift. When a unit is understaffed not only do the nurses get burnt out, but the patients also don’t receive the care they deserve. The nurse-patient ratio is an aspect that gets overlooked in many facilities that could lead to possible devastating errors. Nurse- patient ratio issues have been a widely studied topic and recently new changes have been made to improve the problem.
As a nurse we are responsible for the safety and overall health promotion of our patients. Competency in the nursing field is what ensures patient safety and decreased hospital acquired injury. Continued competence ensures that the nurse is able to perform efficiently and safely in a constantly changing environment. Nurses must continuously evaluate their level of skill and find where improvement needs to be made in order to keep up to date with the expected skill level set by their
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN’s) goal is to prepare future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that are needed to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems within which they work. QSEN focuses on six main competencies; patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As we have learned in earlier classes these competencies and their KSAs offer a base to help us and other nurses as we continue our education and become RNs. As we will learn in this class these KSAs go hand in hand with health assessment.
Working in long-term care can be overwhelming. Imagine you are a new graduate nurse putting your new found knowledge and skills to practice for the first time. Your orientation lasted three days which is standard for nurse home orientation compared to hospital orientation that last approximately six to eight weeks for new grads. The shift has just begun and already you have a new admit, new found pressure ulcer to assess, a possible medication reaction, several new orders to take off and eight patients to document on for varying reasons. Feelings of frustration and confusion take over as you are the only nurse on the unit along with a Certified Medication Technician (CMT) and three Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) taking care of 47 patients. Ideal nurse-to-patient ratio continues to be a national issue in both the hospital and long-term care setting (LTC). In the LTC setting there is no official nurse-to-patient ratio; there is a suggested staff-to-patient ratio. This issue not only affects the new licensed nurses but the seasoned nurse as well. Recently, there has been controversial debates as to whether heavy workloads are detrimental to patients. The federal, state, and local government regulates many aspects of healthcare. However, it is the physicians, nurses and other healthcare professional that provide care directly to patients. Consequently, does insufficient staffing, heavy workloads, and unsupportive work environment directly contribute to poor patient satisfaction, nurse burnout, high turnover and job dissatisfaction?
Patient’s safety will be compromised because increase of patient to nurse ratio will lead to mistakes in delivering quality care. In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a metanalysis and found that “shortage of registered nurses, in combination with increased workload, poses a potential threat to the quality of care… increases in registered nurse staffing was associated with a reduction in hospital-related mortality and failure to rescue as well as reduced length of stay.” Intense workload, stress, and dissatisfaction in one’s profession can lead to health problems. Researchers found that maintaining and improving a healthy work environment will facilitate safety, quality healthcare and promote a desirable professional avenue.
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
From over-crowding and long waiting lists to staff shortages which have knock on effects resulting in inadequate skills mix and unacceptable nurse-patient ratios. An aging population, high birth rates and an increase in chronic diseases also puts pressure on the healthcare system. The nursing role has had to evolve in response to changing societal needs and the challenges in the healthcare system today. (McCurry et al. 2009). This can bring additional challenges to nurses’ professional identity. ??
To be deemed competent in skills according to nursing regulations and requirements. This is a challenging factor for many students, as they enter the transition period. This is due to students feeling they do not have the desired clinical competency that promotes the skills and abilities of a registered nurse (Harsin, Soroor & Soodabeh, 2012). Clinical research studies have found that students do have the required expected levels of knowledge, attitude and behaviour’s. However, the range of practical skills aren’t sufficient for the range of practice settings (Evans, 2008).
Nurses Joe and Sarah have been working in a medical surgical unit that has been experiencing a nursing shortage, which has led to an increase in the workload. Sarah has been feeling the physical effects of the stress and feels there is a lack of management support, while Joe experiences some feelings of being overwhelmed, but tries to use it as learning experiences. Joe has developed positive methods of coping, while Sarah is quickly heading towards burnout. Implications and Conclusions The information provided in the literature has great implications for practice in many units, including the writers. It is with great hopes that the research published can be presented to the committees on the unit in hopes that some of the workloads can be decreased to help with staffing and retention rates.
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
According to Pollard et al. (2014), The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of integration of QSEN competencies and learning strategies in nursing programs in New York State. The implementation of (QSEN) in nursing programs is the most important because it guides teaching future nursing professionals to raise the quality and safety of health services.
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main