Being admitted to hospital or preparing for surgical procedures can be very difficult and scary for children and their parents. Ball et al. (2014), states that the most common stressors for children being admitted to hospital are the loss of control and autonomy, the fear of pain, separation anxiety and a change in body image. Ball et al. (2014) also state that fear of hospitalisation depends on the child’s age and developmental stage. For example, toddlers and primary school aged children are often the most anxious and are afraid of being separated from their parents whereas adolescents tend to be anxious about their loss of independence and privacy. This means that a good knowledge of children’s developmental stages is essential if the …show more content…
According to Dougherty et al. (2015), nurses should create an environment for their patient and their family where they feel they can talk about their worries and fears. Dougherty et al. (2015) state that communication and creating a safe environment for their patients is a skill that should be learned and mastered by a nurse in the same way as any other skill. This will ensure effective and empathetic patient and family centred …show more content…
(2014), outline four of the main stress reducing techniques that a nurse can use or encourage a parent to use. These include ensuring the child gets enough sleep the night before a procedure, maintaining a normal routine as much as possible and ensuring the family’s presence during a stay in hospital. This is especially important with younger children who may not have the capacity to understand why they are in hospital. Caring for an adolescent is different and the nurse must adapt his or her way of reducing stress and anxiety. As previously stated, Adolescents tend to fear the loss of independence and privacy as well as a change in body image above other common stressors. This is why it is important that they are included in their care and are allowed to make decisions about their own care as much as possible. For example, allowing an older child to sign or co-sign their consent will help to maintain their independence and autonomy, thus reducing anxiety (Smith,
Consent is necessary from everyone, not only those who can verbalise his or her needs. It is important to find out the persons communication needs so that they can be involved in discussions around their needs and preferences. My duty of care is to ensure that choices are given, and that appropriate support is obtained where there is lack of capacity is the decision is complex and the individual cannot consent. This may be from families or next of kin or using advocates to ensure that the client’s best interests are maintained. There may be past events or requests that could indicate the client’s preferences, and these must be considered when choices have to be made by others. Any preferences should be recorded on care plans and shared with relevant others to be able to determine the best interests of the person. Decisions should also be put off until the client is able to make their own choices where possible and not taken on their behalf through assuming we know
The clinical setting can be terrifying for a nursing student. Nursing students are not only concerned about properly caring for patients, but they have just as much concern regarding the techniques of how to properly address patients and their families in a manner which conveys the care and concern they wish to possess when they become registered nurses. Certainly, heightened levels of anxiety may inhibit a student nurse’s ability to make sound judgment calls with regard to appropriate nursing interventions (Foley, 2016).
Heuer, L., Bengiamin, M., Downey, V., & Imler, N. (1996). Focus on children's nursing. Neonatal intensive care nurse stressors: an American study. British Journal Of Nursing, 5(18), 1126-1130.
The introduction paragraph gives information on communication and the impact that it has on patient-nurse relationships. It gives the reader an understanding of what is involved in true communication and how that it is a fundamental part of nursing and skills all nurses need. It leads those interested in delivering quality nursing to read on. Showing us the significance that communication makes in the
In less stressful environment, nurses able to incorporate caring relationship, improve interactions between patient and a nurse, and develop understanding of the other person’s perspective (Nicely, K, Sloane, D., Aiden, L., 2012).
As a pediatric hospitalist, there are a wide range of duties that must be completed for the safety and well-being of one’s patients. A duty amongst all physicians is caring for a patient’s illnesses. As a pediatrician, one must be involved in the physical, mental, and emotional upbringing of adolescents throughout every stage of development in good health as well as in illness. A pediatrician takes care of a child from a few weeks after birth to the age of twenty-one when the patient transfers to a new physician. The duties designated to all pediatricians is to reduce infant and child mortality rates, control diseases, make sure patients lead well-maintained lifestyles, and make easier the lives of children and adolescents with chronic conditions. Becoming a pediatrician would improve the lives of many children.
In nursing practice, communication is essential, and good communication skills are paramount in the development of a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of communication in nursing, demonstrating how effective communication facilitates a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This will be achieved by providing a definition of communication, making reference to models of communication and explaining how different types of communication skills can be used in practise.
Parental presence is an issue that has been debated upon for a long time. An important statistic to consider is that currently only 40% of US hospitals have a policy that supports family presence (Chorney & Kain, 2010). Not every situation allows a parent to be present, but research has found that parents prefer to be present during their child’s procedure. “Boie et al. (1999) carried out a survey in the US and found that 97.5 percent of 400 parents surveyed wished to be present with their child during venipuncture” (as cited in Gilboy & Hollywood, 2009). Procedures that children may undergo include venipuncture, dental procedures, and minor outpatient procedures. According to Townsend (2009), signs of anxiety in children include crying, shaking, quietness, and acting scared or frightened (p. 17). Doctors, n...
Today, many Americans face the struggle of the daily hustle and bustle, and at times can experience this pressure to rush even in their medical appointments. Conversely, the introduction of “patient-centered care” has been pushed immensely, to ensure that patients and families feel they get the medical attention they are seeking and paying for. Unlike years past, patient centered care places the focus on the patient, as opposed to the physician.1 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) separates patient centered care into eight dimensions, including respect, emotional support, coordination of care, involvement of the family, physical comfort, continuity and transition and access to care.2
According to Boykin “Caring is the foundation of nursing” (Boykin et al, 2011), and it is the nurses’ responsibility to understand what it means to be caring toward patients, which can be achieved through having professional communication skills. Not only does not being able to communicate affect the patient, but also it affects how the nurse is able to do his or her job to the best they can. Smith and Pressman say that the Institute of Medicine has released reports, which stress, “good communication is critical to ensuring safe and reliable nursing” (Smith & Pressman, 2010). Bad communication skills have the potential to be more dangerous to the patient and can in tern make a life-threateni...
I was able to see how stressful it was for parents who also had children at home and had to be at the hospital taking care of their child. Also, for the first time I experienced having to deal with parents who were arguing about their child’s care. I realized how whenever the patient’s mom was out of the room, the child was behaving appropriately for his age, but when the mom would come back into the room, the child would behave differently.
The primary aim of nursing is the stability of the patient system; this is achieved through nursing intervention to reduce the stressors. Stressors in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extra personal environment can influence the potential or actual reaction in system, therefore, the main purpose of nursing is assessing the patient to gain system stability through the attainment, retention, and maintenance optimal health and it is the nurse that creates a link among the client, environment, and health and leads to the stability of the system (Parvan, Zamanzadeh, Dizaji, Mousavi, & Safaie, 2013). The benefit of recognizing stress in perioperative patients are once the stressors are identified by nurses, they can deal with the stressors affecting the patient by manipulating the environment and provide the appropriate care. This author believes that understanding how the individual creates their environment is important in providing nursing care. The purpose of this is to analyze stress among perioperative patients and the significance to nursing
Arguably, the best source of experience is from your own parents, whom you can observe as they make their own choices based on their values and knowledge. Also, any medically related situation requires the involvement of many other people besides the patient, including your medical team who is often your best advisor in the technical capacity. Some people may not have a thorough understanding of their medical history and may make a regrettable decision resulting from incomplete conclusions. Communication of essential information between parents, adolescents, and medical professionals can ease this
Communication is an important concept of caring in nursing because the nurse has to know how to communicate efficiently in order to get the patient to trust the nurse enough to open up to the nurse and also the nurse needs to communicate respectfully to show the patient that they genuinely do care about their health and want to help them as much as they
For example, patients who are going in for major abdominal surgery, or even normal childbirth. Nurses should enable them and see them through the fearful mindset that something major is about to happen, or is happening. We are looked upon and expected to “enable” them. To continually move the patient forward, the nurse may do this by offering positive feedback, coaching and enhancing their optimistic belief or helping the patient to see the positivity in their situations, and/or determine healthy alternatives.