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Many emotions lurk the halls of a hospital. Some of fear, some of worry, some of hope, and some of compassion. There is a plethora of people in a health care setting that can be there for a patient’s physical pain, but not always their emotional pain. Nurses are there for patients for their physical pains and emotional ones too. Last semester I was lucky enough to participate in the health science magnet program’s clinical rotations. On rotations, we would shadow doctors and nurses throughout various practices in Laredo. There is one rotation I will never forget and will be my driving force in becoming a nurse. Walking in to the pediatric ward, I was expecting to see, what I thought was the usual (tonsil removal, appendix removal, etc.),
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 time, nurses has been viewed by patients, their family members and the medical team as basic emotional care givers, pill crushers or cart pullers and not as healthcare professionals who are more interesting in health promotion, disease prevention and better patient outcomes. They also often forget the emotional, physical, mental, and caring part that is involved with the profession. And to make matters worse, nurses are continued to be viewed as a threat by doctors more than ever before especially with the opening of Nurse Practitioners programs.
Leo Buscaglia once said, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” In the field of nursing, this concept could not be illustrated more profoundly. The trait of caring within nursing is arguably the most important trait that a nurse could possess. It can be defined in various ways, but to me, caring is the act of being moved or compelled to action by feelings of compassion, empathy, sympathy, anger, intention, sadness, fear, happiness, protection, enlightenment, or love in light of another human being. There are many aspects to the term “caring”. It is an ever-present shape shifter, swiftly
The phenomenon of interest has been identified as the expressions of caring by nurses on acute care general surgical wards (Enns, C., Gregory, D., 2007). This problem statement was addressed promptly and clearly in the article. The caring research that has been obtained in other studies has yielded inconsistent results due to the varying definitions of caring. Numerous research has been done on the phenomenon of caring by nurses specializing in several areas but the population of surgical nurses has been “relatively neglected in caring research” (Enns, 2007). Caring is a phenomenon that has been universal throughout nursing, it is a trend that will forever be current due to the ever changing scope of nursing. Increasing demands on nursing staff and the acuity of the patients causes stressors to the “surgical ward environment (and) affect nurses’ ability to provide ideal care” (Enns, 2007). The aim of this report is to answer the question “What are the expressions of caring from a surgical nurses’ perspective?” (Enns, 2007). An appropriate qualitative study has been chosen because “...
Every person’s needs must be recognized, respected, and filled if he or she must attain wholeness. The environment must attuned to that wholeness for healing to occur. Healing must be total or holistic if health must be restored or maintained. And a nurse-patient relationship is the very foundation of nursing (Conway et al 2011; Johnson, 2011). The Theory recognizes a person’s needs above all. It sets up the conducive environment to healing. It addresses and works on the restoration and maintenance of total health rather than only specific parts or aspect of the patient’s body or personality. And these are possible only through a positive healing relationship between the patient and the nurse (Conway et al, Johnson).
Compassion fatigue is a growing problem for nurses and professional caregivers. When nurses witness pain, fear, sickness, disease and even death they can start to feel the same pain and suffering that their patients experience. This can lead to compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is phrase used to describe “the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized person” (Tellie, 2008). It is often referred to as secondary traumatic stress syndrome and can lead to lack of empathy and caring emotions; two things that are needed in order to effectively care for sick and suffering patients. In this paper, the author will examine the five concepts of compassion fatigue and related symptoms and warning signs, explain the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the caregiver and identify coping strategies and resources available to caregivers.
Description Clinical rotation for spring 2018 started off at the recovery unit at the General Hospital, it was quite a slow start to my day. The task began with 66-year-old G.L, male who entered the recovery room at 10:35 am from his haemorrhoidectomy. After, Mr. G. L we had several other patients who came to the recovery room from operating theatre, which all the patient underwent different procedures, from D&C to Laparotomy just to name a few. Although the nurses and ward manager stated that we choose a slow day to do our clinical rotations, we made the best of our days. The patient was G.L. 66-year-old male who was diagnosed with Prolapse Hemorrhoid.
Nurses want to give complete and quality care, but are unable to, due to the constant needs of their workload and inadequate staffing. They have to prioritize their patients needs based on the most critical treatments first. Then whatever time is left, they fill in what treatments they can. Some reasons that nursing treatments are missed include: too few staff, time required for the nursing intervention, poor use of existing staff resources and ineffective delegation.” (Kalisch, 2006) Many nurses become emotionally stressed and unsatisfied with their jobs. (Halm et al., 2005; Kalisch,
Healthcare is viewed in an unrealistic way by most individuals. Many people view a physician as the only means to find a solution to their problem. Nurses are still seen by some as simply “the person who does what the doctor says.” This is frustrating in today’s time when nurses are required to spend years on their education to help care for their patients. In many situations nurses are the only advocate that some patients’ have.
On my first clinical rotation outside of 5w, in the Roanoke Memorial Hospital, I had the pleasure of visiting the OR. My last week of clinical rotation, I got the opportunity to witness two different cases. I saw a hemorrhoidectomy, and a Laparoscopic colectomy. Although I only had an opportunity of witnessing the hemorrhoidectomy in the middle of the procedure, both procedures were quite invasive. There were both very interesting to watch.
I followed the RN nurse who was to assist and prep the operating room (OR). She first went into the clean utility room, where she picked up essentials for the surgery. When everything was gathered and prepared, we had to sit and wait for the patient who had arrived late. The RN would check the computer constantly to see if the patient was on file. After the clock hit 9, which was the time for the surgery, the RN nurse decided to go help put the patient on file quicker. When we arrived at the patients room, there was a nurse making the patient fill out papers. The RN nurse took over the papers while the other nurse completed the documents on the computer. While watching all the questions being asked, and the time it took to fill out the paper work, I realized that the paper work process is not easy.
Nurses are an equally important part of each client’s life. Nurses provide stable care to each client, answers their questions, gives medications and treatments, and assists with medical procedures. They also have the responsibility to explain to clients and family members what they should and should not do as they go through treatment and recovery. Nurses must quickly respond to patients needs. Every individual nurse has his or her own unique way of caring. There are so many ways to show caring that the possibilities are never ending. Nurse’s support, comfort, and help allow the patients to recover to the best of their ability. Their experiences in dealing with different patients that have unique situations on a daily basis helps the nurses become better caregivers. Therefore, every nurse is capable of demonstrating care in their respective environments.
My clinical rotation in the acute care hospital has definitely been a great learning experience, it was a big transition for me having been working in a long-term care facilities for six years. There were three positive aspects about my performance that I will take away from this learning experience.
So far, I have been able to learn more about the connective aspects of working in a hospital as I frequently interact with medical staff with many different backgrounds and specialties. I was more recently given the opportunity to sit in on rounds with infectious disease doctors and hear about patient cases and their laboratory results. This daily exposure that I got for a week served as a great way for me to get a feel for the types of conversations and collaboration that constantly occurs between physicians and lab staff. I have yet to reach out to a particular physician to ask about further opportunities to shadow, but I hope to have a chance to do so in the near future as my more extensive training is now coming to a close in the coming
Vital signs are an important factor in the nursing process. Nurses every day assess a patient’s vital signs every hour, sometimes even every fifteen minutes depending on the situation. These vital signs include: heart rate, respirations, blood pressure, and temperature. Today, nurses also treat pain as the fifth vital sign because of its importance to the nursing process as a whole. Pain is an undesirable side effect that arises from many disease processes and surgical procedures. It is not the same to every person that experiences it. Many things can affect how a patient perceives their own pain. Some aspects that alter a patient’s way of perceiving pain are culture, past experiences with pain, age, gender, and the ability to