For several years there has been much media attention and professional pressure regarding the use of mixed sex wards. Much of the controversy has been fuelled by the Labour government’s manifesto commitment to abolish mixed sex beds, which they finally conceded was an impossible task early in 2008. However, much of the available fiction, and most of the more inciting press coverage, actually relates to inpatient areas with overnight accommodation, especially the more vulnerable groups, such as those with mental health problems and the elderly. In 2009 the National Health Service (NHS) set a commitment to eliminate mixed accommodation in hospital as part of their commitment to improvement of privacy and dignity of patient (BBC health, 2009). Meanwhile, the report of department of health in 2009 shows that, 99% of trust says they are providing the same sex accommodation and 97% same sex toilet and washing area, but nearly a quarter of patient still complain of being in a mixed sex area when they where first admitted to hospital (BBC health, 2009). In the first quarter of the year 2010, the National Health Service organisation reported over 8,000 trusts that were unsuccessful in implementing single sex accommodation without clinical justification (Blackman, S. 2010). These new information has led the 2010 elected coalition government to take action to finally make mixed accommodations a thing of past in England. Form 2011 health trust which are not performing well and do not comply with the rule will be named public (Blackman, S. 2010). Additional to this, Andrew Lansley health secretary in his comment laid out the changes. ‘‘National Health Service will have clear standard in the future, spelling out when they should report a b...
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...dation, but on extra beds as well (Blackman, S. 2010). In October 2010 it was reported that women were force to give birth in waiting area with less or more than temporary screen to protect their privacy (Blackman, S. 2010). The psychological benefit of nursing patient of together has been revealed in many donors who are partner or parent and therefore may be opposite gender. Patient views are sought to help trust prove the clinical need of exclusion for this group.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that same accommodation is not always appropriate when it comes to hospitals and there are many cases where it is clinically acceptable to place patient in a mixed sex accommodation (Blackman, S. 2010). Mixed sex accommodation is slowly fading away from the UK and total elimination will depends on the efficiency of new government initiatives (Blackman, S. 2010).
In reference to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)’s the Code of Conduct (2008), a pseudonym will be used to preserve the patient’s identity and confidentiality. The patient will therefore be referred to as ‘William’.
...o find a balance between interventional and non-interventional birth. With this being said, I also understand that there are strict policies and protocols set in place, which I must abide to as a healthcare provider, in any birth setting. Unfortunately, these guidelines can be abused. Christiane Northrup, MD, a well recognized and respected obstetrician-gynecologist has gone as far as to tell her own daughters that they should not give birth in a hospital setting, with the safest place being home (Block, 2007, p. xxiii). Although I am not entirely against hospital births, I am a firm believe that normal, healthy pregnancies should be fully permissible to all midwives. However, high-risk pregnancies and births must remain the responsibility of skilled obstetricians. My heart’s desire is to do what is ultimately in the best interest of the mother, and her unborn child.
The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 3, ‘Social Care In The Community’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Public Expectations: In Health and Social Care, the public expects employees/workers to be caring, respectful towards the patients protected characteristics which means avoiding conflicts such as discrimination and inequality treatments. They should be able to protect personal information of the patients by following the 'Data protection and Confidentiality Act 1998'. They are expected to give good supportive advice towards their patients and employees to improve the quality of work and welfare benefits. They expect higher standards of care, detailed information about their treatment, communication and involvement in decisions making activities and also access to the latest treatments (Thekingsfund,
An example that promotes the importance of the care standards act within a hospital is if a male nurse was to start bathing an elderly schizophrenic female patient who did not wished to be touched by a male nurse then this is violating her own wishes and therefore she is not receiving a high standard of care as her views were not listened to and respected. The care standard act protects patient’s view and ensures that the well-being of the patient is being put first. This is important for the services to put the patients first as they are using the services and without them the services may not exist.
This was a radical idea at the time when it was common for children to be separated from their mothers for lengthy spells during hospitalisation, where the nursing care focused mainly on hygiene and medical procedures and not on emotional needs. The child's or parent's emotional needs or distress were not taken into consideration as only the medical care was seen to be of importance.
Consent is an issue of concern for all healthcare professional when coming in contact with patients either in a care environment or at their home. Consent must be given voluntary or freely, informed and the individual has the capacity to give or make decisions without fear or fraud (Mental Capacity Act, 2005 cited in NHS choice, 2010). The Mental Capacity Act perceives every adult competent unless proven otherwise as in the case of Freeman V Home Office, a prisoner who was injected by a doctor without consent because of behavioural disorder (Dimond, 2011). Consent serves as an agreement between the nurse and the patient, and allows any examination or treatment to be administered. Nevertheless, consent must be obtained in every occurrence of care as in the case of Mohr V William 1905 (Griffith and Tengrah, 2011), where a surgeon obtain consent to perform a procedure on a patient right ear. The surgeon found defect in the left ear of the patient and repaired it assuming he had obtained consent for both ear. The patient sued him and the court found the surgeon guilty of trespassing. Although there is no legal requirement that states how consent should be given, however, there are various ways a person in care of a nurse may give consent. This could be formal (written) form of consent or implied (oral or gesture) consent. An implied consent may be sufficient for taking observation or examination of patient, while written is more suitable for invasive procedure such as surgical operation (Dimond, 2011).
Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives’ (2015) which states that obtaining patient’s informed consent is an act in their best interest and that nurses and midwives are required to respect individual’s right to accept or refuse treatment, moreover, support and document their decision, give evidence-based information, use clear language, cooperate with patients to help them with making the decision and be aware of the current legislations. This includes ‘Mental Capacity Act 2005’, ‘Mental Health Act 1983‘and ‘Human Rights Act 1998’. From a healthcare perspective vital articles are those which set out the rules for accessing patient’s capacity to make a decision, clarify who makes decisions for those who lack capacity and how this should be done, likewise those that regulate how to treat and protect patients without their consent but also those that specify basic human rights: to life, privacy, receiving information and other such as right to be free from discrimination or inhuman, degrading treatment. Other regulations to consider are ‘Human Tissue Act 2004’, ‘Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990’ (GMC, 2015). Professionals should also consider common criminal
As health care providers, nurses strive to instill confidence in their patients and their loved ones. A nurse is respectful to their colleagues as well as their patients. Nurses promote patients’ independence, patients can be confident in the knowledge that a nurse will do what is best for them, respecting their privacy and dignity. This means that a nurse does not share the patient information for personal reasons nor does the nurse get involved in a patients personal relationship if it is not medically relevant (NCSBN, 2011).
Nevertheless hospitals need beds to work with the demand of care. And from admittance to discharge can be a long time. If all trusts prioritised elderly care it would free up 5,700 beds across hospitals and ensure elderly people like Mr Bates were not kept in hospital unnecessarily. (Imison, Thompson, and Poteliakhoff, 2012). This would benefit him as long stays prolong the start of recovery and normalisation. To start his recovery sooner he could be admitted him to a step down bed. This is a cost effective way to getting preparing him for home without having a long hospital stay. A stepdown care bed is a less clinical setting and is easier to start returning to normality (Boyd et al, 2012).
The hospital room holds all the usual scenery: rooms lining featureless walls, carts full of foreign devices and competent looking nurses ready to help whatever the need be. The side rails of the bed smell of plastic. The room is enveloped with the smell of plastic. A large bed protrudes from the wall. It moves from one stage to the next, with the labor, so that when you come to the "bearing" down stage, the stirrups can be put in place. The side rails of the bed provide more comfort than the hand of your coach, during each contraction. The mattress of the bed is truly uncomfortable for a woman in so much pain. The eager faces of your friends and family staring at your half naked body seem to be acceptabl...
Davis, C; Finlay, L; & Bullman, A. (2000) ‘Changing Practice in Health and Social Care, London: Open University Press
This element in their lives involves many of the determinants of health including, gender identity, sexual orientation, culture, biology and genetic endowment, social environments, and social support. On its own gender identity issues are a major deterrent within the health care system, as many transgendered individuals feel like their identity is not included in the health care they receive. This is largely due to the heteronormative categorization tendencies used in health care, as evidenced by the fact that “rarely do health questionnaires or interviews contain questions that would identify people along a transgender continuum” (Eliason, 2014), instead the options provided are generally female or male. This causes problems for transgendered individuals, like Madie, who are not able to express their identity, or feel their identity is unwelcomed and unsupported, in a health care setting. Transgender identity issues in health care also involve the determinant of biology and genetic endowment. Biology and genetic endowment described as one’s predisposition to certain diseases (Waldron, 2017a), which includes predispositions related to the sex of an individual. This can be problematic for transgendered individuals as the conditions they are at risk for due to their birth gender are in conflict with how they identify themselves, making it a difficult
This profile adheres to the School of Health and Social Care’s guidelines set by Teesside University’s code of conduct in relation to confidentiality and consent. The profile also adheres to the NMC guidelines referring to consent and confidentiality as a real person has not been used; therefore consent did not need to be gained.
It is not uncommon for a new mother to call the telenurse in regards to her child’s cough; in the case, we do not think twice. Surely, the infant cannot speak for himself and the mother is the caretaker, but what about the wife who calls in regards to her husband? One ethical dilemma a telenurse can experience is a conflict between the patient’s autonomy in the care of their health and the relative’s, as well as the nurses “ambition” to help the patient. (Stokowski, 2008). To avoid this, the telenurse must strive to always speak to the actual patient at all times; there is a thin line between help and respect.