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Communication in care settings
Effective communication in a care setting
How to support effective communication in care
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Recommended: Communication in care settings
Most people do not notice or appreciate the heavy workload that nurses must endure when taking care of patients; this is especially true for pediatric oncology nurses. If a nurse is not working with a mind clear of distractions, his or her attitude might change towards the provision of patient care. Nurses caring for dying children also have many unmet needs that have an impact on the care they provide (CITE). A few of such unmet needs that have an impact on a nurse’s quality of care include: a lack of communication, physical and emotional pain, and hospital staff retention.
When caring for a dying child, nurses face unique obstacles that must be overcome. First, it is common for there to be a lack of communication between the child’s parents and healthcare providers regarding end-of-life issues. Nurses feel a lack of support from their peers and health care team members. According to Lee and Dupree, caregivers in these situations require emotional support (CITE). A lack of physical and emotional support is a common source of stress for nurses. One of the largest obstacles nurses deal with, is their opinions regarding patients’ plan of care being ignored. A study performed by Davies and Connaughty confirmed that only 20% of the parents were pleased with the communication ability of the health care staff. In order to improve end-of-life communication, nurses should be comfortable talking about death even if they are in a situation where the death of the child is inevitable. Nurses play an important role in the health care team. Excellent communication skills are one of the most important tools a nurse can provide to the family members of a patient. As the patient’s advocate, the nurses need to act as the patient’s voice and prot...
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...ers that can teach the nurses coping mechanisms. APNs also act as the advocate for both the patients and the nurses in health care settings.
Caring for dying child can be a frightening experience for a nurse, as well as for the parents of the patient. Nurses need to try to deliver the best quality palliative care they are capable of administrating. Communication and collaboration is a must in a professional team environment. The nursing role in pediatric oncology is emotionally demanding and challenging, but it is self rewarding job. Nurses have the power of creating a brighter journey for the patient and their families. Sharing with the family the heartaches of the loss of their child on the last day is quite special privilege for the pediatric nurse. Hopefully, in the near future nurses are provided with a stronger foundation when caring for dying children.
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.
Charalambous, A. (2010). Good communication in end of life care. Journal of Community Nursing, 24(6), 12-14. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Thanks in part to the scientific and technological advances of todays’ society, enhanced medicinal treatment options are helping people battle illnesses and diseases and live longer than ever before. Despite these advances, however, many people with life threatening illnesses have needs and concerns that are unidentified and therefore unmet at the end of life, notes Arnold, Artin, Griffith, Person and Graham (2006, p. 62). They further noted that when these needs and concerns remain unmet, due in part to the failure of providers to correctly evaluate these needs, as well as the patients’ reluctance to discuss them (p. 63, as originally noted by Heaven & Maguire, 1997), a patient’s quality of life may be adversely affected. According to Bosma et al. (2010, p. 84), “Many generalist social work skills regarding counseling, family systems, community resources, and psychosocial assessments are relevant to working with patients and families with terminal illness”, thereby placing social workers in the distinctive position of being able to support and assist clients with end of life decisions and care planning needs. In fact, they further noted that at some point, “most social work practitioners will encounter adults, children, and families who are facing progressive life limiting illness, dying, death, or bereavement” (p. 79).
The American Nurses Association (ANA) thinks that nurses should stay away from doing euthanasia, or assisting in doing euthanasia because it is against the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (ANA, 2001; herein referred to as The Code). Overall, nurses are also advised to deliver a quality of care what include respect compassion and dignity to all their patients. For people in end-of-life, nursing care should also focus on the patient’s comfort, when possible the dying patient should be pain free. Nurses have also the obligation to support the patient but also the patient’s family members during these difficult moments. We must work to make sure that patients and family members are well informed about every option that is
Like the general public, I assumed their only job was to aid doctors and perform routine medical procedures that they are trained to do. The purpose of this interview was to gain insight into how much more nurses do, and I was greatly surprised. Marks shared what it is really like to be a pediatric nurse, and all the other roles they must play in their patients’ lives. As someone who has never been admitted into a hospital, or have been in the care of a nurse, her stories were eye-opening for me. Marks gave me a new-found appreciation for all that nurses
Pediatric oncology nurses are given the unique opportunity to make connections and build long-term relationship with their patients and families. Standard treatment protocol for many childhood cancers span over the course of years, with long-term surveillance and follow up visits after treatment has finished. Due to their patient’s chronic diagnoses and the acuity of their conditions, pediatric oncology nurses work in an environment of increased stress. The high stress environment puts the nurses at an increased risk for compassion fatigue; so it is the responsibility of both the nurse, and the institution to be aware of the symptoms and to effectively manage the condition should it arise. Without proper attention to the stress management of pediatric oncology nurses, compassion fatigue may be of concern and put patient care at risk.
It is found that nurses report that their most uncomfortable situations come with prolonging the dying process and some struggle with ethical issues by doing so (Seal, 2007). Studies have shown that implementation of the RPC program and educating nurses have increased the nurses’ confidence in discussing end-of-life plans (Austin, 2006). With confidence, the nurse is able to ask the right questions of the patient and make sure that the patient’s wishes are upheld in the manner that they had wanted, such as to not resuscitate or to make sure their spiritual leader is present when passing (Austin,
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,
Study Purpose The purpose of this research study was to develop a communication strategy for family members of patients dying in the ICU by evaluating a format consisting of a proactive end-of-life conference and brochure to see whether the intervention could minimize the effects of bereavement for the families left behind. This research provided the family members with more opportunities to discuss the patient wishes, to express emotions, to alleviate feelings of guilt, and to understand the goals of care. Research Hypothesis and Research Questions Here researchers evaluate the effect of a proactive communication strategy that consisted of an end-of life family conference conducted according to specific guidelines and that concluded with the provision of a brochure on bereavement....
Nurses are both blessed and cursed to be with patients from the very first moments of life until their final breath. With those last breaths, each patient leaves someone behind. How do nurses handle the loss and grief that comes along with patients dying? How do they help the families and loved ones of deceased patients? Each person, no matter their background, must grieve the death of a loved one, but there is no right way to grieve and no two people will have the same reaction to death. It is the duty of nurses to respect the wishes and grieving process of each and every culture; of each and every individual (Verosky, 2006). This paper will address J. William Worden’s four tasks of mourning as well as the nursing implications involved – both when taking care of patients’ families and when coping with the loss of patients themselves.
The end-of-life nurse’s primary objective is to provide comfort and compassion to patients and their families during an extremely difficult time. They must satisfy all “physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual needs” of the patient and their family. (Wu & Volker, 2012) The nurse involves their patient in care planning, as well as educating them about the options available. They must follow the wishes of the patient and their family, as provided in the patient’s advance directive if there is one available. It is i...
My earliest experiences of observing nursing in action occurred during my last two years of high school. My father was diagnosed with cancer during the spring of my junior year and died right before my senior year. During that short time I watched as the nurses cared for him and I could see compassion and empathy in the way they looked at him. It never occurred to me until after I had raised my children that I wanted to be able to help people in the same way those nurses helped my dad. But now when I tell people that I want to be an oncology nurse, people often respond by saying that they would never choose that type of nursing. They say that they could not stand to watch their patients die so frequently. Their reactions, along with this course in death and dying, have made me question how I might be able to bear the challenges of nursing in an area where death of my patients may be common. I believe that oncology will be a positive specialty to work in because of the consistent advances in prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer. Furthermore, I believe that William Worden’s four tasks of mourning as presented in our text book is a good framework for the oncology nurse to use in order to cope with the repeated losses inherent in this type of nursing (Leming and Dickinson, 2011).
Both an RPN and RN working as a general nurse are likely to work with cancer patients in a hospital setting. Although when looking to specialize in oncology is important to obtain the extra education such as; an undergraduate nursing program, or oncology certificate program. Mohawk College offers a specialized certificate program for RN’s or RPN’s looking to increase their opportunities in a nursing oncology setting. (Mohawk College, 2004-2014) Experienced oncology nurses participated in a study featured in a journal of nursing management; stated that “oncology nurses place a special importance that to successfully recruit to oncology, an oncology nurse needs to understand the passion for the specialty. They also strongly recommend developing healthy human resource strategies, it is important for oncology nurses to portray a positive image of cancer care. (Bakker, D, Butler, L, Fitch, M, Green, E, Olson, K, Cummings, G, 2010). These skills are important; nursing oncology is a difficult job, and it’s essential for nurses not to forget that when everyone else is has lost hope they have to maintain a positive outlook. As an oncology nurse it would be important to also obtain strong skills for dealing with bad news, or tough emotions with patients. When working with cancer a lot of patients will be facing their demise, sensitivity and special training to deal with these emotions would be vital. Nurses working in oncology can make anywhere between 56,555 to 87,563 a year.(International Business Machine Cooperation, 2014). This range all depends on nursing experience and education in the field of oncology. Career opportunities in any field of nursing are abundant; “Not only is there a global nursing shortage but there is a proportion of reaching retirement age or nurses disenchanted with their work as nurses and intending to leave the
The nursing discipline embodies a whole range of skills and abilities that are aimed at maximizing one’s wellness by minimizing harm. As one of the most trusted professions, we literally are some’s last hope and last chance to thrive in life; however, in some cases we may be the last person they see on earth. Many individuals dream of slipping away in a peaceful death, but many others leave this world abruptly at unexpected times. I feel that is a crucial part to pay attention to individuals during their most critical and even for some their last moments and that is why I have peaked an interest in the critical care field. It is hard to care for someone who many others have given up on and how critical care nurses go above and beyond the call
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.