During my most recent clinical rotation, I encountered a patient who was from rural Maine and had a slew of health problems that landed him in the hospital. He had chronic kidney disease and was in the hospital for fluid volume overload since he has not been to the dialysis clinic in several weeks. This led to an exacerbation of his heart failure and caused him to have episodes of syncope at home. The person lives in rural Maine and…
Death with dignity refers to the patient’s choice to end their life based on poor quality of life from a medical standpoint from terminal illness or imminent death. Towards the end of a patient’s life due to a disease process, they may have significant pain and suffering, as well as a lack of dignity related to their inability to take care of themselves at that stage. Many patients have to be cleaned up by caregivers, cannot use the bathroom on…
I discovered that bedside nurse reporting has many benefits including an increase in patient safety, situational awareness and the client feeling more involved as well as satisfied with their care. Our literature review did not change any of my assumptions regarding the topic, it was pretty consistent with what I already thought to be the benefits of bedside nurse reporting. Our team did not have to revise the topic or the proposal, which was helpful during the process of the…
My preconceived thoughts about the electronic health records in nursing is that thye are primarily there to document that care was completed. It is to cover onself legally to state that care has been completed and documented for continuity of care. The electronic health record is helpful to patient outcomes because nurses and doctors and other healthcare workers can access the patients information from anywhere in a hospital. When a patient is transferred between units, their information moves with them…
Trauma can have many impacts on all of the aspects of an individual’s health. It can cause depression, nightmares of or related to the traumatic event and at its worst, an almost constant state of anxiety. The anxiety can be related to the event itself in terms of a state of fear of the event happening again or it can manifest in a more generalized state. The anxiety, depression and nightmares can make the person feel isolated as it can…
The health of vulnerable populations is influenced by where they live. For example, if they live in a homeless shelter, they are vulnerable to illnesses such as tuberculosis due to the close quarters and high bacterial content. Where someone lives can also be a telltale sign of how their socioeconomic status determines their access to healthcare. If a person does not have the money for a car or access to public transportation due to where they live, such as a…
In the dissemination project, my team is addressing the possibility of improvement through bedside nurse to nurse patient handoff which has the potential to better include the client in their own care. This project will be accomplished through communicating effectively and setting aside meeting times to work on the assignment, as well as through collaboration with our clinical instructor. The project will also involve collaboration with the nurses on our floor to hear their perspectives and thoughts on doing report…
In this paper for Evidence based practice 1, we analyzed the research and best practices for the use of Animal Assisted Therapy in the treatment of oncology patients.
Throughout the completion of this project I have learned how to analyze, and appraise evidence from various sources to support the use of a practice during my work as a nurse. It also provided me with insight as to my ability to work as a team with other nurses when attempting to implement quality improvement as well as evidence based practice initiatives. We worked well together to choose our articles, draft our evidence table as well as our paper. I…
My understanding of the nurses contribution to ethical conduct of research and implementation of research findings has not changed since completing the ethics assignments. I still hold true to the belief that conduction of research and implementation of those findings centers primarily around the clients right and beneficence to the client in order to create a higher quality patient care experience. It is important for nurses to know the historical evolution and principles of research ethics so that they know…
