55-Bed Facilities: A Case Study

Discharge planning is used to create a plan of care for a patient who is leaving a care setting. An evaluation is done to determine the patient’s continuing care needs once they have left the care facility. When patients are send back home or to a facility that does not require full time nursing care assistance, programs need to be put into place to ensure that the patient is receiving the proper continuation of care post discharge. Proper discharge planning can decrease the chances of a hospital readmit, help in recovery, ensure medications are prescribed and given correctly, and adequately prepare family or caregivers to assume proper post discharge care. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, “It is important, not only for patients, but family

Including the client as an expert member of the team creates an enhanced quality of care (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). In pediatrics, parents are often at the center of the child’s care. When asked to define what made the client care experience positive, parents stated that sensitivity, empathy and honesty were key factors (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). Working in healthcare, nurses can become desensitized to difficult experiences because they deal with them daily. Integrating the client and family as part of the healthcare team, allows the nurse to see the patient and family as a people first. By avoiding using illness as context, and instead using person as context, care will be more holistic (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). A family-focused approach helps to ensure that the whole family feels a part of the experience and is valued. In the case of bereavement, family centered care is particularly important. If the family is not included in the care from the start, it can provide barriers for grieving and impact how the family deals with loss (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). Nurses have an opportunity to help support the family through the grief process (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). Families have a significant impact on how the client heals, so by caring for the family’s needs, the nurse is indirectly caring for the patient. It is in the client’s best interest for the care to be holistic for the patient as well as the family (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). All

Throughout my time on the Mother Baby Care Unit, I have faced many instances in which I have been able to reflect on both my patients and the care that I was providing them. One situation in particular that I found myself critically reflecting upon involved a new mother who was feeling slightly stressed about being discharged as her newborn son would not be going home with her. For confidentiality reasons, this patient will be given the pseudonym of Kayla for the remainder of this reflection.

I wanted to touch base with you, it's been a while and a lot has changed within the Parent Advisory Committee. Marilyn (Charge nurse) is now are goto in regards to NICU management along with Tiffany. We have created a charter with me as President,Silvia as Vice President, Kate as Media Director and Annabel is our newest member. There are new guidelines in regards to being part of the committee, this is all outlined in our new Charter. If the Parent Advisory Committee is still something you are interested in being apart of we are requesting you attended our next three Parent Meet and Greets starting on August 6th at 6:30pm before you attend an advisory board meeting. If you any question please feel free to contact me or Marilyn

As an aspiring Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, I will graduate from UNCG with my BSN, work for a year as an RN, and eventually attend a graduate school to accomplish my ultimate goal of obtaining my DNP. As a neonatal nurse practitioner, it is imperative to exude compassion, while demonstrating critical thinking skills when faced with arduous circumstances. I understand that working with distressed families in the NICU will be a challenging task, both emotionally and physically. I am aware that it is my responsibility as a nurse to not only know how to provide physical care to my patient's, but to also attend to their emotional needs and the needs of their loved ones. Nurses are expected to be the liaison between families and doctors. So, in the

All health care providers are familiar or have some idea of what family focused care entails. Family focused care can be practiced in any settings in healthcare, and nurses are familiar with this concept as this strong theory based teaching is emphasized throughout the nursing curriculum. With the trend of health care delivery shifting towards home based or community setting, it is now more than ever important for nurses and advance practice nurses (APN) to incorporate family nursing practice for improved outcomes for the patient and their families. This paper will discuss one of the many family nursing theory and its impact on the family nursing practice now and in the future.

As I begin my fifth year of working as a nurse practitioner in a leading children’s hospital, I am certain the pediatric acute care setting is where I will continue my career of service to children and their families. Although I hold a masters degree in nursing and have been a primary care certified pediatric nurse practitioner for many years, I wish to expand my knowledge of pediatric nursing to encompass the unique and challenging aspects of pediatric acute care.

1) I will observe how my preceptor and other nurses on the unit demonstrate patient and family centred care, and I will do a literature review on the importance of providing family centered care in nursing practice when working with paediatric patients (Harrison, 2010), (Kuo et al., 2011). (Roberts, Fenton & Barnard, 2015).

This process improvement initiative is directed at improving patient care by standardizing the care of infants by decreasing the variation in treatment by providers. During, weekly discharge rounds every Tuesday in UAB’s RNICU & CCN, the lack of standard care for NAS was identified as a potential problem affecting the LOS & DOS. The team comprised of the nurse managers, assistant nurse managers, social services, Utilization Management (UM), NNPs, the discharge coordinator and UAB Police discussed the LOS & DOT issues. Because the process of weaning the methadone is crucial, questions would arise about which day of weaning the infants was on and whether the infants needed to be monitored 3-5-7 days off methadone before discharging infants. There

-A succinct philosophy of family nursing is seen in The Association for the Care of Children’s Health standards stating the expectation for healthcare providers to facilitate family/professional collaboration at all levels of care, and to recognizing family as the constant in the patient’s life whereas the healthcare providers will fluctuate (p.40, 2003).

Participants reaffirmed that the guidance of the nursing team at the moment of discharge were specific to the care in relation to the drug therapy or to invasive devices, such as probes and tracheostomies, without a focus on the guidance about the general care related to the chronic health conditions and the importance of following-up the child after the hospital discharge. One can say that the factors associated with the readmission of children are related to the age group of infants, with respiratory problems associated with chronic conditions, besides the lack of effectiveness in the post-discharge follow-up. Accordingly, it is relevant to reflect about the role of the nursing team in the planning of interventions capable of providing the adaptation of children and their families over the period of admission, at the moment of discharge and in the post-discharge. The combination of guidance of verbal and written strategies can help us to understand the trajectory of illness and adaptation, thereby avoiding

When creating care plans for children it is so important to include the child’s family in their care as it will benefit in this case both James and his family in helping to meet his milestonesIt is especially important when creating care plans for children to include where possible the philosophy of children’s and young person’s nursing which is family centred care. (Glasper and McEwing, 2010). Family centred care does not mean that parents have to remain with their child at all-times in hospital.it Care planning is all about prioritising what is best for the patient and putting the patient first (in this scenario James) but also incorporating family centred care in the patients plan. As discussed in care plan 3, we saw how James experienced anxiety as a result of hospitalisation for the first time and how his mother also suffered from anxiety as a result of not being able to stay with James all the time. In spite of this, James’ individualised care plan alleviated this problem by assigning him a nurse that he built a trusting relationship with and by creating a home environment for him by bringing in some family photos and comforts like his blanket and favourite toys.

On arrival, Joe’s mother Catherine was distressed and throughout every stage of Joe’s care it was important Catherine was provided with clear information in order to empower her to make informed choices regarding Joe’s care (Glasper et al. 2010). Parental involvement was introduced after the Platt Report in 1959 which recommended that parents should be allowed to stay with their hospitalised child. The report has led to significant improvements in interactions between parents of hospitalised children and the staff who care for them (Priddis and Sheilds 2011). Sousa et al (2013) carried out a study that found communication between parents and children’s nurses is vital. Sousa et al (2013) found that almost all parents who participated in the questionnaire agreed it was a priority to get information on their child’s health condition. This indicates that is important for nurses to manage the child and family as a whole holistically (NMC 2015). Catherine

Patient’s in the NICU are considered to be very tiny and fragile and immunocompromised due to their immature organ systems which can lead to many dangerous medical problems. Patricia W. Stone states “maintaining a safe environment reflects a level of compassion and vigilance for patient welfare that is as important as any other aspect of competent health care” (Stone, 2008). The patient’s safety should always be a top concerned for a nurse because in a health care facility the purpose is to heal the patient and get them on the road to recovery. Nurses must learn from the errors of the past and use their knowledge to improve the quality of nursing to the patients to ensure if errors do happen again that the use of evidence-based practices are put into place to improve their outcomes. According to Higher Quality of Care and Patient Safety, “Registered Nurses (RNs) are instrumental in achieving multiple care goals, including promoting infant health and clinical stability, maintaining the integrity and cleanliness of central catheters, and preparing families for their role in infant care and successful transition it home” (Lake, 2016). Nurses are reasonable for the education of the families of the patients to ensure that the best quality of care for the patient is maintained outside the hospital to ensure the best medical outcome for the infants.

The study sought to improve patient care in three areas. The first area was improving pain assessment documentation by introducing a standardized pediatric assessment. The second area was decreasing the time the patient received pain medication. The last area was evaluating the effect of the nursing intervention in reducing the pediatric patient’s pain at discharge via a pain scale. This study was conducted at a 35 bed level 2 emergency department in the United States. A total of 1200 EMRs were collected from pediatric patients ranging from 3 months to 6 years in age (Ramira et al., 2016, p. 43). Half of the cases were review before the