A Home Health Aide Encounters Essay

Unit 304 - Principles for implementing duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings

“Dedicated to enhancing professional and personal growth for allied health professionals, American Medical Technologists (AMT) awards the Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) credential to qualifying individuals.

There are two main measures of medical underservice in the U.S., health professional shortage areas and medically underserved areas and some special need populations. Both measures require communities to apply for designation. These designations allow the government to target resources to those determined to be most in need (Colwill and Cultice, 2003).

The aim of this assignment is to critically discuss the nursing assessment individualised care and nursing interventions of the acutely ill patient. The patient discussed developed severe sepsis due to a urinary tract infection and her condition deteriorated during the recovery process in the nurse’s care. Lovick (2009) defines sepsis ‘as a known or suspected infection accompanied by evidence of two or more of the SIRS criteria’. SIRS is outlined as a ‘systemic inflammatory response’ consisting of two or more of the following symptoms ‘temperature >38 degrees Celsius or 90 beats per minute, respiratory rates greater than 20 breaths per minute and white blood count higher than 12,000 cells per microliter or lower than 4000 cells per

In my role as a care assistant, I care for elderly people who have a wide spectrum of physical conditions and dementia. I am responsible for delivering person centred care and I always treat people with dignity and respect. I have gained experience in the importance of meeting hydration and nutrition needs, personal care and communicating with people who may have communication, comprehension and sensory deficits. I have gained basic knowledge on the causes and treatments of disease by speaking to nurses and fellow care assistants. The nurses I work with have explained medical jargon and the uses of medication to me, which I feel would be useful for this course. I have completed a course on mental capacity and best interest’s decisions along

The delivery of Healthcare is a high touch enterprise that calls for interaction among every stakeholder within the healthcare sphere. Communication, whether interpersonal or intrapersonal, is a crucial part of these dealings and may be transformed by the intellectual use of communication tools. Information is the means of support of healthcare. Therefore, communication systems are the backbone that supports the whole idea. Care of patients in the nursing homes now almost unavoidably entails many different people, all with the need to share patient information and talk about their organization. As a result

The article I chose is, interdisciplinary collaboration improves safety, quality of care, experts say. This article about an elderly lady who was a patient in a nursing home. The patient is wheel chair bound, and spent recent thanksgiving at the nursing home. Her thanksgiving was surrounding by strangers, and the food was not as tasty as should would liked. However, at this point in her life, she was left without any other options. The patient was then introduced to “Living Independently for Elders.” This is a health care group that consist of physicians, nurses, aides, physical therapies, speech therapies, social workers, dieticians, drivers, among others, that work collaboratively to assist the elderly to be independent so that they can

Informal care is unpaid care that may be provided by family, friends or neighbours. (Brodsky, Habib and Hirschfield, 2003) state “Informal Care is by far the dominant form of care throughout the world.” This essay will state how important informal care is in modern society and how this has affected current social policy. It will define what the differences are between informal and formal care, what exactly informal care consists of, what a carer is, include statistics about informal carers, explain what the mixed economy of care means and conclude the importance of informal care in society.

Access of care can be defined as the capability to obtain affordable, convenient, acceptable, effective and mostly needed healthcare assistances at the right time. According to healthy people 2020, access to care is the appropriate use of healthcare amenities for a person to attain the best possible health condition. This include entry to a health care system, access to appropriate locations with needed services, and contacting a health care provider who can be trusted ("Access," 2013).

During the home health observation day, there were several opportunities to observe a variety of patients with varying levels of functioning ability, different illnesses, and different needs and levels of interaction with the nurse. The first patient seen was a seventy-three year old Caucasian female with an ulcer on her right heel. Several weeks prior, she had scratched her left leg and she also had several small wounds on her left leg. The orders were to clean and redress the ulcer. She has a history of end stage renal disease, pneumonia, weakness, diabetes, dialysis, and right hip fracture. Upon entering the home, the patient was found to be sitting in a wheel chair in the living room watching television with her husband close by her side. She greeted the nurse with a smile and began to update her on her current condition. Her heel was “hurting” and she rated her pain an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. She also had some “swelling” that she could not “get to go away; because, she could not get up and walk. They need to fix my foot so that I can get up and get around.” She told the nurse that she had been to see the doctor “yesterday” and the doctor had given her a written order that she wanted her to see. The order was written for an evaluation for a soft pressure shoe fitting. The nurse read the order to

Although it does not usually make news headlines and is rarely discussed, nursing home residents and the elderly experience abuse sometimes on a daily basis. Medical errors, physical abuse, or stealing from them could all be classified as abuse. All around the world today, a population that is not able to help itself is being harmed, whether it is physical or sexual abuse, exploitation, or not being properly supervised; the elderly and nursing home residents are being abused.

Long-term care can be defined as a broad set of paid and unpaid services for people who are mentally or physically disabled, or whose chronic illness places them in need of medical or personal assistance for long periods of time. “It is estimated that there are more than twelve million Americans of all ages whose mix of serious disability and chronic illness places them at the high risk for functional decline, hospitalization, or nursing home placement.” (Benjamin) Several different populations require long-term care services, and the needs of these populations vary. In addition to the elderly, many of the long-term care users are younger persons with physical disabilities; persons with developmental disabilities; and persons with chronic

A nursing home isn’t the only option when a family member has trouble cooking, cleaning or caring for himself or herself. In home assisted living allows seniors to continue living in their homes with a little help. Since 2002, BrightStar of Northern Michigan has provided home caregivers who offer a variety of home care services, including skilled nursing and dementia care. The Traverse City, MI, home care provider explains how these services can benefit the entire family.

I have personally been affected by the mess that America calls a health system. In the same year, I had severe food poisoning and my stomach and intestines swelled. I had to be hospitalized for a day each, and was then sent home, even though I was still very ill. The reason? My family has no health coverage. Both my parents are very hard workers and own their own business. One would think that my household could afford health coverage, but we can't, despite the many hours a week and hard labor. So, without coverage, there are heavy bills to pay. My mom and I have calculated that my parents will be paying hospital bills long after I graduate from college. Because of two days in the hospital, six bags of saline, and a bagel from the

As a home care nurse, I am designated to care for a 56-year old female patient that presents with lymphoma which has metastasized to her spine, and is presently in quest for chemotherapy treatment.