An Elective Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Families always affect one another, even when they feel distanced. The family unit can promote health or it can be a source of stress. It is the nurse's task to use family relationships to act as health facilitators for the patient, and, if necessary, treat the family as part of the patient's social environment. The family creates the patient's environment just as much as a clean room or an accessible place to exercise or access to appropriate medication.

Communication is key to effective healthcare practices. According to American Journal Of Critical Care (2014), Patient-centered care starts with “effective communication, being empathetic and available, avoiding personal prejudges, and listening therapeutically are integral parts of patient-centered care” (Riley, White, Graham, Alexandrov, 2014, p. 320). This will improve communication; promote patient involvement in care, which creates a positive relationship with the healthcare provider and medical team. This results in improved adherence to treatment plan. Clinical practice guidelines need to be implemented for the patient and family members to be able to be involved in informed decision-making regarding healthcare needs. The fundamental core of nursing is to have a partnership with the patient and their family regarding the patient’s outcome.

An interpretative phenomenology study is titled Family Presence During Resuscitation: A Double Edge Sword (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p.127). Family presence during resuscitation of a loved one can have benefits and risks (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 127). According to Hassankhani, Zamanzadeh, Rhmani, Haririan, and Porter (2016), family presence during resuscitation means that the patient’s family arrived or were already present where the resuscitation is taking place, which means that the family members can see and touch the patient (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 128). Some of the hesitations that medical staffs have about family being present include environmental, cultural, and social factors (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 128). Another factor that can be involved are the previous experiences that the medical staff has had with family presence during resuscitation (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 128). These experiences can have a positive or negative affect on the medical staff and affect their allowance of other family members during a resuscitation (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p.128). The study conducted by Hassankhani et al. (2016), included 12 nurses and 9 doctors in Iran that were interviewed about their feelings of family presence during resuscitation for 6 months (p. 128). The participants of this study worked in the most crowded hospitals and worked together during the resuscitation (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 128). The nurses in this study had to have at least a bachelor’s degree and the doctors had to have at least a general medical degree; all participants had to have 2 years of clinical experience (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 129). Initially, there were 500 codes during the 6 months (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p.129). After the interviews were conducted there were two themes identified: destructive presence and supportive presence (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 129). The destructive presence theme included the medical staff experiencing family interruption in their attempt to save the patient (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p. 130). One instance of this involved a family telling the doctor what medications should be given (Hassankhani et al., 2016, p.130). Another occurrence a nurse

Helpful in times of stress, such as acute or long-term illness, nursing can engage the family in focusing on their

The article showed that over the year’s clinician’s attitude to having family present had become more positive but had concerns about safety, the emotional responses of the family members, and performance anxiety. Nurses had more favorable attitudes toward family presence than physicians did. Patients and their families had positive attitudes toward family presence. Family presence is beneficial to patients, patients’ families; to them it provides emotional support, helps decrease anxiety and makes the patient feel empowered. As family presence becomes a more accepted practice, healthcare providers will need to accommodate patients’ families at the bedside and address the barriers that impede the practice.

According to Erlingsson and Brysiewicz (2015), family is considered a core, social institution and is our first interaction with human beings. When viewing the family as a context, the nurse assesses the patient that is in need of care while in the background, there are the family members of the patient. According to Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steel, Tabacco & Hanson (2015), the source of support to the patient is his or her family members. Usually family members are in attendance with the patient. This approach is used when a mother is admitted to the intensive care unit after falling and sustaining head trauma. The patient is the mother. The nurse is focused on the mother and care was directed

acutely ill patients. The nurse should allow the family to observe care and explain the

Some family members seen family presence not only as an essential right but likewise as a mode of giving support to their loved ones in this emergency of life crisis. Though, some family could have concern about feeling sensitively traumatized and beholden to observe the code when families may prefer to decline. Patients besides believed that the family had the right to have their families present. Some patients alleged to felt safer and less frightened when family was present. But, other patients described that they desired to face death alone and did not want estranged folks to be permitted to invade their own privacy. Healthcare workers seen family presence as an occasion to preserve the self-respect and personhood of patients but be frightened physical assault by distressed family members, augmented threats of legal responsibility and subsequent litigation, and loss of control above the code situation. Captivatingly, all parties involved arranged that family presence during the code could result in exposing patients to extended resuscitations in medically fruitless circumstances because the trauma team may be unwilling to call the code in the presence of the family of the patient. In the past decade, nurses have progressively promoted for family presence. Nurses mostly agree that family presence could be favorable for both patients and families, if patients and families wish it. For the reason of this belief, nurses endure to advocate for their patients by making an effort to revise policies that limit family presence in the

Family members play a big part of providing care to a patient, rather it be comfort, or education, I would involve them in my patient care. To me, the patient isn 't just the "person" laying in the hospital bed. Every person has values that need to be respected and nurtured.

Soon-to-be Family Nurse Practitioners may find it exhilarating that the medical field is transitioning toward Patient and Family-Centered Care (PFCC). [1] The construct builds on the basic needs of patients and their families, which includes information, emotional support, and togetherness. The philosophy revolves around tenets of respect, information sharing, collaboration, and participation. PFCC practices aid nurses in building rapport with patients and their families and in turn encourages all stakeholders to participant in the patient’s treatment plan.

For better or worse, I have come to believe that we--patients, families, clinicians, and the healthcare system as a whole--would all be far better off if we professionals recalibrated our work such that we behaved with patients and families not as hosts in the care system, but as guests in their lives. (w559)

According to the Picker Institute & Planetree, “patient-centered care is a model in which providers partner with patients and their families to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences, while simultaneously supporting the professional and personal aspirations of their staff”. With patient-centered care, becoming integral in medical care why is it that staff still feel as though family and friends visiting patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is not beneficial to the patient and inhibits care? Do the old policies of restricted visitation actually hold some value in the care of patients or are they just left in place because of the beliefs held by hospital staff? It is important that we step back and evaluate our beliefs, but also examine the evidence that exists in support of open visitation and the benefits that could aid the patient, hospital, staff, and visitors.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an area in the lower part of the aorta that becomes enlarged.1 The aorta is usually about the width of a garden hose,1 but when it dilates 1.5 times the diameter of its normal width (commonly about 3 cm) it is then termed a AAA.2 Although an aneurysm can occur along any part of the aorta, it is termed “abdominal” along any segment below the diaphragm.3 An aneurysm above the level of the diaphragm is termed “thoracic.”1 The most common location for a AAA to occur is the infrarenal segment,2 therefore it is common practice to restrict the term AAA to that portion of the aorta.3 There are two types of AAA, bulging and dissecting.1,3 Bulging (or ballooning) aneurysms can be either fusiform or saccular.4 Most aneurysms are fusiform since the whole artery is affected, but in more rare cases can be saccular.3 An aortic dissection occurs when the inner layer of the aorta tears and perfusion of blood

The main source for pumping blood through every single artery in the human body is the aorta. The aorta arises from the left ventricle of the heart and extends through the entire abdomen where it then bifurcates into the common iliac arteries. Over time, the arterial walls become weak and widen. As the pressure of blood pumping continues through the aorta, the weakened area starts to have an outpouching known as an aneurysm. “An aneurysm is an abnormal widening of an artery with an increase of greater than 1.5 times the normal diameter” (Medifocus, 2014, p. 19). The normal size of an aneurysm ranges from 1.4 cm to 3.0 cm. A diameter greater than 3 cm is considered to be an abnormal

An aneurysm is permanent, excessive dilation of a blood vessel. It can occur in the aorta and other blood vessels; the most common location for an aneurysm is in the abdominal section of the aorta (Humphrey and Taylor [88] from ITL biomechanics thesis). There are a couple of definitions of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA): one is a local dilation in the aorta whereby the diameter of a dilated artery is more than 50% larger than the original diameter [1]. Another definition is when the external AAA diameter exceeds 30mm [3].