Critical Care Nursing : An Analysis Of A Complicated Profession

Critically ill patients that require mechanical ventilation are at risk of developing secondary infections that may increase length of stay and possibly even morbidity. This fragile patient population requires special attention and meticulous adherence to established nursing standards of care. These standards of care are founded on evidenced based practices. It is important that nurses receive education about why these standards are in place and what consequences can result due to not following the established care protocols.

As an acute care nurse practitioner I hope to utilize my experience as an Intensive Care Unit nurse along with clinical knowledge and skills acquired through a graduate level program to provide the highest quality patient care. In my current role, I place high value on patient-family centered care and advocacy as well as commitment to lifelong learning. I have built my nursing career upon these values. I am excited to begin the journey of becoming an acute care nurse practitioner and to further my education and expand my scope of practice in the field of critical care, for which I have already developed a passion.

I have been a nurse for the past 25 years, and started my career on an orthopedic unit at Flint Osteopathic Hospital. After six years of developing my assessment and clinical skills as an orthopedic nurse, I decided it was time to challenge myself and apply for a position in critical care. I started working in

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an in depth exploration of the nursing care considerations of patients in a specific clinical area. Through the synthesis of prior knowledge, clinical experiences and skills, evidence based best practices, and care of patients a comprehensive care and teaching plan will be composed. Integration of critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills, combined with evidence-based research will provide confirmation of nursing process comprehension. The inclusion of reviewed literature will further support knowledge and understanding.

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) developed a model that explicates the bedside nurse practice. The goal of this model was to explain what skills or competencies were brought to the overall patient care by nurses when meeting the needs of the patient and their families (Hardin, 2013; McEwen, 2014b). The Synergy Model for Patient Care is a middle range nursing theory.

Time spent at my mother’s bedside in the intensive care unit changed my perception of the nursing profession. I realized what unique value was integrated in comprehensive nursing care, which was built on excellence, compassion, and respect. I knew right then and there that nursing was a professional path which I would like to take. Changing my college major to nursing was not a difficult decision – I wanted to repay for all that courteous care my family received in the most vulnerable time of our lives.

Fairley (2005) gives a consultant nurse’ perspective of a clinical role in critical care unit that has evolved as a central feature of all surgical high dependency units (SDHU) in large teaching hospital trusts. Advanced nursing practice is perceived not as the acquisition and application of technical procedures which are usually undertaken by doctors, but also an integration of medicine and nursing where holistic nursing assessment and symptom focused physical examination go hand in hand. Fairley presents a reflective account of practical problems encountered relating to role integration, professional autonomy, legal and consent issues, non-medical prescribing, and role evaluation (Fairley, 2005). The paper successfully describes a model of nursing applied to high dependency units integrating the role of the advanced nurse practitioner within the medical and clinical team an reflective practice plays an important role by being the main method of evaluation of a consultant nurse’ perspective. In a

Fry, M. (2011). Literature review of the impact of nurse practitioners in critical care services. Nursing In Critical Care, 16(2), 58-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-5153.2010.00437.x

The American Association of Critical-Care Nursing (AACN) is the largest nursing organization of a non-profit character in the world. It represents 500,000 nurses and their interests. The responsibility of these nurses is to provide health care services to the critically and acutely ill patients. Thus, the duty of the AACN organization is to give its members all the possible resources and knowledge, so that they could help critically ill clients become healthier. Therefore, I would like to join the AACN organization. To become a member of this particular organization I need to learn more about it by researching some questions.

Nursing care is focused on the assessment, nursing diagnoses, planning, implementation, and evaluation of patients. This nursing process can also be implemented in aspects outside of nursing and on the nursing field as a collective group. The nursing role is evolving, following the process the outcomes have to be evaluated and put into perspective. Research is being completed the conclusions are all the same, the higher education of nursing care the better the patient outcomes.

The current class has been very informative on nursing theories and it is the dream of every aspiring nursing student and registered nurses to provide compassionate care to the patients. Nurses have a role not only to offer physical care but to offer mental, spiritual and emotional support to patients as well. Patients with complex and frequently diverse needs must be given the full attention of the nurse based on their needs. Consistent research indicated the significant benefits which ensue when nurses offer compassionate care; however this is not always the case, especially among nurses which are involved in direct care of terminally ill patients and such nurses end up suffering from compassion fatigue, this is what Joinson (1992) described

This essay sets out to discuss the importance of comprehensive and accurate assessment on a registered nurses’ ability to make excellent clinical decisions. It will examine what factors can change a nurses’ capability to be aware of, and act on abnormal assessment findings. As well as assessment being part of the nursing process that is used in every day nursing, it is also a critical part of patient safety (Higgins, 2008). Assessment findings are used to determine what needs to be done for the patient next. Early warning scoring systems currently exist to aid in the early detection of patient deterioration (Goldhill, 2005). The rationale for the use of these systems is that early recognition of deterioration in the vital signs of a

The purpose of this assignment is to critically appraise a selected research paper following a data extraction relevant to the field of nursing. Critical appraisal is the process of evaluating the strengths and weakness of research, to find out if it is valid, reliable and applicable (Moule and Goodman, 2009). The following article to be critiqued is “A Nutritional Formula Enriched with Arginine, Zinc, and Antioxidants for the Healing of Pressure Ulcers” by Cereda et al. (2015).

Despite technological and medical advances today, chronic disease and resultant co-morbidities are prevalent in the Australian Healthcare System. As a result, patients, especially in the acute care setting, have more complex care needs. The management and care of patients with these complex care needs present a challenge for the contemporary nursing professional. Positive patient outcomes will be dependent on a number of factors, such as the assessment of the patient’s condition, the identification of potential risks for the patient, the planning of appropriate care and the management of the subsequent interventions that may be required.

The standards of practice describe a competent level of nursing care as exhibited by the critical thinking model known as the nursing process. This practice includes the areas of assessment, diagnosis, outcome identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The nursing process includes significant actions taken by registered nurses (RN) and forms the foundation of the nurse’s decision-making (“American Nurses Association,” 2010).