Nursing care is grounded by the belief of providing holistic care to patients, with which is guided by evidence-based practice. Nursing interventions are evidence-based measures that have tried to unify the profession of nursing. The literature serving as testimony to the care that nurses provide has been growing increasingly, however, there are still areas of nursing care where the evidence is deficient. The lack of research, trickles over to a lack of training and evidence-based practice performed by nurses, and ultimately the health outcomes of patients. For example, providing enhanced end-of-life care specifically in intensive care units, tailoring care specifically for each individual based on their genetic/genomic composition, and having a better understanding about gender-sensitive experiences with regards to certain illnesses, can debunk misconceptions, improve patient-centered care, reduce healthcare costs, and essentially produce optimal health outcomes. According to Holms et al. (2014) there is accessible, and existing literature to support end-of-life care (EOLC) in nursing, but when specifically pertaining to the intensive care unit (ICU), the literature is deficient. The concept of ICUs is to provide care for those patients with potentially fatal illnesses; however, the likelihood that EOLC is needed for patients in this unit is always a possibility. This qualitative study focused on the actual lived experiences of nurses who have provided EOLC to patients
This author’s personal perceptions concerning patients facing a lingering terminal illness, have been shaped by over 20 years of critical care nursing experience. Facing death and illness on a daily basis requires self-examination and a high degree of comfort with one’s own mortality, limits and values. Constant exposure to the fragility of life forces respect for the whole person and the people who love them. A general approach to patients who are actively dying is to allow them to define what they want and need during this time. The nurse’s role
Nursing should not be looked upon or practiced as a mere physical approach to healing. Nursing should encompass the aspect of restoring each individual patient to his/her maximum physical and emotional state of being. In order to achieve such a goal, a patient must be able to bond with her caregiver on a personal level (Blais & Hayes, 2011). Jean Watson’s caritas factors sets an environment where the patient can obtain optimum health benefits (Blais & Hayes, 2011). The goal of this paper is to state my philosophy of nursing, the important dynamics and values that led me to adopting this philosophy, and the reason why I choose nursing as a profession. I will further explain how Jean Watson’s principles of philosophy is
Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the patient as a whole but also an understanding of the family, social, legal, economic, and institutional circumstances that surround patient care.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the personal nursing philosophy I intend to use in my career as a nurse and to explore my values and beliefs about the four metaparadigms – the patient, the nursing practice, their health and the environment, and the discipline of nursing in addition to discussing the nursing concepts relevant to my practice as a nurse practitioner. This paper also discusses the nurse of the future and the Synergy model definitions of the four metaparadigms and how they fit into my personal philosophy.
Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and
Comparatively, Bailey et al. (2014) studied the effects of implementing interventions to improve end of life care for inpatient veterans. The problem statement was determined to be that end of life care in the inpatient setting was lacking, which drove the aim of the study to improve EOLC and to minimize suffering of the patients (Bailey et al., 2014). The researchers theorized that this could be accomplished if recognition of end of life was increased and if home-based palliative interventions were implemented. Therefore, the team sought to study the effectiveness of implementing staff education of three items: evaluating patients who are actively dying, communicating end of life interventions with patients and families, and implementing home-based best practices for end of life care (Bailey et al., 2014). The purpose here was to improve inpatient end of life care.
Holistic assessments in nursing provide a unique quality of care to the individual patient. Holism in the provision of care includes assessments obtaining data about the physiological, psychological, sociological, spiritual, developmental, cultural and environmental aspects. It is imperative that the nurse conducting these assessments adopts methods in the nursing process that reflects the standards outlined in Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse to ensure the health and wellbeing of the patient is maximized and maintained throughout the time health care is received. Nursing processes are directed at restoring overall harmony for the patient therefore an understanding of the
Nursing is about providing the best possible holistic care for the patient and family. At the same time there’s an imbalance of patient care regarding education and knowledge being provided by nurses. As a nurse I believe we all owe it to ourselves, the profession, and the patient to provide the best possible care. According to American Nurses Association (ANA) online article “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.” In order to better achieve the nursing ideals of the American Nurses Association we must improve patient care by requiring hospital nurses to become BSN nurses.
Death is inevitable at some point everyone must face it. Whether it is the death of a family member, friend, or a family pet, people are forced to deal with the death. Nurses however have more frequent encounters with death than the average person does. When a patient dies in a healthcare setting his or her nurse is obligated to deal with that as well. They must find ways to cope with the increased amount of death that
Acute hospitals play a significant role in end of life care, it is the place where most people die. Evidence suggests that end of life care in hospitals needs improvement. The purpose of this paper was to investigate patient and family experiences of hospital death, the weaknesses within the hospital setting and possible solutions to improve. A literature search identified common themes, these included:
I t is important that end of life care is delivered in respect of patients Autonomy, Beneficence, and in a Truthful way. In what follows I argue that we as nurses need to fulfill obligation to support and assist the dying patient and his family’s right to self-determination as it relates to end of life care. I believe that we have made headway but still have much to achieve. Education and research in these areas by and for health care workers and the general population would do much to improve the quality of end of life care.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) September 2014 Report brief- Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences near the End of Life addresses several necessities regarding end-of life (EOL) care. These necessities include; the needs and opportunities for improving EOL care, delivery of patient-centered and family-oriented care, clinician-patient communication and advance care planning, professional education and development, public education and engagement, as well as policies and payment systems to support high-quality EOL care. Taking care of the family and the patients near the end of life requires professional commitment and responsibility from all health care professionals including clinicians, clergy, caregivers, and support staff. The health system managers, payers, and policy makers also have obligation to make sure that EOL care is compassionate, affordable, sustainable, and high quality as possible. The IOM report point out that there has been a broad improvements towards the
Dorthea Orem based her nursing theory on a holistic approach. She believed that emotional, mental and physical balance were three parts of a whole in which individuals and healthcare providers needed to focus on in order to provide the best quality of life possible. Orem described much of her theory by defining self-care, self-care deficit, self-care requisites, and agency. Self-care is the care taken by an individual in order to meet his or her self-care demands. Agency refers to a person’s ability to care for their self (Hood, 2014). In Orem’s theory, there is a deficit when the agency cannot perform the necessary actions to sustain their self-care demands, which are, “all self-care activities required to meet existing self-care requisites” (Berman & Snyder, 2014, p. 44).
This is essay is going to examine the principles of nursing and health. In order to do this it must look at the concept of health then describe the dimensions that make up health. Secondly, an adult individual will be chosen in order to discuss the determinants that affect their health. It will then go on to explain the underpinning professional, ethical and legal principles that would be taken into consideration if the individual were to require nursing care. Finally, it will identify how carrying out this assignment has informed the writers personal concept of nursing.
Theory is a cluster of concept or ideas that propose a view concerning a phenomenon to guide nursing practice (Chitty, 2005). The four concepts basic to nursing that are incorporated in this paper are nursing, person, health, and environment (Cherry & Jacob, 2005). The goal of this paper is to describe the core concept of nursing shared amongst Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson’s theories. The comparison and analysis of concept definitions between these two theories will also examined. Finally Henderson’s theory of concept statement, metaparadigm and her philosophy will be explored.