Pain Assessment Essay

Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, share with us the academic, extracurricular, or research opportunities you would take advantage of as a student. If applicable, provide details of any circumstance that could have had an impact on your academic performance and/or extracurricular involvement.

I want to pursue my health care career in Nursing. I always dreamed of being a nurse, because I enjoy working and caring for people. Ever since I was a little girl I carried a toy stethoscope around and havin my family be my patients. I was not like any other kid, who played with barbies and kenn. My mom even knew I was going to fall in the great path of the health care. My potential is to have the greatest affect on others who are in need of my help. Also, I chose nursing to be my health career, because I have seen the real path of nursing in the real world. Attending a vocational high school, has given me a chance to enter the health assisting program. A four year high school program has put an outrageous affect on me. I learned how to practice

5. Zwakhalen, S., Hof, C., & Hamers, J. (2012). Systematic pain assessment using an observational scale in nursing home residents with dementia: exploring feasibility and applied interventions. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 21(21/22), 3009-3017. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04313.x

In this Assessment nursing course, one of the major things that is taught is the most important part of giving proper care to a patient. Correct patient assessment is needed before any nursing care plan or treatment can be implemented. This post-review of a person’s assessment will demonstrate the proper way to go about assessing a person’s health.

Cultural aspects of holistic assessment is relevant in the provision of nursing care as it provides the care team with an overview of cultural needs of the patient as well as providing information in which the patients’ health problems have arisen. Culture is defined as values, beliefs, artifacts, behaviors, attitudes and customs influencing and regulating interactions between members of a social group (Stein-Parbury 2010: 91; Johnstone 2006: 67). It is the nurses responsibility to adhere to the ANMC, competency 2.3, ‘accepts individuals/groups to whom care is provided regardless of race, culture, religion, age, gender, sexual preference, physical or mental state’ (ANMC 2006, p. 4). Kozier & Erb (2012: 360) discuss that cultural sensitivity, appropriateness, competency and safety are all factors that are required to be taken into consideration so that the patient can be provided with the best possible health care. Kozier & Erb (2012: 360) also explain that conflicts in health care have been apparent due to cultural misunderstandings. An example of a cultural misunderstanding is the level of pain. In some cultures, it is normal to dramatically express ones level of pain whereas in other cultures people do

JCAHO (2011) also stated that patients and their families needed to be educated about pain and how the patients’ pain is going to be managed. Every patient perceives and exhibits pain in a different manner and if nurses do not assess the patient thoroughly they can miss it. For instance, Engebretson et al. (2006) acknowledged that, patients manifest pain in different ways and this resulted in nurses performing an inadequate assessment of their patients’ pain. Also, Engebretson et al. recognized that patients often conceal their pain because they do not want to be viewed by staff as complainers or addicts, and if patients decide to speak up the nurses frequently view their patients’ statements from their own cultural, moral and ethical belief system and not their patients which leaves the patients’ pain untreated.

I would like to introduce you to Mary B. It is a fictitious name. She is 39 years old and has been a registered nurse for the last 15 years. Mary is married and has got two children aged 7 and 10 years old. She is a New Zealand European and was born in New Zealand. As a registered nurse Mary has been working in the hospital setting and the rest home. All her working life so far was connected to the elderly care. Her current role is a hospital nurse in the geriatric recovery ward. Most of Mary’s work is basic nursing care for elderly people (65 years old and over) after surgeries, rehabilitation. Also they provide palliative care for people in the end of their lives. Mary and her colleagues are involved in doing blood transfusions, wound

Nursing assessment is a substantial way of gathering physiological, psychological, spiritual, and emotional condition of the patient. It creates a whole picture of an individual and assist the health care providers to formulate a diagnosis. Assessing the comfort of the patient is equally important as taking the blood pressure or temperature. Pain is the fifth (5th) vital sign that is subjective in nature when performing an assessment of a patient. Various studies were conducted in finding the most appropriate evidence-based nursing practice in assessing and managing the pain of a cognitively impaired patient, whether it is acute or chronic or the underlying cause is cancer or post-operative incision. As emphasized by Song, Eaton, Gordon, Hoyle, and Doorenbos (2015), it is vital to ensure that “pain management is based on the best evidence” (p. 456). Perhaps knowing the causes of inability to assess and manage the pain in a cognitively impaired patient would give a clearer understanding of the practice.

This essay will aim to look at the main principles of cancer pain management on an acute medical ward in a hospital setting. My rational for choosing to look at this is to expend my knowledge of the chosen area. Within this pieces of work I will look to include physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of pain management.

I believe that nursing is both and art and a science consisting of psychosocial and biological sciences that work together to continually improve the health care field. I believe that with the knowledge and clinical experience from the TVCC ADN program I will be able to provide the best care possible to the people in the community. As a nurse it is important to carry the attributes of being caring, compassionate, understanding, non judgmental, realistic, open-minded, honest, ethical, and moral. I also feel that it is important to maintain sensitivity to all cultures when providing care.

I was always undecided regarding the career that I wanted to pursue. As I got older and looked at many choices in careers I realized that I wanted to have a career in the medical field. Being a nurse interests me because it requires the study of the human body along with other great opportunities that nurses have in this career. I want to become a nurse because I like being able to help those who are in need.

Nursing is defined as “as an application of scientific knowledge enhanced by artful practice in a socially responsible manner.” (Gregory 5). Nurses provide leadership as members of interdisciplinary teams, provide client centered care to promote health, prevent disease, and restore and maintain client integrity throughout the life span. (Krannich 71). This makes it one of the most interesting professions, in my opinion.

“Fall may be defined as an unexpected event in which the person comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level” (Struksness, Lindström, Lord, Slaasletten, Johansson, et al., 2011). In older populations, falls are quite common, but with a mental illness such as dementia, the problem is worsened. This cross-sectional study showed that the most common causes of falls reported by nursing staff were individual factors like physical impairment and mental impairment.

Registered nursing is among the top 10 occupations with the largest job growth’’ according to The Bureau of Statistics but why? Registered nursing is all over the world. In every hospital you will find many registered nurses because it is a good career to get into. A job industry that will never run out of jobs is the heath industry because everyone in the world needs health care treatment. Students should look into healthcare careers id they want a successful life and career. Registered nursing need dedication although it does not take such a long time to complete this career it has its rewards in its outcomes.

One of the many goals of the nursing profession is to provide high-quality, safe patient care. There are many responsibilities that come with a nursing career and when the nurse to patient ratio increases, there is a possibility that it may hinder the safe care that patients deserve, and this may result in negative patient outcomes and level of satisfaction. Staffing is one of the many issues that healthcare facilities face. In many facilities, there never seems to be enough nurses per shift to provide high quality, thorough patient care which often leads to burnt out staff, and frustrated patients and families. This review discusses the findings of quantitative studies and one systematic review that involves patient outcomes in relation to nurse staffing.