Reminiscence In See Me, Nurse

We learn from our experiences and grow as a person. By allowing our patients to reminisce about their past, this may provide additional growth and satisfaction about what their life has meant to them and those around them. It is a way to remember the good times and reflect on the bad times, but their journey has made them who they are. According to Shin and Steger (2014), promoting a person’s purpose of life refers to their long-term goals and what they would like to accomplish. These goals involve a person’s deeper sense of self and values. We must allow our patients to explore their past while we are active listeners. Morrie was a firm believer in being fully present around the person you are with. This means that you provide them your full attention and are only talking and thinking of that person. With today’s technology and smart phones, society is full of multitasking during meals, during a meeting or visiting with relatives. This does not provide full attention to the person you are with, which makes them feel they have less value or not appreciated. As nurses, we must give our full attention to our patients, let them tell their life story, and reflect on what purpose this has had on their lives. This reflection could also bring emotions of struggles and accomplishments we have made in our past, such as becoming a

Can you imagine the how the healthcare industry would be without language, what seems to be impossible to imagine is the everyday reality of some patients because of their native language. Language is a major contribution to the health disparities that some populations face, because it makes it difficult for some patients to communicate their problems as well as understand the care they provided. Language contributes to the health disparities that some populations face because it creates a barrier between the patient and the care provider, making it difficult for a patient to receive proper care. Language barriers create a communication gap between a patient and a provider, forcing the patient to feel misunderstood and unable to trust his/her provider to properly care for them. I come from a family that speaks more than one language, so I have seen the impact language barriers can have on someone who doesn’t speak fluent English.

In 2004 my grandmother and I moved from Haiti to United States without a speck of English in our language. After few years living in the states, my grandma started to get ill and she had to seek monthly medical assistance. At the time, my mother was working multiple jobs and I was a full time undergrad student that lived on college campus. Our busy schedule posed a challenge for us to bring grandma to her medical appointments. Most times it was hard for us to find someone to go with her and assist her with language translation. When it was time for her to go by herself, the health providers would have trouble finding a professional translator on the spot to assist my grandma. This became a repetitive problem and my grandma’s case was not getting any better. If she had the ability to communicate with her provider using her own language, she would have been able to be more expressive about her symptoms and the doctors would have assisted her to her needs. Just like my grandma, many people that speaks little to no English, are having trouble interpreting their medical diagnosis and communicating with their healthcare providers.

Jacobs, E. A., Shepard, D. S., Suaya, J. A., Stone, E. (2004). Overcoming language barriers in health care: costs and benefits of interpreter services. American Journal of Public Health, 94 (5), 866-869.

The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence places communication as one of the dominants (Purnell, 2002). Speaking the language of the patients would be the best tool that healthcare worker can use. It helps avoid many misunderstanding that may arise.

Culturally competent care is more important now than it has been ever before. BY 2020, 35% of the American population will consist of ethnic minorities as compared to today's 28% (Goldsmith, n.d.). This means that in order to best cater to these different patients, doctors and nurses have to speak the language of the different ethnicities, understanding their perspectives of medicine and treatment and catering to these in rode rot provide them with the best intervention.

In today’s society, being able to communicate or participate in the exchange of information effectively is an essential skill for much of the healthcare providers in America today. Providing patient-centered care involves learning to communicate effectively with various barriers even with those patients who speak a different language than English. There are patients with other ethnicities and culturally influenced health behaviors that can be different than the health care beliefs of the most clinicians in this country.

Effective communication with patients is critical to the safety and quality care. From the last two decades ,number of researches has been conducted on the impact of language barrier on health and healthcare. It is observed that language barriers are the main cause of medical errors, complication and adverse event. But due to data limitations ,limited researches on impacts of language barrier has been conducted in Canadian setting. However, the researches conducted on other countries on the impact of language barrier on quality of care is applicable in the Canadian context. Some researches shows that there are several barrier which affect quality of care and patient safety. Now, researches has begun to know the complexity of language, culture, race, health literacy that may affect patient care. Current approaches are moved towards the knowledge of risk of language barrier rather than implementation of effective, evidence informed strategies.

There are many strategies that can be implemented to help providers to communicate better with multi-cultural populations. Becoming a bilingual provider will greatly increase the communication process and the effectiveness of health care when caring for multi-culture populations. The provider must be aware that all Spanish people does not speak the same Spanish. They should not assume because someone speaks a certain language that they can all so write it. The provider should ask the patient what language they prefer to use, verbally or written. The provider should be aware of non-verbal clues which can be a barrier to health. They should be aware that personal space has a different meaning for different culture/populations. Some people

To communicate seems easy enough to most of us. We have been doing this from the moment we were born. We expressed ourselves with grunts, moans, crying, smiling and yelling. We started communicating even before we made words with our nonverbal forms of communication. Communication is important. It allows individuals to share information and messages in the form of ideas and feelings (Giger, 2013). It gives us direction and allows us to interact with others. Can you image getting the entertainment system in parts in the mail with no instructions as to how to put it together? It is essential that we all communicate effectivity in order to ensure the best quality of care. Language barriers threaten the patient safety and overall quality of care of these individuals. By having efficient practices in place it will lower those risks and increase quality care.

I enjoyed reading your post, you brought forth a great idea that your hospital uses. The “getting to know you board” that is in each patient’s room is a wonderful tool to use to open up the doors of communication with patients. This will assist them to share their memories with us, their nurse. The older adult feels it is helpful to involve reminiscence of the present, past, and the future (Tabloski, 2010). I too, believe that reminiscing takes the patient back to happier times and can be a useful therapy tool. Life review therapy is beneficial in reducing anxiety symptoms, as well as improving mental health (Korte, Bohlmeijer, Cappeliez, Smit, & Westerhof, 2012).

One key skill which is essential to nurses is being able resolve a way to communicate though barriers. Language barriers is something which be very challenging to overcome. For this barrier to be overcome it is common that a translator or an interpreter is brought into the setting. This requires specific training and allows the conversation to happen much more smoothly. Interpreters however can be a negative factor in communication, this is due to the nursing becoming reliant on the interpreter and not the patient themselves. For this not to occur it is essential that the nurse talking is speaking to both the interpreter and the patient. This could be making sure that eye contact is given to both. Unfortunately, interpreters aren’t always available meaning that the communication faces a barrier. This can make the patient feel angry and upset leaving them to feel unsatisfied with the care they are receiving. During a short placement in the North West there was a situation where a man could only speak Mandarin and no interpreter was available. The man was due to be discharged yet a discharge chat was needed to be made. The man himself began to get annoyed and aggressive as he wanted to

Health care providers are nothing short of heroes, yet they remain humble in their abilities. As a volunteer at a senior living facility, I was humbled each and every day by the patients I cared for, however one moment in particular remains clear. Sadly, one lady had not been able to recognize her daughter for quite some time despite our efforts of looking through old photo albums together. The task seemed hopeless, but I felt deep down that she was making progress. One afternoon as the patient’s daughter walked in, the patiet had a quizzical look upon her aging face. “I know you,” she stated confidently as she rose up to embrace her daughter. My heart leapt with pure happiness as I saw tears of joy begin to fall down the daughter’s face. I believe that never losing faith and remaining positive are important aspects in life and especially in medicine. We worked together to reach this special moment and nothing humbled me more than having played a part in

We must take extreme care to ask non-judgmental, open questions in memory-based work because As with all addressing of painful or traumatic events, a certain amount of careful preparation is needed, including the ‘safe place’ to retreat to. Again, strong emotions are likely. The ‘now’ you can ask questions, offer advice, offer reassurance and above all comfort the ‘old’ you with love and the knowledge that they survive and things get

Hope is evident when a person desires to avoid the feeling of despair and emotion that is associated with an uncertain future. Hope also enables a person to overcome difficult stages of their life; it gives the power of endurance and adaptability. In older adults, the values of past experiences are used to sustain their hope. Before nurses can give hope to their patients, it is important to understand what hope is and how to incorporate it in across the life span. Having a positive mindset alleviates emotional and physical pain and makes the recovery process a much pleasant one.