Author: Erik

What To Look For In Senior Care Services?

The aging process can sometimes be stressful both to the elderly and their families. Senior care services strive to deliver the best care possible. They help seniors handle life’s challenges, build strong relationships, and emotionally support them as they journey through the aging period. So it is highly important to make sure that our elderly loved ones get the best care possible. Families must discuss specific qualities that would like to see in a senior care service:

  • Professional and Compassionate
    A provider that is an expert in delivering quality service to seniors should be the top consideration of families. Employees of the said service should have the heart and passion for the elderly, not juts view the job as a means of living.Seniors have different personalities and families should ensure that they match their caregivers to their individual needs and differences. When a caregiver is committed and compassionate in helping seniors, this will create a positive and strong relationship between the elderly, their families, and the care givers themselves.
  • Creative and Respectful
    Senior care providers should have a level of creativity where they can maintain an environment that keeps their patients active and enjoy activities like in a normal home setting. They should take into consideration a senior’s physical, mental and social faculties that contributes to their overall well-being.In addition, providers should demonstrate the highest degree of respect among their elderly patients. They should also understand the needs and find effective ways to enrich their lives with the work they provide.

When it comes to choosing a provider for your beloved elderly member, families should sit down, take time and thoroughly look into their options. Talking to the senior about their preferences and needs can help you narrow down this important decision.

 

Importance Of Good Communication In Healthcare Settings

According to the recent evidenced-based research results, there is really a strong and powerful relationship between having a good communication in healthcare team and patient’s satisfaction, safety and fast recovery. An expert says that “no matter how knowledgeable a clinician might be, if he or she is not able to open good communication with the patient, he or she may be of no help.” It simply means that when doctors, nurses and other member of the healthcare team can listen and provide better explanation to patients, they can prevent unwanted emergency situations such as emergency coding, wrong medication and severe health complication to patients. Furthermore, good communication among the healthcare team promotes smooth and positive working connection.

Since there are lot of cases reported about miscommunications among nurses, doctors and other team members, most hospital owners require them to have team buildings and seminars related to importance of good communication to minimize chaos and complain from patients about dissatisfaction, malpractice and ineffective healthcare team communication. Also, they are being reminded that even if they are performing well, they still need to learn more and improve their communication skills.

According to studies, patients suffer the most when the medical and healthcare team fails to communicate well. If all members of the healthcare team have good communication, they can achieve positive patient outcome and prevent situations such as:

  • Malpractice and other human errors
  • Sudden death of a patient
  • Severe complication of patient’s disease
  • Chaos within the healthcare team

Listening is still part of communication. The healthcare team must listen well to the primary complains of their patient in order to provide better diagnosis and care to them. Once they have all the important information, they should collaborate with each other to deliver the best medical care to the patient.

Discerning Nursing Homes

The United States has about 19, 000 nursing homes, and more than 1.5 million of Americans live in them. Most of the homes are owned privately, and others are operated by the government. Some are also operated by profit-driven corporations. Others are sponsored by religious and civic organizations. Different states have laws regulating the operation of nursing homes, and even require them to get license. In order to ensure they follow the law, periodical inspections are conducted.

Three types of nursing homes exist today: skilled, intermediate, and supervised. Each kind offers a particular care for certain groups of patients. In selecting a type of nursing home, there are two main things to include in the decision-making process:

Quality Care
An admirable nursing home is it matches both the medical and psychological needs of their patients with their existing resources.

For instance, not all elderly individuals require the same medical care. A study shows that a lot of relatively healthy people live in nursing homes that have excellent medical facilities. While other patients who need more medical attention live in inadequate medical facilities.

Psychologically Fulfillment
Most elderly people who live in nursing homes are still productive. Some institutions provide activities for such residents. A good nursing home encourages their residents to have hobbies and to participate in various activities and services involving them in the community.

Emotional Impact
Most families agree to put their elderly loved one in nursing homes as a last resort. Sometimes, they do so when the person’s health conditions grow too severe and the family finds it difficult to take care and keep the relative at home. For other old people, who decide for themselves to stay at nursing homes, they regard it as a final step before death.

What Are the Recommended Activities for Older People Living in the Nursing Homes?

Most elderly people who live in nursing homes still have the chance to develop their quality of life by means of joining some exciting physical and mental activities. These activities will help them in maintaining their self-confidence and self-worth.

Providing daily or weekly activities for the elderly is a biggest challenge to all nursing home staff. They have to link the activity to the personality of their residents. However, encouraging depressed senior citizens or those with low self-esteem to join the activities is the hardest part.

Nursing home staff should conduct a therapeutic activity so that the elderly people can benefit from it. In this article, we will give you the list of the recommended activities for older people living in nursing homes.

Counselling
Talking to the elder residents one by one is recommended. Nursing home staff should assess their residents about their physical and emotional status. This activity is helpful since you will know what activities they want. Senior citizens living in nursing homes have a very low self-worth since they think they are already forgotten by their loved ones. Simply talking to them will help them develop their confidence, self-esteem and self-worth.

Early Morning Group Exercise
Early group exercise is the best morning activity for senior citizens. It includes stretching, mild bouncing and kicking. Exercise provides better mental stimulation and physical activity to the elder residents. It also prevents them from having heart and lung problems. Nursing home staff can also utilize gaming consoles such as xbox Kinect or Wii as an exercise tool for people who are in wheel-chairs.

Art activities
Painting is known to be the best mental activity. It helps elderly people think actively. By doing this activity, senior residents are prevented from other mental disorder such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Painting can also relieve series of arthritis attack.

Agricultural activities
Older people are known to be good at this activity. They like to grow plants, trees, flowers in pots. Although some of the residents can no longer do this activity due to sickness. This activity promotes better mental stimulation and muscle activity.

Music Therapy
Music has the capability to uplift the mood and spirit of every person. Nursing homes should include this in their daily activity since it promotes mood relaxation. Residents can also sing and play music together since it promote bond and comfort to one another.

The NLN Accreditation’s Significance

The National League for Nursing (NLN) compose a group of nursing advocates such as educators, agencies, and other member of the public, dedicated to the success of the nursing education. The NLN has another entity that is responsible for accrediting nursing schools and programs – NLN Accrediting Commission. Various nursing programs get accreditation.

Nursing schools thrive to have NLN accreditation since it assures their students that their programs meet a or exceed criteria and standards for nursing education. Aside from this, accredited schools have across the country have been known for the large percentage of graduates who pass nursing licensure exams. Thus, employers hire nursing staff from accredited schools since they know these graduates are highly competitive and acquire the necessary skills.

Although accreditation is a sign that a nursing school is in line with quality standards, they may have a chance to loose this valuable validation. That is why schools need to maintain their commitment to the nursing education success.

When considering a nursing school, it’s important to consider an accredited school. Non-accredited programs may not qualify you for financial aid. Also, when you graduate, your employment opportunities may be limited. Employers may hire a nurse from an accredited school, if they had to pick between the two of you. Also, graduates from non-accredited schools may not have a chance to work for the government.

You may wonder, where can you find nursing schools that are accredited? Searching online through the NLN’s official website may help you find a number of schools within your vicinity. Also try to search for schools with candidate status. Candidacy is the first step that leads to NLN accreditation. So when schools offer candidate programs, they’re preparing for accreditation.

The Blessings of Distance Learning Systems

Distance learning systems has become a blessing to the field of education. Despite the shortfalls in technology, this alternative way of learning has becoming promising for the 21st century learners. Let’s delve deeper into the advantages of Distance learning.

  • Convenience of time and space
  • This is one of the biggest edge of distance learning. Students no longer have to drive all their way to be present in a class, physically present beside the instructor, gather study materials from the library, or gather together with other students.
  • Some students who are partly working, have time restrictions and may not study in a traditional class setting. Distance learning may provide them the opportunity to perform academics despite having work.

In addition, young adults won’t have to go far away from their state to get formal education. With various distance learning system, students can learn effectively as in a classroom.

  • Saves Money
  • Cost for online learning is much cheaper than on-campus counterparts. Students worry less since they don’t need to pay for commute, lodging, uniform, canteen, and miscellaneous school fees.
  • Online programs offer modules that can be downloaded on the computer. So, the need for bulky books will be somewhat eradicated. The cost for school supplies such as paper, pen, and notebook will no longer be needed due to the notepad feature offered free by Microsoft windows.
  • Earning while Learning
  • As mentioned, students can work at the same time study. When you have a job, you have income, and with a stable income, you are able to support your studies without plunging yourself from debt – unlike every one else.

These are some of the obvious advantages Distance learning systems can give. Efforts in improving the system is still going on, and great possibilities are to be expected in the future.

 

Financing Hospital Care in the United States

Since the 60’s, Medical costs have risen dramatically in the U.S. The greatest increase comes from hospital care. Most hospitals have been granted large wage increase and installed expensive modern equipments. To meet these large expenditures, hospitals raised charges to their services by about 600 percent.

There are three main methods of financing hospital care in the country: (1) private insurance, (2) government funding, and (3) customer payments.

Private Insurance. Approximately 80% of Americans have health insurance of some kind. The employee, employer, and the government pays a certain amount for medical benefits. Private health insurance are offered either by insurance companies, medical service plans, employers, or organizations.

Medical service plans provide service benefits. This service is a direct payment to the physician or hospital for medical care. On the other hand, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s) provide nearly complete health care services for a monthly or annual fee. Despite the complete services provided, patient’s options are limited or are bonded by the HMO’s restrictions. There are also employers who pay for the health care cost for their employees rather than buying insurance.

Government Funding. About 40 percent of all health care cost is paid by the government. Of course, the Federal government pays for the larger portion. Hospitals that receive such funding are those managed by the Public Health Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Medicare is the biggest government funded health care program in the U.S. IT helps senior citizens pay for out patient, nursing and hospital care.

Customer Payments. Most insurance do no pay for cost of medicine, medical appliances, dental , and eyeglasses. Some only cover a portion of the outpatient care. Patients will need to cover part of the cost themselves. Nearly 25% of health care cost is paid by patients.

Methods of Testing Theories in Sociology

Sociology is the study of the human society. Before a theory in such field is considered to be reliable and true, different tests must be in place. Sociologists use three main methods to test theories: (1) surveys, (2) controlled experiments, and (3) filed observation.

Surveys, sometimes referred to public opinion poll, is the widely accepted ways of studying human behavior. Using variables, surveys measure people’s attitude towards different matters. Sociology often studies the relationship between a viewpoint and a subject while considering elements like education, age, and gender.

Questionnaires are usually given to a controlled group where they will answer either worded or objective type questions. The survey questions also ask about their background and demographic information. Through this method of data gathering, information such as consumer habits, racial discrimination, and other human behavior and activity are provided. In addition, surveys answer issues in the society to have a clear understanding concerning the problems involved.

Experiments. Some of the experiments are conducted in a laboratory and in small groups. In some cases, a two groups are studied for contrasting and comparing. They want to know the significant difference in the attitudes and behavior of certain groups.

Field Observation. Information is primarily gathered through observations and talk within the community. During th period of study, the sociologist will participate in societal activities such as political activities, networks, and functions.

Field observation gives first-hand information about a group of people, but is least reliable method of testing theories. A fact can be true to community A, but cannot be applied to community B. Additionally, there are also outside factors that may influence the the conclusions made.

The study sociology is a group of indisputable conclusions that are diverse. The information is well gathered. Unlike biology and physical sciences, sociology is less precise due to changing human behavior.

Technology: A Blessing and Curse to Patient Care

The combination of knowledge, experience, and skills are needed for nurses to meet the changing needs of their patients. A large demand of patient care and safety is based on the work of nurses. When care is sub par, because of certain inappropriate situations, nurses shoulder the responsibility. Having an understanding and engagement of strategies to improve quality of care and safety is paramount to a nurse’s work.

A lot of factors affect the quality and safety of care provided by nurses such as environment, organizations, and systems. When teams function well and organization structures support their work, nurses are able to perform their job better with a high intensity of care.

In the past, nurses relied heavily on their senses to monitor their patients and look for changes. As time passed, inaccurate use of senses were replaced with precision-based technologies designed to detect changes to patient’s conditions. Over time, technology has become extremely helpful tot the nursing career.

While technology has potentially improved patient care and safety, it is not without risks. Technology has been accounted for bringing a solution and added problems for safer health care. Problems may rise based on the sheer number of new devices, the complexity and careless introduction in using them.

Although billions and billions of dollars have been spent every year on medical devices and equipment, nurses has paid little attention to technological implementation and integration.

Technology also has introduced many errors and unintended mistakes. For instance the use of bar code system. Many believe that the bar coding medication administration reduces the medication errors, it was also believed to decreased physician’s ability to accurately deviate routine administration sequences.

Another disadvantage of using technology is the associated expenditure. Not all hospitals can afford high-end equipments and devices. That is why more development is needed to more effectively introduce new technologies, reducing the risk to the patient care, and stress on nurses.

Course Placement and Credit by Exams

Earning credits through examinations can determine the course placement of students at a university. Many credit by exams are recommended when enrolling for a particular course, while others are optional. A high school graduate can earn an elective undergrad course if they are able to pass these exams.

Credit by exams have eligibility criteria set, so not everyone aspiring to go to a University are able to earn credits for a preferred course. The requirements are established by the academic department with the approval of the dean.

Earning credits by passing a course is equivalent to passing a credit by exam. The only exception is that credit is not earned in residence. Failure of passing credit earned examinations does not threaten their chances of getting scholarships during the first year of college and does not reflect on their official transcript.

Students with a score eligible for credit has the option to either get a placement only prerequisite or credit only. If the latter is preferred, the Registrar’s office reports the credit the student qualified through credit by exam given that the student is not prohibited from enrolling in the said university. If the students would like to use the qualifying score to enroll in a course, he may do so. A credit-only may later be used as a placement for a course upon student’s petition, but a course credit cannot be changed to placement only. Students who are officially enrolled or former students are allowed to take examinations to establish eligibility for either placement or credit only.

There are also other credit by exams, that upon the approval of the academic dean and department head, a student may take the exam offered by the University. Those who are officially enrolled in the said University will have the chance to take the exam. IF they receive a qualifying score, they will receive credit for their preferred course.