- Part 21

More about the Hospice Care

Your physician and the hospice team works along with you and your loved ones to create a plan of health care that fits your preferences and needs. Your plan of care consists of hospice services that Medicare includes. In the event you are eligible for a hospice care, you will have an exclusively trained team and support accessible to assist you and your loved ones to deal with your illness.

Furthermore, a hospice nurse and doctor are on-call Round the clock, 7 days a week, to provide you and your loved ones with assistance and care when it’s needed. A hospice physician is part of your healthcare team. Your family doctor or a nurse practitioner may also be part of this team as the attending medical professional to monitor your care.

Only your family doctor (not a nurse practitioner) that you’ve selected to serve as the attending medical professional-and the hospice medical director can approve that you’re critically ill and have 6 months or less to live. The hospice advantage permits you and your loved ones to remain together in the convenience of your home if you don’t need care in an inpatient facility. If the hospice team can determine that you’ll require inpatient care, the hospice team can make the necessary arrangements for your stay.

Most hospice individuals get hospice care in the convenience of their house and with their own families. Determined by your condition, you may even get hospice care in a Medicare-approved hospice center, hospital, elderly care, or other long-term care center.

Hospice care is definitely designed for those who have 6 months or fewer to live if the illness goes its normal route. If you live more than 6 months, you may still get hospice care, provided that the hospice medical director or other hospice doctor re-certifies that you’re critically ill. Hospice care emerges in benefit durations. A benefit period starts the day you start to acquire hospice care and it ends when your 90-day or 60-day period ends. For additional specific details on a hospice plan of care, contact your national or state hospice organization.

What is a Nursing Home?

For those who have a family member who needs a special medical care or treatment, you may already know the term nursing home. A nursing home is usually a destination for individuals who don’t really need to stay in a hospital but cannot be treated at home. The majority of nursing homes include nursing aides and skilled healthcare professionals accessible round the clock.

Several nursing homes are set up just like a hospital. Employees deliver health care, along with speech, physical and occupational therapy. There is usually a nurses’ station on every floor. Additional nursing homes act similar to a home. They attempt to have a neighborhood feel. Usually, they do not have a fixed day-to-day schedule, and kitchens may be available to residents. Personnel should build connections with residents.

A few nursing homes have particular care units for those who have really serious memory problems such as Alzheimer’s disease. Many will let couples live with each other. Nursing homes are not only seen for the elderly, but for any individual who requires 24-hour care.

Nursing homes supply nursing care and similar services to those who need nursing, healthcare, treatment or any other special services. These services are licensed by the state and may even be certified to participate in the Medicaid and/or Medicare programs. Certain nursing facilities may also satisfy particular requirements for dementia care.

The most important part of a nursing home other than the quality of the health care services is the feeling of security and belonging. These people don’t need to feel being in a hospital but rather in a home where they can feel the presence of a family.

Importance of Sociology in Nursing

Educating nurses with sociology has turned into a major issue in health sociology. The latest nursing curriculum recognizes the necessity for the twenty-first century nurse to use knowledge coming from a selection of specialties and disciplines when evaluating and examining patients/clients and selecting a procedure for care. This includes the study of sociology. Society has evolved and people tend to be more prepared to challenge ‘experts’ in terms of medications, treatments and procedures.

Professional limitations may also be getting less rigorous, and a lot of people are requiring a more active part in decision-making. The health care industry has seen many organizations and nurses, as well as other health care personnel, who have to adjust to the altering structures and ideologies of health care.

The effect of these adjustments has been enormous and lots of nurses have found themselves at a loss in understanding how to prepare for the new demands. The function of sociology in nursing is constantly casting new light on many facets of wellness and illness. Throughout the last 20 years, nursing process has seen sociological concept become an important clinical tool, in both the diagnosis and prognosis of a wide range of illnesses and long-term conditions.

Sociology in nursing is a vital tool in understanding more the patient’s reaction and response to treatment. The more the nurses are able to connect with their patient, the more effective they are. It is in fact difficult to diagnose a patient without having the right connection and understanding; this is why sociology is important. The previous studies and research on how a patient reacts, respond and recover to certain diseases or conditions can give the health care professional a step ahead on the medical treatment process.

Ways to Acquire Credits

There are a few ways to obtain college credits even without enrolling to a course. The Government has been supporting the credit by exam program for students who have advanced knowledge of a certain course or subject. They will no longer retake a course they already master. There are many options available to earn credits.

Advanced Placement
After finishing an Advanced Placement course, students have the choice of paying a fee for taking suitable assessment. Test scores identify the kind and number of credits the UO can honor.

College-Level Examination Program (CLEP)
The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) is a countrywide assessment system that makes it feasible for students to acquire college credit through exams. Subject Examinations are available to all students. The educational departments that have permitted the use of these assessments also figure out the scores essential to receive college credit.

Credit by Examination
Credit by examination permits officially accepted undergraduate students to challenge undergraduate university courses without subscribing to the courses. Students wanting to obtain credit by examination have to be registered for the term in which the exam is offered. Credit by examination might be earned only in courses in whose content is recognized by the college or university.

College students should get in touch with the Office of the Registrar first to complete an Academic Requirements Committee request to determine eligibility for credit by examination. Students then acquire faculty and department approvals prior to the exam. Students are charged a test fee of $25 per credit hour.

You can avail of any of these methods, with good preparation you may pass the exam and enjoy the benefits of earning a credit as you enter your course in College.

Importance of Fundamentals of Nursing

Fundamentals of nursing are the courses that teach the basic principles and procedures of nursing. In the fundamentals of nursing, the student attends classes and provides care to chosen patients. The course highlights the significance of the fundamental needs of humans and competence in fundamental skills as prerequisites to providing extensive nursing care.

The nursing practice has to be dependent and based on nursing theories. These theories are proven and tested for so many years. These theories are the basis of the nursing discipline and what makes it a profession. The nursing concepts supply direction and assistance for structuring professional nursing practice, advancement, and research. It also differentiates the focus of nursing from other professions. It is designed to guide assessment, involvement, and evaluation of nursing care.

The theories also supply a rationale for collecting reliable and valid data about the health status of patients. These are essential for effective decision making and implementation. They assist in creating criteria to measure the quality of nursing care. They develop a common nursing terminology to use in communicating with other health care professionals. Lastly, nursing theories improve the autonomy of nursing by understanding its very own independent functions.

In nursing research, nursing theories offer a structure for producing knowledge and new ideas. They guide in discovering knowledge gaps in the specific field of study. Eventually, they give a systematic method of identification questions for study, select variables, translate findings, and authenticate nursing interventions. To comprehend nursing theories, a theory, conceptual frameworks, theory and conceptual model must first be defined. A theory is a system of ideas that is proposed to describe a given phenomena.

Concepts are the foundations of theory, are abstract ideas or mental images of phenomena. A conceptual framework is a collection of related concepts and processes. It provides an overall view or orientation to concentrate thoughts. A conceptual model is an illustration or diagram of a conceptual framework.

Nursing Standards of Care

A standard of care states what a person must do or perform in a health care activity. One particular example of standard of care may illustrate what you should do if you found a patient just fallen to the floor. The certified nursing assistant must call for help, adhere to the patient and look at the person to see if they are hurt or needs further treatment. If you can’t do these things, you are not following the standard of care. If you don’t do what is expected to a nursing assistant, you may be held accountable for any harm or damage done to the patient or citizen.

Different states have their own standards of care that must be followed by nursing assistants. Nursing assistants must report abnormal signs or symptoms they observe during their shift. In case a nursing assistant doesn’t report shortness of breath to the nurse, this nursing assistant isn’t providing care based on the standard of care in their state.

An institution or association may have their own standards of care. For instance, our national law states that patient and resident health information have to be kept discreet, that means no other person should access it unless authorized. In case a nursing assistant tells other people about the health condition of another individual, they’re not following a standard of care. All workplaces have a policy and procedure book that has standards of care. There are certain rules and regulations that must be strictly followed.

States provides the scope of practice for nurses, doctors, nursing assistants and others. They list exactly what a person can and cannot do in their job. If nursing assistant assists an individual with their medicines in a nursing home, they’re doing things outside of their scope of practice. They’re only allowed to do this in an assisted living home. Also, if a nursing assistant provides a person their medicine anywhere, they are not following their scope of practice.

The Distance Learning Fees

Tuition and fees for classes online in many cases are evaluated about the same framework as tuition and fees for conventional classes. Nevertheless, some variations really exist between in-state and out-of-state college tuition, price limits at full-time student status and student fees for online classes.

Educational institutions usually charge a set fee of tuition per credit hour for on-campus classes that a college student is registered. Costs per credit continue to keep accrue until students reach what the college considers full-time status. At this time, extra credits do not accrue more costs until students reach an overtime status, after which some colleges add additional per-credit or tuition charges.

Public and state schools add an additional variable into the formula with two distinct tuition rates based on whether a student is a citizen of the college’s home state or otherwise not. Tuition for in-state students is generally lower than tuition for out-of-state students.

On top of these tuition charges, the majority of colleges add student fees, which offer for computer systems and machinery charges, student athletic teams, exercises, student lifestyle services, wellness center fees along with other similar costs.

There are many variations in how colleges manage tuition and costs for distance learning classes. Some schools treat distance-learning classes just like other classes, charging you an in-state or out-of-state rate per credit at a price cap that starts once a student takes sufficient credits that need considering full time.

Alternatively, colleges may not acknowledge a full-time status for distance learning classes, meaning the costs per credit are identical for a student taking one course. The benefit to this circumstance for distance learners is that they may take less than a full-time course load without experiencing all the extra costs that will include additional years on-campus.

Several public schools charge all online college students the in-state rate or the out-of-state rate irrespective of their state of residence, so possible distance students ought to research schools thoroughly. In many colleges, the real difference in cost in between distance learning and traditional classes is the fees charged aside from tuition. Distance learners may need to pay a technology fee, however they could save significant amounts of money on room and board or on traveling expenses.

Exercise Benefits for COPD Patients

According to recent studies, staying active can help keep chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients out of the hospital for a longer period of time. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. which makes it a very dangerous disease. This is why many health care programs are currently focused on providing interventions at hospital discharge to reduce re-admissions.

The study captures information regarding patients’ typical physical exercise before the first hospitalization and offers evidence that supports the promotion of exercise across the COPD care scale.

Researchers discovered that people who exercised for at least 150 minutes a week were 34 percent less inclined to be readmitted to the hospital within the next 30 days, compared with individuals who were inactive. This gives more reason for people with COPD to go out and exercise. Even at home, COPD patients can do simple exercise to improve their system. The more they become active, the more they activate their cells and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Even those individuals who relatively or vigorously exercised less than 150 minutes a week had a 33 percent lower readmission risk, in comparison with people that were inactive. A simple exercise is already good enough to keep you away from the hospital.

Exercise is connected with lower hazards of hospitalization for COPD patients. Particularly, individuals who either maintained a low physical exercise level over several years — as well as people who decreased their exercise levels during this period — had a higher hospitalization rate compared to those who maintained high physical exercise levels.

Exercise is a good and healthy habit to reduce hospitalization for COPD patients. It costs you nothing to exercise and will give you more benefits than you expect. It will reduce your hospital fees and exposure to medicines. So start stretching and keep yourself away from the hospital.

EMTs and Paramedics

You constantly see the EMTs and the paramedics whether on the news or in the movie. You see them in their uniform responding to any accidents or disaster giving aid to victims. Sometimes you’ll see them in ambulances, fire trucks, hospitals or helicopters. They are assigned in areas where help is needed. Both the EMT and the paramedics work in a variety of roles and are usually the first in area of accidents, medical emergencies, and natural disasters.

In the field of emergency medical services (EMS), there are different levels of accreditations for providers of care. Emergency Medical Technicians are the most typical kind of providers in all of EMS. They are the entry-level patient care provider accompanied by EMT-Intermediates and then paramedics.

Both EMTs and paramedics have the skills and knowledge to move or transport patients and provide them with emergency care. The most important distinction between them is the quantity of education they receive as well as what they are permitted to do for patients.

EMTs usually complete a program that may reach 120-150 hours in length. Paramedic classes may be between 1,200 to 1,800 hours. EMT and paramedic courses consist of lectures, hands-on skills training and clinical internships. EMTs are educated in several skills including CPR, assisting patient with oxygen, providing glucose for diabetics, and assisting others with treatments for asthma attacks or allergy symptoms.

Paramedics are superior providers of emergency medical treatment and are highly educated in matters like anatomy and physiology, medications, cardiology, first aid and medical procedures. They expand their EMT education and learn more skills such as providing medications, starting intravenous lines, delivering advanced airway management for patients, and understanding how to resuscitate and assist patients with significant issues like heart attacks and severe injuries.

Career in Healthcare Management

Healthcare is changing more quickly than almost any other field. The sector is beginning to change in terms of where and how care is delivered, who is supplying those services, and just how that care is financed. Healthcare management demands talented people to manage the changes taking place. In their roles, healthcare executives have an opportunity to produce a significant contribution to improving the health of the communities their organizations serve.

With growing diversity in the healthcare system, executives are needed in many settings, including clinics, consulting firms, health insurance organizations, healthcare associations, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, physician practices, mental health organizations, public health departments, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and universities and research institutions.

Currently, approximately 100,000 people occupy health management jobs at numerous organizational levels, from department head to chief executive officer. Prerequisites for senior-level positions in healthcare organizations are demanding, but these jobs also offer the opportunity to improve the system of care giving.

If you choose a career in healthcare management, your first job might be an entry- to mid-level management position in a specialized area, like finance, government relations, human resources, information systems, planning and development, marketing and public affairs, material management, medical staff relations, nursing administration, patient care services, as well as growth and salaries.

Healthcare management is a large, sophisticated, and ever-changing field. The fact is, healthcare services improve each year which supports millions of new jobs, the largest increase of any industry. This shows that nurses, physicians, therapists and other health care professionals are highly needed by the industry. It is a good time to enroll to a program and enter the health care field.