- Part 4

Nursing Fundamentals

Nurses have many roles. A nurse may be an assistant to a medical specialist or part of the surgical team of doctors on their way to an operation. But nurses have specific duties to perform, not just mere assistants. You could at least point out five of those roles a nurse has to perform on a daily basis. The fundamentals of nursing could be as complicated as its demanding work at times, but the results are always rewarding.

Assessing a Patient
As soon as the patient is housed inside the hospital, a nurse almost immediately has to perform an assessment to the patient. This initial assessment might prove valuable later on, particularly with performing a diagnosis.

Diagnosis
Nurses, after conducting an initial assessment, could perform a simple diagnosis to their patients. A nurse might want to interview the patient further and diagnose the patient properly.

Nursing Care
Immediately after giving a simple diagnosis, a nurse has to devise a plan on how to take care of the patient. That plan though is in keeping with the assessment and its corresponding diagnosis.

Medical Intervention
If a patient is in need of further diagnosis, a nurse might be able use the services of a doctor. This will assure the patient that the initial medical attention has its confirmation with another medical staffer.

To Recap
After doing the necessary assessment and diagnosis, and providing initial medication to the patient, a nurse has the responsibility to evaluate the said patient. This evaluation would either give further medical attention or would recommend a release for the patient.

These are basically the fundamentals of nursing, the basic things that a nurse has to do in the course of his/her duty. Indeed, they have many roles, and it’s more than just assisting.

Why Sociology Is Important to Nurses

In the old days, the study of sociology can only be conducted inside a classroom. A student simply can’t discuss the topic online like a subject in a class. Today, even those online nursing schools are offering sociology as one of their subjects.

Sociology is a field in science that concerns itself with social behavior. The origins and the development of a particular society takes its cue from the study of sociology. Sociology, at the outset, is not so much related to the study of nursing, but nurses who are knowledgeable in the study of sociology have at least an advantage over those who don’t. The study of sociology is so loaded with research, particularly on topics such as social processes or social change. In fact, many of those who are into sociology are into social policies as well.

If a nurse has at least an understanding of these social processes, that nurse might be able to conduct a patient assessment in a more circumspect way. Nurses interact with a lot of people. And the demographics of this crowd is quite diversified. This is where knowledge in sociology comes in. If a nurse has a comprehensive know-how on certain sociological issues, that would make his or her work a notch higher than a mere auxiliary to a doctor.

Not that nurses need to consider sociology as an entry pass to a more fruitful nursing career, but that every nurse should understand the relation of their duties with the social structure of their patients. Nurses provide care to their patients. And at times, providing care is not so much about giving them what they need, it is about knowing what to do with what kind of patient they have. They can only do that by having a clear grasp of their sociological backgrounds.

Humanities And The Nursing Profession

The study of Humanities may not come as an integral subject to a nursing student. At the outset, it doesn’t cater at all to what nursing is all about. It is only one of those minor subjects that a nursing student has to go through before graduation.

But delving deeper into it, a nursing student may soon find out that the inclusion of Humanities in the curriculum has its own function.

Humanities is the study of human culture. It covers a whole range of topics from history, communication, law, and even anthropology. It has found its way into the nursing field so that nurses will be able to understand why certain people react to certain situations.

That is that inherent use of Humanities in a nursing course. When a nurse could surmise how his patient viewed his illness or how he accepted his own diagnosis, that nurse has his study of human culture functioning within the confines of nursing. It might be just a prerequisite to a nursing degree, but because of its all-encompassing nature, the subject will enable aspiring nurses to get by the conventions of nursing, especially when faced with important decisions.

As in the case of a patient’s history, which include his medical condition in the past. If a nurse could see some patterns in the past in relation to his present illness, then that nurse has done his job quite well. So, the study of Humanities has its own reason for being in the nursing curriculum. It has found its calling in there by helping neophyte nurses, especially when they are faced with medical issues, and laying the predicate for a much more comprehensive diagnosis. Humanities are no longer an ornament in a particular course, it is also helping nurses to become well-rounded medical specialists.

Psychology and Distance Learning

Psychology is a special form of discipline or study. It basically concerns itself with the mind and its corresponding behavior. It seeks to understand an individual or a group through specific principles with the use of research and some generally accepted theories. An expert in psychology is called a psychologist. Psychologists explore a wide variety of subjects and theories in the course of his duty. Perceptions, emotions, intelligence, motivations, personality, brain functioning and even interpersonal talk are some of the things a psychologist has to deal with in his client.

Most colleges and universities offer Psychology as an integral part of their curriculum. In fact, some courses that don’t primarily concern itself with psychology include it as one of their minor subjects. It is essentially a part of every student’s education. The course also has to keep up with the times. Online schools are a dime a dozen nowadays that you could literally choose from a long list of them with just a press of a key, and, as anticipated, Psychology degrees are also offered.

You might no longer see the need to literally go to a conventional school for you to have that Psychology career. A lot of distance learning institutions are offering this course with modern concepts and technology, along with its affordable entry at times, from enrollment to your monthly tuition. It has become more accessible over the years. You could literally have it everywhere, even at the privacy of your own home. A student of psychology can now study the empirical and deductive methods of psychology as fast as the speed of his internet connection.

The availability of Psychology as a degree online is a breakthrough. It can now easily connect with other sciences that has its recent rise in the internet as well such social sciences, humanities and medicine.

New Roles For Paramedics

A team of paramedic and emergency medical technicians are known to be the street heroes as they race patients to the nearest hospital. However, as of this writing, paramedics have new roles to deal with in order to have a safe and healthy environment. They are taking a new role of promoting good health to people to keep them out from being admitted to hospitals.

Paramedics are now entering the new field in health care called community paramedicine. Their role is to train people on how to respond to chronic illness attack and promote home safety. The emergency team is being sent to different areas to provide health teaching and to inspect health hazards. This is a good step made by experts that will connect health and people living in remote areas.

Basically, what paramedics usually do in the area is to take and assess vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, glucose count, and other significant physical assessment. They also provide health procedures such as giving intravenous medications, and even performing laboratory tests. Moreover, the main goal of paramedics is to provide helpful health teachings to the community. In order to have a good outcome, paramedics also work with other health professionals such as doctors, nurses, psychologist, and dietitians.

In this new health role, paramedics and other members of the emergency team, are expected to do more community outreach like visiting not just the community, but other facilities such as mental and senior care homes. This new role of paramedics not just promotes health, it also helps decrease the number of accidents, illness and occurrence of new hazards. Moreover, this new program helps hospitals that face penalties from health insurance companies from being submitted to debts caused by a patient’s longer hospital stay.

Community paramedics deployed in different areas are well-experienced and skilled medics. They know that their main goal is to promote health and focus on primary care that will keep people healthy at all times thus preventing diseases and other illnesses from getting worse.

Ways To Improve Patient Care Skills For Nurses

Taking care of patients is a hospital’s primary concern. A patient’s recovery greatly depends on the quality of patient care given to them. Patient care is an important skill that medical professionals like nurses must acquire. Basic patient care skills are usually taught in college and can improve as a nurse’s career progresses.

Ideally, high quality patient care servicing should be maintained by all medical professionals. But, in reality, the quality of patient care provided by each medical professional varies. Some medical individuals provide superb and satisfactory care while others provide less than expected.

It should be a medical professional’s goal to provide superior patient care skills. Medical individuals must exert more effort to satisfy patients and provide medical service worth recognizing.

Here are easy-to-do ways to improve the patient care skills of nurses:

Educate
Aside from the basic education nurses get in college, they should participate in further training and skills enhancement programs. Acquiring new learning and knowledge in handling patients can greatly improve the quality of service they can give to patients. Nurses must also be updated about the latest medical developments and techniques in patient care servicing.

Advocate
Interacting with patients that have different personalities can be a challenging job. Nurses have to adjust to some patients who are rude. Nurses must extend their patience and commitment to provide satisfactory medical care service to all patients. Many nursing professionals who have superior patient care skills are determined and focused on their goal of helping patients recover from an illness.

Understand
Handling different types of patients that have a variety of needs in one place is tough. Nurses must try to understand that not all patients have the same medical requirement. They should identify the corresponding demand for each patient. In relation, nurses must understand the concept and importance of providing good quality patient care.

Picture Of Humanities

Our existence has a twin in a general prospect, and that is Humanities. Humanities is the study about human culture, such as literature, philosophy, and history.These have become some of the subjects that conventionally fall under the Humanities umbrella. Expertise on these categories of human aspects give us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to everyone who have come before us, as well as those who will live after our lifetimes.

We can’t deny that Humanities has contributed a lot. One is how we look at things differently. This illuminates the importance of critical thinking, historical consciousness and creating competent democratic citizens. This allows us to gain a new perception of everything from arts to business models to politics; humanities subjects have been the center of liberal arts tutelage since the ancient Greeks first used them to educate their people.

Inquisitions into human experience speeds up our knowledge about the world. Through the contributions of Humanities scholars, we learn the norms of different cultures, like what goes into creation of art, and how our history was made. Their legacies preserve the great accomplishment of the past, help us to better understand today’s world, and give us ideas on how to rock the future.

Humanities also brings a bit of clarity to the future by providing the conceptual foundation in searching and understanding the human experience. Furthermore, the study of different language can ease the appreciation for the parallelism of cultures .Pondering a sculpture can give an idea on how artist life affects an artistic thinking.

Vigorous, Dynamic and deep that’s what Humanities is and it would until generations to come.

Taking Good Care Your Nurses

Nurses are in high demand. The demand is so high, that many consider the number of RN’s available to be a near catastrophic deficit. All across the US and even abroad, nursing courses are a dime a dozen. With so many needing medical attention, chances are the need of providing more medical staff such as nurses and doctors would still be among the highest in terms of enrollees in our colleges and universities.

And leading the supply of nurses in the country is the Distance Learning Systems Indiana, Inc. (DLSI). Since 1999, DLSI is constantly providing customized educational programs as well as test preparation products for our potential nurses.

No longer is a nursing education done in the four corners of a classroom, DLSI offers the concept of learning information at a distance. It offers flexibility and an environment that suits every student as he intends to learn from DLSI’s unique educational program.

Recognizing the inherent differences in every student, DLSI addresses each need from its Blended Learning Program, an interactive, classroom-based online video classroom where nursing students could test-out programs to supplement their education or even credit requirements.

They offer free nursing seminars, superior course materials, tutoring, and even financial assistance to augment the growing demand of producing more competent nurses in the country. Nursing education has come a long way with DLSI. It is their goal of preparing them for a successful nursing career, not just mere medical staffers in some private hospital out there.

DLSI has its national passing rate at 97%, one of the highest in the country. They simply take care of your nursing education so these new nurses could take good care of their patients. And with its mission statement of providing affordable and appropriate access to higher learning, you can be sure that the quality of nurses they will not only heal the sick but also improve the condition of their lives as well.

Long Distance Learning

The idea of online education was unheard of in the past. Now, a significant number of students are using of this type of education to higher education degrees. It is accessible, hassle-free, and flexible.

Convenient to say the least because it enables you study your lessons while cooking your early morning breakfast perhaps, and at your own pace at times. The benefits of availing for that distance education is that you could do two or three things all at the same time while being educated online.

That is the concept Distance Learning System (DLSI) wanted to perpetuate. The flexibility of giving their students enough time to do other things while studying under their care is unique and cost-efficient.

DLSI is considered to be America’s foremost educational publishing firm, and has expanded its services to provide learning programs and study modules for students and professionals alike. With their mission of providing convenient access to higher education, DLSI has, in itself, given distance learning the necessary boost since they have the highest national passing rate in the country with 97%.

Their online video classrooms are easy to understand with lively and structured discussions for you to have, thus, embracing the idea that you could be educated at a distance and in the shortest possible time.

DLSI provides real instructors, recorded video class session in case you miss the scheduled live class, personal coaches, and course materials to compliment the lessons provided online. Many other companies are considered by their clients as “a box of books.” And once you have your books, that is the end of the relationship with you. That is not the case with DLSI – we stay with you until your entire course work is complete.

Distance education is growing in numbers. So why suffer yourself with the prospect of getting that degree inside that conventional classroom? You can always have that career you’ve always wanted through DLSI’s distance education.

On Paramedics

Paramedics are entirely different from a nurse. But they are healthcare professionals, who are concentrated with giving pre-hospital care such as doing first aid.

But paramedics work mainly at the location of an emergency as part of an emergency first response team. Most of the time, they are working closely with an ambulance unit, or with medical technicians before a patient outside a hospital. Paramedics have working relations with a variety of medical organizations, and their services may vary depending on the company’s system.

Their role has evolved over time along with the expansion of diversified practices, from providing basic health care to specialized medical assessments. Part of the evolution of paramedics are their involvement with the community. In some extreme cases, a paramedic is an essential part of a rescuing team, included as part of an aviation medical mission perhaps, where they would transport a patient through a chopper to receive medical attention from a nearby hospital.

In other instances, paramedics have replaced the roles of physicians, nurses and even medical technicians in rescuing patients, such as in the event of a calamity or in giving medical assistance on critical areas. Paramedics often work hand in hand with police officers, marine doctors, army engineers, or search and rescue teams. Often times they are called tactical paramedics.

A paramedic is either employed by the emergency medical arm of a municipality or a private medical organization. They could be an attachment unit with the locale’s public ambulance system, the fire department or even a community hospital. They could even volunteer on a particular project in need of medical assistance such as doing research on remote areas or an additional group of an association.