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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.

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.

Happy Holidays from Distance Learning Systems

Deciding on Senior Housing Plan

Choosing a senior house for you or your loved one is not an easy decision. It is a tough and demanding decision for you and your family. However, when there is a serious medical problem involved, you need to consider some of your options to avoid more problems. There are so many different senior housing programs out there; you just have to make a good choice. Everyone needs a healthy, safe and fulfilling home atmosphere while you age, so you need to know the best program that offers good senior care.

As we grow old, we experienced some major changes physically or simply our current situation. Planning your future housing needs is an integral part of making sure that you can still survive as you become older. Obviously, every senior differs in needs; therefore, the senior housing choice for another person might not be appropriate for you personally. You need to match the housing plan with your lifestyle, financial needs and health condition. You can also consider living with a retirement community or a nursing home where nearly all tenants are older than 65 and senior care is proven and tested.

While you age, you need some assistance with your physical needs, including activities of everyday living. This might vary from shopping, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of pets to intensive assistance with bathing, walking around, and eating. This can arise from the sudden condition, like a stroke or heart attack, or perhaps a more gradual condition that gradually needs increasing care, for example Alzheimer’s disease.

If you are living alone and far from your family, your current home can be too hard or too costly to keep. You might have health issues making it difficult to manage tasks like house work and yard maintenance. While you age, your situation will change, buddies or family might not be as close, or neighbors may move or transfer. You may not be able to continue driving or get access to public transit to be able to get together with family and buddies. Modifying your house and long-term care can both be costly, so balancing the concern you’ll need with where you need to live requires careful evaluation of your budget.

BSN Degree Career Options

BSN If you are a nurse with a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, then you can pursue a diverse allied health career, you are more secure in your career growth and have good paying job opportunities. As compared to short term nursing courses, BSN graduates are more exposed to clinical settings and the training in communication, nursing techniques and methods are more advanced. Leadership is planned and taught during the course to prepare nurses for specialized positions in research, consultation or healthcare management.

Clinical Hospital Staff Nurse
Hospitals are homes for nurses. BSN graduates usually start their careers here which may assign them to units like in cardiac care, critical care, intensive care, pediatrics, maternity wards, or oncology. There are various duties and responsibilities that will be assigned to a nurse like assisting the physician in many areas and situations. It is a job of a nurse to assist the doctor in doing certain procedures and examinations like getting the vital signs of a patient or assist during operations. They are also expected to dispense medications, evaluate patients, and implement treatments as well as document records in patient charts. Vocational nurses may under the supervision of the BSN nurses including the unit clerks and medical assistants.

Non-Clinical Hospital Staff Nurse
When we say non-clinical we mean to say that a nurse is not assigned in any clinical roles. BSN nurses can be assigned to the administrative sector of the hospital. This position is usually given to a nurse with years of experience with good performance. Nurses in the admin may have the opportunity to be a department manager or a head nurse.

Non-Hospital Nurse
BSN degree holder also has the opportunity outside the hospital. They can acquire an administrative position in a nursing home, insurance companies and government organizations. They may also have career opportunities as researchers, tutors, or instructors.

The BSN degree for nursing offers a wide training and preparation for nurses before they enter the healthcare industry. The opportunities are varied and may offer growth and good salary. The need for nurses is exceeding but quality is needed to improve the healthcare system.

Taking a Look at Advanced Placement Courses

More and more learners are getting Advance Placement courses. Most of them are unable to pass the tests. Is that progress? Should more New Haven children get the opportunity to be a part of the college-going track? At the invites of New Haven’s educational institutions superintendent, high school students on the citywide student council are trying to answer those questions. They are getting a wide look at Advance Placement courses, courses for which learners can get college credit if they score at least a 3 out of 5 on a standardized end-of-year examination.

Students first came to Superintendent Garth Harries with an issue that the region would quit spending for the AP tests. Harries pushed them to analyze larger concerns, including: How are children recognized for AP classes? Do all learners have an equivalent probability to take them? And what is the part of advanced placement courses in placing children on a successful college-going track? Harries said he is also meeting with instructors and other employees to talk about how the school district markets sources between AP and non-AP courses, such as the class size and the quality and seniority of the instructors. The evaluation occurs as some teachers are rethinking the part of AP programs in high schools. School district employees shared some early results in a meeting with the citywide student council at Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School on College Street.

More and more town children are taking AP tests. The number of New Haven public students who took AP tests increased from 415 in 2006 to 724 in 2013, according to the district. The number of examinations taken has nearly more than doubled, to 1,208, during that same time frame. In New Haven, every student who takes an AP class has to sign an agreement accepting to take the examination.

Advanced Placement Courses in Other States

Possibilities keep increasing for kids to have greater access to college-level advanced placement courses throughout Des Moines, as the school district will be providing new programs at Central Academy while continuing other AP programs available at all five extensive great academic institutions. These changes result from significant registration increases the school district has seen recently in advanced placement courses as both learners and instructors have stepped up to meet the task of this college-level program.

DMPS is pleased to declare, for the first time ever, four new AP programs to be provided to Des Moines learners through Central Academy beginning with the 2014-15 school year: AP Art History, AP Computer Science, AP Microeconomics, and AP Spanish Literature. These new AP promotions are unique, specific programs that will be available only at Central Academy to be able to provide access to all DMPS learners. (Previously, AP Art History and AP Microeconomics were available only to learners at Roosevelt High School.) In order to accomplish the growth of their advanced placement program at Central Academy, DMPS will reduce some replication of AP programs. From 2014-15, AP Environmental Science, AP Statistics, and AP US Government will no longer be provided at Central Academy but will continue to be provided at all five comprehensive high schools.

“Des Moines Public Schools is a leader in Iowa and the country when it comes to providing learners access to high-level academic programs, such as Advanced Placement and our learners are to be recommended for taking on these world-class academic opportunities,” said Superintendent Tom Ahart. “The school district’s effort to make advanced placement courses available to more and more learners throughout Des Moines is showing that our learners and instructors are stepping up to the task. We are providing thousands of learners access to class that will help prepare them for higher education and beyond.”

Common Medication Errors in Assisted Living Centers

Medication errors, such as providing the wrong prescription, providing the wrong dose and unable to identify negative side effects, are some of the most common healthcare errors. While they can occur in any healthcare setting, a new review shows that they are particularly frequent in assisted living centers. The review, prepared by U-T Watch dog and the CHCF Center for Health Reporting at the University of Southern California, discovered at least 80 instances where assisted living centers ignored serious health problems, applied wrong medications, or otherwise did not provide proper medical care. Even more concerning, the research exposed 27 fatalities from injuries and neglect at centers located in San Diego County.

According to UT-San Diego, “Regulators discovered four patient medication errors during a visit to a home in Oceanside, such as one case in which a citizen was given four times the recommended amount. The home was penalized $150, the maximum allowed by state law.” In another occurrence, a La Jolla patient required treatment in the E. R. after being given a medicine intended for another citizen. The short-term caseworker providing the drug recognized the recipient by his first name only.

For San Diego medical malpractice lawyers, the review is worrying, particularly given that sufferers in assisted living centers are some of the most fragile. For tips to protect you and your loved ones from this type of carelessness, there are plenty of articles that can be found in the internet. You can also consult a physician regarding this matter. If you or someone you love has experienced from healthcare neglect, don’t think twice to contact a medical malpractice attorney for a free assessment.

Efforts on Improving Senior Care

Larger mattresses are a big deal in Valley Hospital’s emergency department, as part of its attempt to make a “senior-friendly” ER. At 5 inches thick, the mattresses (changing from the conventional 3-inch-thick ones on the department’s 21 beds) are more comfortable, according to ER employees and help protect patients’ delicate skin. Other new features at Valley and Deaconess emergency departments recognized open houses include easier-to-use call control buttons, floor-gripping footwear and yellow-colored dresses that alert employees to seniors’ greater risk of falling and seniors-only vehicle parking areas or valet service.

Along with making clients happier, the changes at both medical centers are developed to cut the number of seniors’ return trips and the duration of their medical center stay, Valley CEO Tim Moran informed a group gathered at the medical center to see the developments. The medical centers, part of the region’s Rockwood Health System and owned by Community Health Systems Inc., have been making the changes as more sufferers age and as the Affordable Care Act places a new focus on enhanced ER care and senior care. Under the new health care law, emergency departments have some new reasons, financial rewards and disincentives to enhance care, said Dr. John Tilson, medical directors of Valley Hospital’s emergency department.

Among disincentives, Dr. Tilson said the center is compensated less to cure sufferers who continue to come back to the ER, especially in the first 30 days after their first visit. The idea is that if emergency departments better deal with patients’ health-related problems, assisting them set up better support at home, for example, they can avoid upcoming conditions and accidents. How much an ER gets refunded by medical health insurance also will rely partially on how quickly sufferers get services and their fulfillment with their care, Tilson said. In 2012, people 65 and older showed nearly 17% of Valley’s emergency department trips and nearly 20% at Deaconess. More senior sufferers are required as middle-agers age. While the first trend of senior care emergency departments or specific senior departments within ERs in the U.S. started out just a few years ago, senior care is getting more attention among emergency doctors in the U.S., Tilson said. Some ERs in areas with large senior communities are building entire departments in their emergency departments for older people, he said: “It’s just taken off.”

Neglect in Nursing Homes

Many of today’s nursing homes are managed by thoughtless and selfish business people whose main objective is pleasing their investors. They are compensated with nice incomes and rewards for team cutting and other cost-cutting methods. Profits are spent in powerful lobbying groups that enjoy effective influence over law makers and authorities. These organizations respond to medical negligence legal cases, not with training learned and corporate mandate to improve care, but with tort change, introduced and passed into law by greedy and recompensed congress. Eighty percent of the sector’s payments come from community funds, Medical health insurance and State health programs and we are not getting our entire worth.

Health and Human Services revealed that medical health insurance paid $5.1 billion dollars for poor elderly care facility care in 2009. Harmless repercussions of poor care have taught this market that it’s more profitable to offer poor care and pay an occasional fine than it is to hire and train staff to offer proper care. Sequestration cuts are further weakening the bite of regulating agencies that view themselves as in “partnership” with the very market they’re charged with watching. Charges are meager, inconsistently gathered and do not act as preventives.

Silence and inaction are daily pointers that our community doesn’t want to think about old individuals suffering neglect and abuse in nursing. Even organizations with “aging” and “health care” in their titles don’t want to cross the nursing-home limit. The realities of life and death in nursing homes are too dark and our man’s instinct surrenders to more enjoyable matters. Accounts of abuse are as ignored as the sufferers themselves and reform supporters are continuously advised they can’t force individuals to good care. There are no children or pet dogs or cats to save in these experiences. They are old individuals who can no longer protect and defend themselves. Unfortunately, the number of individuals willing to rebel against this highly effective profit-motivated industry continues to be low. This is why true change and proper care remain out of our reach. We simply need more individuals to care and to be counted.