high-quality patient care | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

Nurses at Patient Care Units

Patient care comes in a variety of forms. It has seen an expansion over the years to cater every possible need of every patient. Taking care of the sick is the only reason why patient care exists, although others have their own specialization, but their main concern remains the same, and that is, giving medical care to the sick.

There are also different types of nurses attending these said patient care units. When the development of patient care outlets started, the formation of adding specialized workforce was already in the works. And this paved the way for the inclusion of these type of nurses. These nurses, however, do have different roles to keep, but most often than not, their calling hasn’t changed. The following are types of nurses you would find in a patient care outlet.

Emergency or Trauma Nurses
They treat patients who are in the brink of death, such as in an accident or after suffering from a debilitating disease. They are usually situated on emergency rooms, getting ready to assist life-threatening situations with their patients.

Critical Care Nurses
It may sound like they have the same responsibility with Emergency Nurses, but a Critical Nurse’s sole responsibility is to treat those patients with pulmonary and cardio-vascular ailments.

Holistic Nurses
These type of nurses are into a different kind of patient treatment. They concern themselves with mental disorders as well as maintaining the spiritual health of their patients.

Infusion Nurses
Nurses who are more attuned to injections, particularly with blood transfusions and other diseases that have something to do with vein problems.

Home Health Care Nurses
They are the ones who provide care to their patients like that in a home. They extend help to those patients who have survived a major surgery or after giving birth, while providing assistance like that of a typical nurse.

The 4 Virtues of a Patient-Centered Care System

Respecting the needs and preferences of a patient is the idea behind every patient-centered care system. Unlike in a normal patient-hospital relationship, patient care aims to treat their patients pro-actively. It was born out of championing health care issues, as well as in having safer medical means for the sick.

Since much of what goes on during diagnosis is still suspect even to the practitioners themselves, and that need of having a full engagement with their patients, patient care was then established.

It is basically going beyond the conventions of assisting their patients with proper diagnosis and treatment. These medical outlets are out to guide patients and provide them with a more personal treatment with their illnesses. Patient care has four inherent virtues, “whole-person” care, communication, support and sustenance and ready access. With these four virtues,a patient could be assured of a medical care for life.

Taking Care of the Person as a Whole
Oftentimes, a minor ailment could have its direct effect towards the entire body. Treating these patients from head to foot, so to speak, could lead to a more complete healing, not just treating a part of it.

Only Connect
Having a sort of bond towards a patient has its own advantages. If you can extend not just your expertise as a medical practitioner but also your time with them, you are somehow improving the quality of their lives also.

Support System
Inculcating a system of camaraderie like supporting each patient with his or her needs could go a long way as far as healing goes. This will make things easy for them while they recuperate.

Always Ready
Practitioners are always there, on the go, ready to perform their duties with care. Being available to their patients always is of utmost interest in the field of patient care.

Improving The Quality Of Patient Care

Developing the patient care program is one of the priorities of all health care providers. The quality of patient care is determined by the quality of the facilities, infrastructure and the competence of the personnel.

There are many factors that patients and families consider when choosing a hospital. One of the factors is the quality of patient care and the satisfaction experienced by patients and their families. That is why it is necessary for hospitals to follow strict quality and safety practices. Hospitals should always find ways to improve their services.

It is true that patients are the most important people in a medical care system. They deserve to be treated well. In order to satisfy the patients and their families, it is necessary to improve the quality of patient care. There are a lot of factors that can improve the quality of patient care. Hospitals should have well-trained staff to provide high quality care with desirable outcome. All the necessary equipment should be in place and properly maintained. This is important for the hospital’s performance and it contributes significantly to better results in providing best health care. It is also necessary to continually use newer technologies that improve the quality of health care.

Improvement of patient care is a continuous process because a lot of new technologies are coming out. The personnel also play a big role in giving the best services to patients. They should have proper training in order to address the concerns of the patients and families.

Patients’ safety is the corner stone of high- quality health care. That is why it is a big challenge for the hospital on how to offer good services to their patients.

Physician Efficiency vs. Patient Involvement in Patient Care

Having to go through a medical process can really be a frustrating experience especially when the patient is left unknowing about it. But how much does a patient want to know about and be involved in their own care? The response to this question cannot be fully relied on a single answer simply because many personalities and emotional complexities are involved when it comes to patient care.

Doctors like to simplify issues into neat categories, each of which have a clear management plan. This, however, is not necessarily applicable in patient care especially when it involves different personalities and emotions. One cannot simply eliminate the feelings of patients especially when satisfaction of the care they receive is involved.

In this case, the battle between increased physician efficiency through well-planned medical processes and better healthcare understanding buy the patient is the dilemma. Which of the two is best for patient care? There is reasonable argument for both.

A well thought of medical plan can be beneficial to an extent. There are physicians that prefer to spend their day practicing in a world of medical fact and deductive reasoning without taking into consideration patient reaction. The more practice, the less the mistakes are. But it can be argued that higher efficiency does not represent the rate at which patients are satisfied customers.

On the patient side, the ability of the medical team to involve them in their own care and make them aware of the plan lessen the patient’s frustrations with treatment. Doctors that are well-loved by their patients are those who spend time with them, to answer questions and provide a picture of what the coming days and weeks might look like. However, it can be argued that most of the questions can be answered not necessarily by the doctors themselves but by a less senior and equally able medical practitioners working for the admitting service.

Both have valid arguments and probably the best patient care in one that involves both as well.

Improving Patient Care

In today’s time, hospital organizations and other health leaders across the globe were being challenged with an increasing number of patient complaints related to ineffective patient care. They also received reports saying that there are some rude medical professionals who don’t want to provide health services to those unfortunate people. Because of these reports, health leaders have come up with some ideas on how to improve patient care to avoid negative reports and dissatisfaction from patients.

In this article, we will talk about effective guidelines on how to improve patient care within the society, community and hospital settings.

Continuous assessment
Doctors and nurses should conduct continuous health assessment to the patient by visiting them 3 to 4 times a day. By doing this, patients will regain their trust over them.

Proper communication
To have a smooth and peaceful relationship, medical professionals should always communicate well with their patients. Patients have low self-esteem; they wanted to be treated like what their mothers do to them. In order to provide the best patient care, talk to them modestly, give them accurate instructions.

Don’t let them wait
One of the most common patient complaints is that they wait for too long just to get the attention and care of the physician. Doctors and nurses should not let their patient wait and treat them as soon as possible. However, due to shortages of medical staffs, they cannot immediately attend to the needs of the patients. In order to prevent dissatisfaction and complaints, doctors and nurses should give patients definite and accurate time of service.

These three simple tips to improve patient care experience are much less difficult to follow. Patients who suffer from illnesses don’t have longer patience to understand the medical team. Doctors and nurses plead to provide highest care to patients who are in need.

How To Earn a Patient’s Trust

Most sick people don’t want to be admitted to the hospital since they do not have enough trust towards the health care team. They consider a lot of things when choosing a health care provider such as emotional, personal and financial factors. Doctors, nurses, and other parts of the health team should also bear in mind that when the patient decides to seek care from them, it simply means that the patient also decided to trust them.

Trust plays a vital role in doctor-patient relationship. Without it, patient care will be compromised. So, the question here is how to earn patient’s trust? In this article, we will talk about some powerful notes on how to gain a patient’s trust.

Establish Rapport
Patients admitted in the hospital have very low self-esteem and they have the fear of the unknown. In addition, they have fears over malpractice and other medical error. First thing to do to lessen their anxiety is to build and establish rapport. In this way, patients will slowly build trust towards the medical team.

Provide smooth and unique patient care experience
The main reason why patients seek hospital care is that, they want to be treated and cared professionally. They are counting for the best medical service that doctors and nurses can deliver. One way to provide the best patient care is to give clear safety instructions about medication and other medical procedures. The health team should understand that the patient needs extra care.

Practice Empathy
Healthcare providers should also think about the feelings and emotions of the patient. If the patient will feel good about the care being provided, doctors and nurses will have a positive outcome of care.

Be transparent
This is the best way to gain their trust is to be transparent. Tell them the truth about their condition such as the severity, changes and other useful and helpful method to treat the condition. Also, give them the complete list of pricing of service and other relevant information.

Health care providers should not underestimate the fears and anxiety of the patient. They should always remember that the trust of every patient is very important for them to deliver the care properly.

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.

Certified Patient Care Technician

The Certified Patient Care Technician assists nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals in providing direct patient care in a variety of health care environments. As a CPCT, you may carry out different tasks as assigned by the healthcare management. One of your responsibilities is to provide a basic patient care including bathing, feeding, and assisting patients to the ambulance. They are also assigned to acquire and distribute patient care supplies. Change bed linens and process dirty linens properly. You can perform safety checks to keep patient rooms clean, maintain clear paths in hallways and return equipments that are no longer in use. You might not be as big as nurses and doctors, but are necessary to make the procedures move swiftly.

Patient care technicians, also known as nursing assistants or nurse aides, perform basic care procedures in clinics and hospitals homes. Their duties include monitoring patients, drawing blood, checking vital signs, and conducting electrocardiograms, in addition to assisting patients with bathing, feeding and transporting. Some formal education is required. Clinical training as well as state certification is generally needed to work as a patient care technician. You need to have a high school diploma before pursuing a profession as a patient care technician. The majority of the employers look for candidates who have completed a patient care technician certificate program and are state certified; on the other hand, some companies will sign up students presently signed up for patient care technician certificate programs and have completed a training program offered through a hospital, an elderly care facility or technical center.

Hospital training programs generally last 2-3 months and mix classroom instruction and hands-on training. Some hospital training programs may be available to high school students that are then prepared to enter the work force upon graduation; others require previous experience as a nursing aide. For all those looking to complete a formal training course, there are many community and technical colleges that offer patient care technician certificate programs. Most programs take one year or less to accomplish and will make preparations for students to take a state certification exam; some programs require applicants to carry a CPR or EMT certification before they apply.

The National Healthcareer Association (NHA) grants clinical certification for patient care technicians, associates and nurse technicians. Completing particular training programs and experience is needed for you to go ahead and take a national certifying examination. Though certification is optional, some states require certification to ensure that patient care technicians are prepared to operate in a specific environment, like nursing homes or hospitals.

Improving Patient Care with Technology

Citizens at the Kane Regional Centers will soon have a new friend in the physician’s office: “Telly,” a tele-presence digi-cam rig that can connect to a remote doctor and gather healthcare details during exams. The rig is part of a UPMC-run program called RAVEN or Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations Using evidence-based Interventions for Nursing Facilities in Western Pennsylvania, which is financed by a $19 million grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“Bringing tele-medicine to the Kane Centers will enhance the speed and performance of patient care with which residents receive healthcare consultations when there is a change in their health,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said. “It will also slow up the need to transport residents to a medical center or E.R., which is difficult for some of them.” “Telly” will not substitute doctors, who will still perform routine exams. It’ll only be used when an individual’s condition changes, along with a shift in breathing, heart function or pain. The robot-like rig will be monitored by physicians and can examine the eyes, ears, nasal area, neck, respiratory system, heart, stomach, skin, arms and legs and neurological system.

The rig looks like a pc monitor on wheels with a digi-cam secured on top. It comes equipped with tools like a wireless stethoscope, which can pass on details to a doctor at another location. Close relatives will be able to listen in via PC and telephone. “We recognize that a patient’s doctor or health professional specialist is sometimes not available at the skilled nursing facility to assess and treat the citizen when there is a change in their usual health,” Kane Executive Director Dennis Biondo said. “The goal is to provide ongoing access to high-quality patient care and health-care professionals.”