Tag: nursing homes

Myths About Nursing Homes

Contrary to misconception, a nursing home is different from a hospital. It is more of an out-patient facility where continuous nursing care is given. There are a lot of myths about nursing homes and why it has seen an increase not just in the US, but in other countries as well. But let us take a closer look at how these myths help establish these nursing homes even further despite its unfounded misconceptions.

If Nobody Will, Maybe a Nursing Home Can
There are so many ways to help your old folks for them to get by with old age. You might want to go with them shopping or walking the dog. But if you want an extensive monitoring of your folks more than you can actually give, a nursing home is a viable and humane option.

Distant Families
Perhaps one of the lingering questions why people would criticize families for sending their old folks to nursing homes is that the family no longer care about them. That is not true. When their children are already having families of their own, these folks should not be left alone. Sending them to a home is a far better option than leaving them behind.

They Don’t Fit In
Other people don’t go for nursing homes because they are not properly managed. This is an old notion already. More and more nursing homes boast of having modern facilities in it, and that most of their staff are trained and skillful. They are affordable, too, and you can be assured that your folks are in good shape.

They Can Check Out Anytime, But They Can’t Leave
Your folks can still go home after spending some time inside that nursing home. This is another myth that should be buried a long time ago. Going home still should be the final resting place for a cured patient.

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.

Five Important Medical Professionals In Hospitals

A hospital is an ideal workplace for medical professionals. Many hospitals employ people who chose a career in the medical field. You can find different types of medical professionals working in a hospital. Each professional plays an important role in the workforce. Their duties and responsibilities are useful for achieving the institution’s overall goal. Here are the top five medical professionals working in a hospital. These five medical professionals are crucial in providing health related service to the public.

Doctors
Doctors are key personalities in a medical institution. They lead the team in providing health service to patients. Doctors are experts in helping people treat and managed medical illnesses. They are the most reliable person’s to consult with about treating a particular medical condition. Physicians know the right medical treatment for a specific disorder.

Nurses
Nurses are also one of the most important employees in a hospital. They usually handle the daily task of monitoring the medical condition of patients. Nurses are also responsible for providing the basic medical treatment to patients like the administration of medicines.

Medical Technologist
MTs usually stay in a hospital’s laboratory. They handle the task of analyzing, checking and interpreting a patient’s specimen. MTs provide the right medical information needed by doctors to analyze and determine a particular medical condition.

Physical Therapist
Physical therapist are responsible for helping patients recover from a disability. PTs usually handle treatment session aim to help people stand, walk and use their body again. Patients recovering from walking disabilities need the service of a Physical therapist.

Pharmacist
Pharmaceutical products are important entities in many medical treatments. Pharmacists are responsible for securing and managing medicines and drugs needed by patients. They usually are in charge for monitoring the supply of important medicine in the hospital. Many medical institutions employ pharmacists to help them manage their supply of medicines.

Four Things About Senior Care That Families Need To Know

Senior care is a type of service given to elderly people that require both physical and medical assistance. Many American families do spend money to hire individuals that will provide senior care to their elderly family member. Many institutions offer this kind of service to elderly people, too. Senior care homes usually have the right facilities and work force to support the needs of these people. Yet, the quality of senior care primarily depends on the capabilities and skills of the caregiver or nurse.

Below are Four Facts that many families do not know:

A Senior Care Team Is Usually Made Up of Nurses
The staff in senior care facilities are usually nursing graduates or nursing professionals. A certified and legit senior home employs highly skilled nurses in their team. Nurses are important in senior care because they have the right education and knowledge in managing illnesses common among elderly.

Senior Care Help Busy Families with their Elderly Family Members
The population of elderly residents in senior homes have been increasing in the recent years. Many families seek the assistance of institutions or individuals in providing the senior care requirements of their elderly family members.

It’s Tough to Provide Senior Care to Elderly and Sickly People
Taking care of elderly people can be difficult. Especially if the elderly has a serious medical condition. Bed ridden seniors are also difficult to handle. Providing senior care is challenging and the person providing such service exerts efforts that need to be recognized.

Senior Care is Different From Hospital Care
Senior care is different from hospital care. Elderly people who need more medical attention and treatment should go to a hospital. A senior care has limited capabilities in providing the right medical treatment to clinically ill patients.

Important Must Have Patient Care Skills For Nurses

Providing medical service to sick and ill people is a delicate process. Patient care should be handled by highly skilled medical professionals like nurses. The procedures in patient care are not simple. Most of them are complex in nature. People handling patient care should be careful and precise in everything they do.

Nurses are formally trained and educated on the right method of handling medical care to their patients. Most of the nurses are equipped with right knowledge in handling different types of medical cases. However, some nurses may neglect improving and developing special skills that are important in patient care. Below are few of the important patient care skill that nurses need to develop and enhance:

Pain and Injury Management
Many patients in hospitals do suffer from pain and injuries. Nurses should be able to enhance their management skills in handling pain and injuries of patient. They should be able to acquire advance pain management skills and proper handling of injuries. This is important so that nurses can efficiently help patients managed their illnesses and medical conditions.

Drug and Medicines Administration
Another important skill that nurses need to develop is the efficiency in administering medications to patients. Nurses should be familiar of the different medicines use in treating patients. They must know the right dosage and the possible side effects of a particular drug.

Respiratory Management
Respiratory management is a special skill that is important for a nursing professional. Nurses should be able to know the important procedures in handling respiratory related treatments to patients.

Good Ethics and Professionalism in the Work Environment
Nurses should also provide professional etiquette in delivering patient care to their clients. Aside from superior medical skills, satisfactory patient care also requires good interpersonal relationship with patients. Nurses must always remember to be courteous in approaching and talking to patients.

Five Important Duties Of Nurses In Assisted Living Centers

Assisted Living Centers are health facilities that cater to the medical needs of disabled and sickly patients. Assisted Living Centers usually serve patients that need long-term medical care. Generally, an assisted living center employs a team of highly skilled nurses to provide the basic medical care to patients. Nurses are the main workforce in Assisted Living centers and play important roles in this kind of health institutions. Here are five important responsibilities of nurses in Assisted Living Centers.

Administer Medicine and Drugs
Nurses are responsible for managing the resident patient’s medicines. They are the ones who prepare these medicines. They are also in-charge of insuring that all resident patients will be given the specific drugs that they need.

Assist in the Basic Physical Need of Patients
A nurse also assists resident patients that are bedridden and cannot do their daily personal needs alone. They aid patients to eat, drink, go to bathroom and even walk.

Monitor The Patient’s Medical and Health Condition
Part of a nurse’s daily responsibility is to monitor the patient’s health condition. Nurses usually check and record the patient’s vital sign every day. This is an important regular medical procedure to identify the right medical treatment to address the patient’s current condition.

Implements Medical Procedure
Some resident patients may need to undergo specific medical procedure and treatment. Nurses are responsible for implementing these medical procedures to patients in assisted living centers.

Assist Patients In Physical Therapy Sessions
Disabled residents need to undergo regular physical therapy sessions. Nurses usually lead and guide disabled patients in doing their therapy sessions.

Quick Guide for Providing the Best Hospice Care to Patients

Hospice care is a special type of medical care that focuses on terminally ill and very sick patients. People who are at the end of their lives need to acquire the best hospice care. A hospice care is important to support the medical needs of seriously ill patients. Hospice care is usually manage by highly skilled medical professionals like nurses. Nurses play an important role in assisting patients with serious conditions in hospice care facilities. Nurses help terminally ill patients managed the pain and symptoms from their diseases.

Providing medical assistance to seriously ill people is not simple. Nurses who provide hospice care to patients should be well equipped with special medical skills and knowledge. Handling serious medical cases needs to be conducted in a careful and delicate manner. Nurses should be able to acquire the right skills in managing delicate and complex medical cases. Here’s a Guide for nurses to help them provide the best hospice care to patients.

Enhance expertise in hospice care by attending seminars and training. Nurses who are currently providing hospice care to patients should allot a time to participate in skill and knowledge enhancement programs. Medical seminars and Training are regularly conducted to provide updates about new developments in the field of hospice care. It’s advisable that nurses attend these kind of events to enhance their capability in hospice care.

Nurses should be up-to-date with the latest techniques in handling serious medical conditions. The medical field continuously adapts new medical techniques and breakthroughs. New methods in managing different medical cases are discovered which improve the quality of treatment to patients. Nurses providing hospice care should be constantly updated with these new medical trends. Usually, this updates are disseminated thru nursing and medical organizations. Medical professional groups often inform their members about the latest medical advancement in meetings and scheduled meet ups.

Hospice care Updates: News, Trends and latest facts

Hospice Care has been a very popular option for families with members who are at the end of their life. In the U.S. and U.K., the hospice care industry has been growing progressively in the last ten years. This provided employment opportunity to healthcare professionals and chance to get a less expensive professional patient care to very sick dying people.

Here is a quick update about the latest news, developments and new facts from this field in healthcare.

UK recent study about Hospice care

A recently conducted study by the National Institute for Health Research showed that the fatality rates in hospice care incurred a steady increase from 17,400 in 1993 to 26,000 in 2012.  The Study also showed that 3.4% of all death in England came from hospice death. In relation, the figure doubled in 2012 showing 6% from hospice death. This was the first study to use the whole population of 223 adult inpatient hospice facilities in England. The study showed and figuratively defined hospice deaths changed from the year 1993 to 2012. The study also showed that majority of hospice death were cancer related cases. The study also found that a lot of people who died under hospice care are from prosperous areas than poverty-stricken areas in the UK.

Advance Hospice improves patient care but increases Medicare costs based on study

A new study in the New England journal of medicine investigates the impact of Medicare’s increase in hospice benefits in hospice facilities from 2004 to 2009. The research conducted concluded an improvement in the quality of hospice care administered and found an increased to Medicare costs of $6,761 in every patient. The research also validated that Hospice cases increased from 27.6 percent patients in 2004 to 39.8 percent in 2009. The study also showed a significant increase in the average length of time in a hospice or senior care from 72.1 days in 2004 to 92.6 days in 2009.

High-paying Institutions to practice a LPN career

The healthcare industry offers a big employment opportunity to professionals who have a background in nursing. An individual can choose a variation of nursing careers depending on the type of nursing degree he or she has earned. There are two nursing degree a person can earn in a nursing school. One is the BSN degree which would consume four years of tertiary education. The other one is the less-time consuming vocational nursing program. For some people who don’t have the time to earn a full-four year course nursing degree, taking a short nursing vocational course is very advantageous.

Taking the short-cut towards a nursing career is convenient and less strenuous. The only thing you need to do is apply and pass a nursing licensure exam. Now, if all goes well you will be able to practice a career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Although you are now qualified to apply in any company, you want to be employed to a healthcare institution that can provide you a highly competitive salary.

Here are the top Healthcare Institutions that offer high compensations to LVN:

Hospitals, Clinics and Government health centers

LPN are qualified to employ all types of Hospital. The starting salary for LPNs and RNs is often similar, but an RN will generally make $20k-$26k more. Bigger hospitals offer higher compensation compared to smaller ones. You may want also to include in your decision which type of hospital you will be working with. Government hospitals can offer long term nursing career for you. While private hospital and clinics can provide better nursing experience opportunity for your career.

Nursing homes and Assisted Living Centers

These kind of Institutions can also offer you a lucrative nursing career. Assisted living centers and nursing homes employ a lot of LPN and RN to administer the duty of Senior Care and assisting people with disabilities and other medical conditions.

How to prepare yourself for a Nursing career

Choosing a career requires careful thinking and right decision making. You want to have a career that will enhance your ability, skills and knowledge. A good career path should be interesting, enjoyable, and inspiring. You want to be in a career that makes you happy and enables to you have worthwhile experiences while working.

Among the many available careers, you have chosen to be in the field of healthcare as a nurse. This type of career is lucrative and highly respected. Proper knowledge and high quality of skills are required from healthcare professionals. On top of that, a nursing graduate should undergo the mandatory board exam that regulate and maintain the standards for this particular profession.

Although pursuing this type of career can sometimes be strenuous, it’s better to be ready and prepare for the long career journey ahead.

Choose which type of nursing career you want

Basically there are two nursing career you can take. One as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and the other as a Registered Nurse (RN).  There is actually a noticeable difference between the two closely related careers. RN’s have more subjects and spend more time in school earning their professional nursing degree.  While LPN’s earn a degree in practical nursing. RN’s have better opportunity in terms of high compensation and career growth.

Learn, Study and pass your course

The best preparation for a nursing career is by making a good reputation in your academic performance.  These lessons you got while earning your degree in nursing are vital in your chosen career. It’s preferable to have basic to advance knowledge on the fundamentals of nursing which are very useful in your line of work.

Make sure you pass the licensure exam

Implement strategies that will increase your chances of passing the nursing board exam in your location. You can enroll in tutorial classes or spend a time doing self-review before you take the exam. Through the help of dedication and the right preparation a career in nursing will be within your reach.