Key words utilized during the search include alarm, fatigue, alarm fatigue, nursing, interruptions, & distractions. Throughout the hospital environment, there are many different noises and sounds to be heard. Many of those sounds heard by nurses, as well as patients and their families are coming from different machines, monitors and even patients. As the quality and number of monitors and special equipment continue to increase, so do the number of patients that are connected to them. This in turn exposes not only patients, but also nurses to a significant amount of noise and alarms, ultimately leading to the clinical problem called alarm fatigue.
Throughout this assignment I will be using a pseudonym to maintain patient confidentiality in order to conform to ‘The Nursing and Midwifery Code’ (NMC, 2008). Harry Jones is an 82 year old male who was transferred to the ward with a left fractured neck of femur, following a fall in his home. As a result he was due to have a hemiartroplasty that day. Harry lived at home with his 79 year old wife and his dog. He has been retired from the police force for 21 years.
As people approach the end of their lives, they and their families commonly face tasks and decisions that include a broad array of choices ranging from simple to extremely complex. [ They may be practical, psychosocial, spiritual, legal, existential, or medical in nature. For example, dying persons and their families are faced with choices about what kind of caregiver help they want or need and whether to receive care at home or in an institutional treatment setting. Dying persons may have to make choices about the desired degree of family involvement in caregiving and decision-making. They frequently make legal decisions about wills, advanced directives, and durable powers of attorney.
Genetics can sometimes run in families is one cause to the start of mental illnesses. Infections, brain defects or injury, prenatal damage, substance abuse, and other factors are the other five factors to mental illnesses. Yates battled depression for years; the cause of her actions for drowning her children were caused by postpartum psychosis triggered by the improper use of her meds, not listening to what her doctor had to say after her treatment, and lack of knowing any coping techniques. Postpartum depression can take up to a year after the child’s birth before the mother would even notice any signs of depression. If left untreated it can have dire consequences.
Personal Perceptions Caring for terminally ill patients can be a daunting task for all involved, whether it is for the patient, friends or family, or the nurse or other clinicians. It is important to analyze one’s own feelings about disease, its progression, and death when caring for others because a patient’s quality of life and functioning can potentially be affected by the nurse’s personal attitudes. Exhibiting judgments can cause discomfort, feelings of helplessness and/or sadness, which can impede quality of life for patients. The role of the nurse is to help the patient as he or she progresses through the stages of illness, acting as a patient advocate, meanwhile providing additional support for the patient and his or her loved ones. The role of the nurse is to attempt to alleviate discomfort, restore health, and to not cause any additional undue harm.
The nursing environment can be very stressful, charged with emotions, and highly intimate in nature. Colleagues may rely on eachother for support. It is important that the professional nurse remembers that the boundaries between professional working relationships may become blurred if allowed to do so. The nurse must remain committed to maintaining professional boundaries or remove themselves from the threatening environment. An example of blurring of professional boundaries could be a oncology nurse working along side an oncologist and caring for cancer patients day in and day out.
Patients and families dealing with potential end-of-life issues is a very common problem in health care today. The Research addresses the following questions: 1. How can we assist our patients with ESRD with end-of-life issues? 2. Is the topic a priority for the organization 3.
Daphne had been written up and reported several times for having to leave the job to get to her kids for whatever reasons. Being recognized for the positive was something she lacked in her 17 years of licensure. Along with negative recognition and false accusations, Daphne began to feel unappreciated for her day to day work. To top all the disadvantages, Daphne lost the lead nursing position due to having to be out of work several times due to breast cancer
Mrs. Davis told Finance Corp. that its visits to her at the hospital where she visited her ailing daughter were upsetting her daughter so much that her recovery was being impeded. Davis added that she herself was becoming extremely anxious, worried, and angry that Finance was dragging a patient into a dispute that "was none of the patient's doing." Upon hearing this, Finance Corp. suspended its visits to the hospital. At a later date, Davis informed Finance that "its harassment was driving her
We thought we had her seizures under control, until last month, she relapsed. We had a huge miscommunication. I proceeded to get her to go to the doctor for the fact her levels could have been low, or the medication was no longer working. She made her points as well. When this first started we argued with the doctors about the seizures.