Over the course of the clinical experience this semester I was lucky enough to have many great learning experiences. The patients that really stuck out to me was not the most demanding patient on the floor or the sickest patient on the floor, but just an overall very pleasant person to be around. Sadly, the thing that was keeping the patient in the hospital was the fact that they lived in a very rural part of Vermont with not many people or things around them. In order for them to go home the patient needed to make sure that they were physically strong enough to do things for themselves. This patient was very physically weak and had a hard time supporting their body weight. If they were sent home, they could end up hurting themselves again or potentially even more. When talking to the patient they revealed that they did not want to come to the hospital right away because the closest one to them was more than an hour away and didn’t want to go unless it was completely urgent. With being from an area that is so close to so many different health care providers this was a strange idea to me. I was fortunate enough if something was wrong or needed to be checked out there wasn’t too much of an issue. Unlike in parts of rural Vermont where the nearest person might not be for 30 minutes, let alone the nearest health care provider. This patient made me realize the importance of making sure there are ways to decrease the lack of health care in places all over our country. Public health nurses are trying to make sure that this issue is tackled. From doing things like pop up clinics to at home check-ups, public health nurses help to bridge the gap and make sure that people like the patient I had, are remaining safe and healthy!
Month: November 2021
Death with Dignity
Death with Dignity
I feel that the baseline knowledge I have of death with dignity is very little as the only time I remember learning about it was in ethics class freshman year. From what I do remember is that it is essentially the belief that terminally ill patients should have the right to voluntarily take their own life by a medical professional. While this can be a very controversial topic for people, I find myself agreeing with the death with dignity act. I feel that if a person who has a terminal illness, they should have the option to go out peacefully on their own terms than potentially being miserable waiting for the illness to take over. However, I do see why people are against death with dignity. The idea of having a doctor helping a patient take their own life is a very strange idea to wrap one’s head around.
I think that death with dignity directly challenges the ethical principle of do no harm. In the case of death with dignity the health care team is doing the opposite of that. However, I think that as health care providers we need to make sure that the patient’s needs are being met. If that patient decides that they truly want to go through with it the health care team needs to respect the decision. The process to get the prescription is not as simple as it may seem, which I think that if a patient is able to go through the steps, then it is a decision that they fell strongly about. While the line becomes blurred about doing no harm to the patient with death with dignity, I believe that we as health care professionals need to make sure that the patient is getting the level of care that they want.
Proposing Change
Proposing Change
After picking the topic for our project and finding literature, I was able to learn a few more things about our topic than I had previously known. Practicing accurate documentation of intake and output leads to an overall increase in positive outcomes for patients. One of those benefits that I never really thought of was risk of inaccurate care plans. These potentially inaccurate care plans from inaccurate documentation can lead to a decrease in positive outcomes for the patient. While I was aware of the importance of correct documentation of intake and output for preventing things like electrolyte or fluid imbalances, the importance of having an accurate care plan is not as obvious.
Going forward in my practice as a nurse and using the information that I have learned from the literature; I will make sure to properly document intake and output. With knowing the issues that can arise like arrythmias from an imbalance of electrolytes or increased hospital stays for patients will help to reinforce the importance. Overall, practicing and documenting accurate intake and output will help me to provide the best care for my patient possible. In practicing good documentation hopefully will allow for the other nurses on the unit to also practice accurate documentation as well.
Our group seemed to run into some problems this time around and needed to do some heavy edits to get to where it eventually needed to be. When there would be a problem that came up luckily, we would often have time at clinical to all talk about what needed to get done. This was perfect because we all would be able to meet as a group outside of class to get together and do what we had to. When we weren’t discussing in person, we were able to use a text group chat to talk about any edits that were made and if people wanted to look at those edits. The collaboration allowed for us to make sure that the final draft was up to the standards that it needed to be.
