Being admitted to hospital or preparing for surgical procedures can be very difficult and scary for children and their parents. Ball et al. (2014), states that the most common stressors for children being admitted to hospital are the loss of control and autonomy, the fear of pain, separation anxiety and a change in body image. Ball et al. (2014) also state that fear of hospitalisation depends on the child’s age and developmental stage. For example, toddlers and primary school aged children are often the most anxious and are afraid of being separated from their parents whereas adolescents tend to be anxious about their loss of independence and privacy. This means that a good knowledge of children’s developmental stages is essential if the …show more content…
According to Dougherty et al. (2015), nurses should create an environment for their patient and their family where they feel they can talk about their worries and fears. Dougherty et al. (2015) state that communication and creating a safe environment for their patients is a skill that should be learned and mastered by a nurse in the same way as any other skill. This will ensure effective and empathetic patient and family centred …show more content…
(2014), outline four of the main stress reducing techniques that a nurse can use or encourage a parent to use. These include ensuring the child gets enough sleep the night before a procedure, maintaining a normal routine as much as possible and ensuring the family’s presence during a stay in hospital. This is especially important with younger children who may not have the capacity to understand why they are in hospital. Caring for an adolescent is different and the nurse must adapt his or her way of reducing stress and anxiety. As previously stated, Adolescents tend to fear the loss of independence and privacy as well as a change in body image above other common stressors. This is why it is important that they are included in their care and are allowed to make decisions about their own care as much as possible. For example, allowing an older child to sign or co-sign their consent will help to maintain their independence and autonomy, thus reducing anxiety (Smith,
Consent is necessary from everyone, not only those who can verbalise his or her needs. It is important to find out the persons communication needs so that they can be involved in discussions around their needs and preferences. My duty of care is to ensure that choices are given, and that appropriate support is obtained where there is lack of capacity is the decision is complex and the individual cannot consent. This may be from families or next of kin or using advocates to ensure that the client’s best interests are maintained. There may be past events or requests that could indicate the client’s preferences, and these must be considered when choices have to be made by others. Any preferences should be recorded on care plans and shared with relevant others to be able to determine the best interests of the person. Decisions should also be put off until the client is able to make their own choices where possible and not taken on their behalf through assuming we know
The clinical setting can be terrifying for a nursing student. Nursing students are not only concerned about properly caring for patients, but they have just as much concern regarding the techniques of how to properly address patients and their families in a manner which conveys the care and concern they wish to possess when they become registered nurses. Certainly, heightened levels of anxiety may inhibit a student nurse’s ability to make sound judgment calls with regard to appropriate nursing interventions (Foley, 2016).
I was able to see how stressful it was for parents who also had children at home and had to be at the hospital taking care of their child. Also, for the first time I experienced having to deal with parents who were arguing about their child’s care. I realized how whenever the patient’s mom was out of the room, the child was behaving appropriately for his age, but when the mom would come back into the room, the child would behave differently.
Many children in hospitals today are not receiving the proper specialized care due to the fact that their bodies are not as developed as average adults, and doctors are not knowledgeable in the treatment of child ailments. While becoming a pediatric hospitalist requires many long hours of school and years of residency, the career provides a large amount of fulfillment because of the lives that will be changed and saved.
Heuer, L., Bengiamin, M., Downey, V., & Imler, N. (1996). Focus on children's nursing. Neonatal intensive care nurse stressors: an American study. British Journal Of Nursing, 5(18), 1126-1130.
Medical procedures are a common part of life and elicit a great deal of anxiety among people of all ages. Anxiety is defined as a “diffuse apprehension that is vague in nature and is associated with feelings of uncertainty and helplessness” (Townsend, 2009, p. 15). Children experience high levels of procedural anxiety because they do not understand what to expect and they fear the pain they may experience. I was therefore interested in researching whether the presence of parents during painful procedures decreases anxiety in pediatric patients. My desire to someday work with the pediatric population has intrigued me to further understand the importance of this issue to best meet the needs of the patient and family. The topics to be discussed include the benefits of having parents present during painful procedures, the disadvantages of having parents present, and doctors and nurses attitudes regarding the presence of parents.
Today, many Americans face the struggle of the daily hustle and bustle, and at times can experience this pressure to rush even in their medical appointments. Conversely, the introduction of “patient-centered care” has been pushed immensely, to ensure that patients and families feel they get the medical attention they are seeking and paying for. Unlike years past, patient centered care places the focus on the patient, as opposed to the physician.1 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) separates patient centered care into eight dimensions, including respect, emotional support, coordination of care, involvement of the family, physical comfort, continuity and transition and access to care.2
According to Boykin “Caring is the foundation of nursing” (Boykin et al, 2011), and it is the nurses’ responsibility to understand what it means to be caring toward patients, which can be achieved through having professional communication skills. Not only does not being able to communicate affect the patient, but also it affects how the nurse is able to do his or her job to the best they can. Smith and Pressman say that the Institute of Medicine has released reports, which stress, “good communication is critical to ensuring safe and reliable nursing” (Smith & Pressman, 2010). Bad communication skills have the potential to be more dangerous to the patient and can in tern make a life-threateni...
In less stressful environment, nurses able to incorporate caring relationship, improve interactions between patient and a nurse, and develop understanding of the other person’s perspective (Nicely, K, Sloane, D., Aiden, L., 2012).
In nursing practice, communication is essential, and good communication skills are paramount in the development of a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of communication in nursing, demonstrating how effective communication facilitates a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This will be achieved by providing a definition of communication, making reference to models of communication and explaining how different types of communication skills can be used in practise.
The world of healthcare is one which many patients struggle to navigate, especially in terms of making difficult choices regarding their care. This is especially true of younger people, who will be exposed to the future of constant challenges in evolving diseases, environments, and treatments. Adolescence is the tricky, midway stage between childhood and adulthood, where the phrase “young adult” is the symbol of growing freedoms and responsibilities. Many people recognize that this special age group is a transitional period where the weight of decision making is passed from parents to their children. Dr. Vic Larcher in “Moving from dependence to autonomy: Adolescents’ decisions regarding their own health care,” provides the health care
For example, their choice ( if they want to do it) is taking the patient's specific directions when helping them with their ADL routine, choosing their ADL products and outfits. It is also important to continue to respect them, encourage them, respect their ideas/desires to incorporate a family member (only family member(s) designated by them that they want involved in their care), being addressed by the name they prefer to be called, and in incorporating them as full partners in deciding and providing their care. Don Berwick in the YouTube video is sad today about his right knee surgery which he didn't think was necessary. To avoid cases like this, we can “do for them” by incorporating them into their care plan as a full partner. The goal is to work with them with encouragement to regain their strengths again.
They determined that patients stress over the success of surgery, length of the waiting period before the procedure, fear of death, previous negative hospital experience, fear about the recovery process, fear of pain and discomfort, fear about loss of appetite, weakness, sleep disturbances, resumption of normal life activities after surgery, cardiac monitoring, drug addiction, length of hospitalization and hospital costs. Stressors associated with hospitalization have an adverse effect on patient recovery; therefore, nurses need to assess and identify them prior to surgery to ensure the best possible outcome. This study concluded that the intrapersonal stressors were perceived more than interpersonal and extra personal stressors by patients, which nurses should put emphasis on the identification and elimination of intrapersonal stressors based on the needs of patients. One of the limitations of this study included the small sample size and sampling was restricted to the cardiac surgery patients only. Findings from this study cannot necessarily be applied cross culturally. The authors declare no conflicts of interest and was supported by evidence–based
The introduction paragraph gives information on communication and the impact that it has on patient-nurse relationships. It gives the reader an understanding of what is involved in true communication and how that it is a fundamental part of nursing and skills all nurses need. It leads those interested in delivering quality nursing to read on. Showing us the significance that communication makes in the
Communication is an important concept of caring in nursing because the nurse has to know how to communicate efficiently in order to get the patient to trust the nurse enough to open up to the nurse and also the nurse needs to communicate respectfully to show the patient that they genuinely do care about their health and want to help them as much as they