Barriers and strategies to effective communication in health care
Vivian was diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian cancer at the age of 48 years by a prominent physician. According to film the ‘Wit’, Vivian’s care was faced by barriers of effective communication. First, there was a lack of consent. A prominent physician, Harvey Kelekian, subjected her to agree to aggressive, debilitating chemotherapy to serve his research agenda. Vivian was to bear the therapy and the degrading study. As her condition got worse and fear increased, she questioned the assumptions about life. Secondly, lack of integrity among the professionals. This is evident in Dr. Kelekian his first words to Vivian that she had cancer. Doctors should respond to the humanity of the person in their care (Collins, 2009). However, Vivian was subjected to the indignities. The system sacrificed the well being of patients without their full consent. Also, research ethics dictates that the professional must seek the consent of the participants.
The only health care professional who cared for Vivian was her primary nurse, Susie. Although she was not an intellectual, Susie provided Vivian with health care that was consistent with her professional obligations and human decency. Irrespective of their differences, they formed a bond that was important for emotional and physical health.
There should be strategies to effective communication and leadership skills in any health care setting. Professionals should seek the full consent of the participants before subjecting them for research purposes. For instance, Vivian in her care she was introduced to chemotherapy without her knowledge. Her doctors were accomplishing their research agenda at the expense of her condition. Doctors should treat patient data with respect and human decency. Vivian was subjected to indignities by her doctors. In addition, in any health care setting, there should be coordination to avoid controversies experienced between Susie and others doctors. She handled her patient consistently with her professional obligations and human decency.
Reference;
Collins, S. (2009). Effective communication: A workbook for social care workers. London: Jessica Kingsley.
New York state nursing association legislative issue
The American Nurses Association represents the interests of the registered nurses. It achieves this through constituent and State Nurses associations such as New York State Nursing association. The association, ANA, supports a legislative issue in which nurses should be empowered to create staffing plans. The approach helps in establishing the levels of staffing that are flexible and accountable for changes. Also, it will comprise the assessment of the patient needs, the number of admissions, discharges and transfers during the shift. In addition, the legislation will take care of the experience of the nursing staff, the arrangement of the unit and the resources available.
The passing of the legislation will enable the committee to achieve safe and appropriate staffing plans. State staffing laws fall into three general approaches. First, they require hospitals to have a nurse driven committee. The nurse driven committees create staffing plans. The committees need to reflect the patient population and match the skills and experience of the staff. Finally, the health facilities should disclose staffing levels to the public and a regulatory body.
Reference;
American Nurses Association (2004). The nationwide state legislative agenda on nurse staffing: Legislative trends and analysis. United States: American Nurses Association.
Values and beliefs about nursing
Nursing refers to an art and a science of caring the human condition. In the nursing profession, the nurse and patient interaction involves the whole person by focusing the body, mind and spirit. Nurses’ practice by assessing, analyzing, planning, implementing and evaluating patient care based on the modern scientific evidence. Also, the outcomes from the patient care are an effective measure of nursing practice. Therefore, nurses’ must participate in the systems that measure and improve the patients’ outcomes (Maville, 2008).
The nursing philosophy is to satisfy the health needs of patients’, their families and communities. The philosophy must be grounded on the fundamental understanding of humans as being in the image of God. The nursing philosophy should be supported by the values of compassion, excellence, partnership, equity and stewardship and guided by the principles of faith and community based health care. It is advocated that the nursing profession should focus their efforts on prevention and promotion of safe patient care. Nurses work as a collaborative team in order to improve the health and well being of patients, their families and the community.
Nurses in the practice require ongoing professional requirement. This is essential because it empowers nurses with the necessary skills to become specialists in their nursing practice. It is imperative for institutions to develop and maintain nurses with specialty. Nurses are accountable for their practice and involvement in the interdisciplinary activities (Maville, 2008). In addition, nursing profession should be evidence based practice through the process of sharing decision making. Nurses require a spirit of inquiry and should demand resources to participate in research and share their research results.
Reference;
Maville, J. A., & Huerta, C. G. (2008). Health promotion in nursing. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
Challenges and opportunities that face bachelor nurses in the healthcare environment
Nursing professionals often face challenges in the workplace. Some professional nurses confront these challenges directly whereas others turn them away especially bachelor nurses in the profession. However, opportunities still exist in the nursing profession such as significant advances in nursing science and research, and technological explosion (Cherry, 2011).
The sudden growth in information technology has had impacts on health care delivery and the education of nurses. There is a dramatic improvement in the accessibility of clinical data across departments and time has improved the outcomes and care management of nursing. In addition, accessibility to data and means of communication has impacted on the way nursing research is conducted.
Nursing research is an important scientific enterprise of improving health. Research provides the scientific basis for patient care. Also, research is conducted to improve patient outcomes and improve health and well being of the society. Nurses easily benefit through nursing research and scholarship by public and private agencies. The scholarships granted to nurses enable them to pursue further studies necessary for their career advancement. Higher education for nurses is important in improving the nature and quality of services in the health sector. In addition, the patients’ needs are met (Cherry, 2011).
There is a significant shortage of nurses that exist in the heath care environment. Nursing shortages have a negative impact both on patient care and professionals in practice. Nurses in practice bear the heavy workload. It is important to adopt sophisticated nursing management and leadership in the health care industry. The nursing labor budget is too low and yet constitutes a significant spending. In addition, there is increasing complexity in patient care in some settings and the emergence of new diseases. The increase in demand for patient care services and emerging incidences of diseases necessitates an increment in the number of nurses. Further, more funds are required to run the normal and emerging operations in health care sector. Therefore, the schools of nursing should have core resources needed to deliver continuing professional education. Health care and other related organizations should partner in sponsoring the programs.
Reference;
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2011). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier/Mosby.
