NUR1201 The Patient Experience

Introduction

Nurses should acquire more professional behavioural standard and strategies in order to improve the patient care experience. The experience of a 40 years old aboriginal woman has been chosen as the case scenario for this paper.  The main goal of nurses is to improve the safety measurements and the quality of care for each and every patient. Improving the patient care experience can be very much helpful for the healthcare organization in getting reputation also (Nilsen, 2015). It can be achieved by improving service and delivery processes. However, improving it can be challenging for all the nurses as variety of patients are admitted and each of them holds different demands (Rahaman, Holmes & Chartrand, 2017). This paper is going to describe some relevant theories and framework in this regard and it will also analyze the case scenario of an aboriginal woman who shared her care experience. Finally, the paper will conclude stating how the theories and frameworks can be applied in order to improve the patient care experience.

Identification of relevant theories and frameworks

While taking care of patients, nurses follow various theories and one of them is patient-centred care. It is a practice of caring patients by listening, informing and involving patients in the care practices. In this care method, the opinion of patients is preferred (Van Humbeeck, Dillen, Piers & Van den Noortgate, 2016). In the chosen case scenario, Raelene Ward was suffering from diabetes since her 3^rd gestational period and even after years of giving birth to child. In her case, nurses did not inform her about the reason of diabetes and they also did not provide any exercise or diet prior giving the insulin. Informing the patients about the detail of their disease is one of the important rules of patient-centred care. Another approach is family-centred care in which family members are involved in the patient care process in order to provide an extra emotional support to the patient (Reamer, 2017). In the chosen case scenario, the patient herself was a nurse by profession and being a nurse she stated that she also embrace family-centred care. Involving the family members such as allowing them to visit patients anytime as per the patients’ physical condition can provide an additional mental support to them. At the same time maintain codes of ethics in the nursing practices are also essential for better care (Clark, 2017). When she lost her sister it was a great loss to her and it created a huge psychological impact. During that period grief and loss framework to support the patient was required and in this purpose, counselling of the patient would provide an additional psychological support to overcome the grief.As per her age, Erikson’s stages of nursing care she required mental support also (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele & Robinson, 2018) in which the nurses should be actively and respectfully listen to her and acknowledge her life experience. Nurses also encourage patients to participate in some activities that have meaning for them. Some pros and cons of the theories related to nursing can be identified. Patient and family centred care always improve the health outcomes and it is cost-effective also as it decreases the annual number of referral visits and lowers the number of laboratory tests ordered which in turn reduces the cost. Again the Erikson’s stage helps to provide the additional support to control the stress. In this way the relationship between nurses and patient becomes stronger (Clark, 2017).During the sister’s death it could help her to get over the stress. However, application of these theories into the nursing practices can increase the workload of the nurses and due to over stress they cannot establish genuine therapeutic relationship with the patients easily. Sometimes, in patient-centred care, opinion of the patients can create barrier in the treatment. Over involvement of family can hamper the treatment procedure too (Foster, Whitehead & Maybee, 2016).

Analysis of the communication scenario

In the case scenario, Raelene Ward was suffering from chronic diabetes and the care she took was quite ineffective due to various reasons as it was really not a patient-centred care. Several examples from the case scenario can be given in support of it. First of all, when she was diagnosed with diabetes, the nurses associated in her care did not inform Raelene about the reason of the issue. Moreover, they did not suggest any diet or exercise before putting insulin. They directly went for the insulin. Along with that, at the very beginning of the diagnosis of her disease, she got support from a dietician. But, during her whole treatment process no dietician was involved. Diabetes is basically a non-curable and long-term chronic disease which Raelene was suffering since years and it consists of compliance in medication and management also. During this long period she was not supported by any dietician. Apart from that, during the treatment procedure, she lost her sister which created a great negative impact on her life. She became more stressful which was not good for a diabetic patient as it can worsen the condition. But, she did not receive any counselling or psychological support as a part of her care management (Nilsen, 2015). Moreover, as per her age, as she was 40 years old, the stage of generativity vs. stagnation in Erikson’s stage was appropriate for her (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele & Robinson, 2018). In this stage she required stress reduction support which she did not receive. So, all these proved that the care provided to the patient was quite ineffective in nature which requires some more efficiency as well as effectiveness.

Again, from the case scenario, it has also been found that Raelene received some effective care as she got the support from a team of healthcare professionals during her treatment procedure.  An Endocrinologist, midwives, and the doctors were always there to assess her when she went into antenatal. On a regular basis, the team of the healthcare experts would see her. Even, at the beginning there was dietician also. Apart from that, there were aboriginal staffs also present in the hospital and if any patient wanted then the aboriginal worker would come to provide the patient some additional mental support when required, being from the same community (American Diabetes Association, 2014). However, the care was not as effective as it was not always patient-centred but in some cases the care provided by the healthcare organization in her case, found to be effective.

Application of the chosen theories and frameworks

The theories of patient-centred care and other frameworks discussed could improve the patient care process in the case of Raelene Ward. In patient-centred care, transparency is the main rule. Patients must be informed about the decisions taken by the healthcare providers during the treatment procedure (Reamer, 2017). Patients’ safety should be the first priority also. In the case of Raelene, she was not informed about the reason of her diabetes. Moreover, there was no any episode of diet and exercise prior giving the insulin to the patient. It could be dangerous as giving insulin is very much important and it requires various checking before giving (Fraser & Rosina, 2017). Another theory that could be incorporated in the case scenario of Raelene was family-centred care. According to the patients’ opinion as she was also a nurse herself, family-centred care is an important and valuable part of nursing care in which family members are allowed in the treatment procedure of any patient to provide an additional mental as well as emotional support (Foster, Whitehead & Maybee, 2016). If her family members were allowed in the treatment process when she was over stressed due to the loss of her sister then it could provide her some additional mental support. But, during that period of time she was not provided any counselling even. Moreover, ethical codes are associated with the quality care and if nurses would be more ethical by saying the fact or reason behind her diabetes it would be better. Again, according to Erikson’s stage for 40 years’ patients, she should be supported in order to reduce stress, whereas, she was not provided any psychological support during the treatment (Cherry, 2017). Incorporating her belief and value in the care plan was not found. To enable the generativity, nurses should acknowledge the life experience of the patient also (Clark, 2017). If all these theories and frameworks would have been implemented in the treatment then it would have provided a better care for this patient.

Conclusion

The main thesis statement was that nurses should acquire more professional behavioural standard and strategies to improve the patient care experience. The paper analysed the case scenario of an aboriginal woman who took care due to her diabetes. The care she received from the nurses was ineffective in many areas and in some cases the care was effective also. The paper provided the theories and frameworks appropriate for nursing care. At the end of the paper it has also been described that how the care would have been better with the application of nursing theories and frameworks. If nurses maintain ethical standards as well as other theories in the care process then patients will experience a better healthcare.

References

American Diabetes Association. (2014). Standards of medical care in diabetes—2014. Diabetes care, 37(Supplement 1), S14-S80.

Cherry, K. (2017). Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Psychology. Psychosocial Theories. Päivitetty, 14, 2017.

Clark, C. M. (2017). An evidence-based approach to integrate civility, professionalism, and ethical practice into nursing curricula. Nurse educator, 42(3), 120-126.

Foster, M., Whitehead, L., & Maybee, P. (2016). The parents’, hospitalized child’s, and health care providers’ perceptions and experiences of family-centered care within a pediatric critical care setting: A synthesis of quantitative research. Journal of Family Nursing, 22(1), 6-73.

Fraser, J., & Rosina, R. (2017). Psychosocial development and response to illness. Paediatric Nursing in Australia: Principles for Practice, 55.

Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Steele, R., & Robinson, M. (2018). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice, and research. FA Davis.

Nilsen, P. (2015). Making sense of implementation theories, models and frameworks. Implementation Science, 10(1), 53.

Rahaman, Z., Holmes, D., & Chartrand, L. (2017). An opportunity for healing and holistic care: Exploring the roles of health care providers working within Northern Canadian Aboriginal communities. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 35(2), 185-197.

Reamer, F. G. (2017). Evolving ethical standards in the digital Age. Australian Social Work, 70(2), 148-159.

Van Humbeeck, L., Dillen, L., Piers, R., & Van den Noortgate, N. (2016). Grief and loss in older people residing in nursing homes:(un) detected by nurses and care?assistants?. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(12), 3125-3136.