Real Nursing

I cannot help but share this with you all...Do you know how many times I have asked a pt if they know how to use their IS and they tell me they do not? I educate them on the usage and what this blue and plastic thing is that is sitting on their bedside table almost every time I see one. I explain the benefits and potential problems if they do not use it. I then have them demonstrate the use of it. It may seem a small thing but 90 percent of the pts I ask never know what they are for. I find that amazing. Nurses so often instruct pts without thinking about it. It is second nature to us IMO. So if I am called slow...so be it. Angio and to all the nurses here KUDOs. Keep up the good nursing. The pts need you more now than ever.


TuTonka

Such a great article...educating patients brings healthcare to their level, in a way they understand. Better informed patients usually make happier patients!

Great article! Very interesting. Thanks

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, it is so true communication is key in nursing, I'm not a nurse yet, but even @ my job where I deal with customers all day, they always appreciate when I go that xtra mile for them, to truly give assistance. Most people are touched in their heart that "someone cares about me and how I feel, they truly understand" that to me is a very gratifying feeling, just like u said even if it may delay "the more important tasks" we "should be really focused on" this was an excellent point to be raised. Thanks again angie.

Let me echo the sentiments of those who said that they want someone like you taking care of them. Many lives could be saved or improved, and many bad situations avoided, if more things were explained to patients in a clear, understandable way. In our rush to get things done it is easy to forget that sometimes.

This is something hospitals should put more of an emphasis on. Handing a patient reading materials at discharge can be good to reinforce information already provided, but as a total patient teaching strategy it is bound to fail. If all we do is give patients handouts as they go out the door, there is no way to know if they even understand them.

Never once have I heard a hospital administrator say that a facility makes patient education a top priority. They are too busy throwing around the catchphrase "quality care" - while at the same time doing things staffing and salary-wise that make delivering it pretty much impossible.

Excellent point. Hospitals are very concerned about what patients think of what happened while they were lying in the bed. I don't know of any who ask questions about how well they prepared the patient to go home, or to maximize their chances for a successful recovery. About all they tell patients is to come back if something goes wrong. What about preventing the return visit altogether?

Love the name, BTW. Very clever!

Angie I don't think you could have said this any better and what a perfect example. If you didn't save that patients life in the very near future, you most certainly gave her much more time and quality of life. Hey, are you supervisors reading and listening?

I think what also could be touched on here is that pts are being d/c home much sooner and sicker these days, and quite often connected to "scary medical equipment" they have little or no understanding of. If the pt is caring for themselves they should demonstrate that they can properly use the equipment, know when and how to take their meds, learn the proper name and dosage of their medication, how each medication works and benefits them, what it looks like, or if the pt is unable then the caregiver must learn this and demostrate the same. Preferably not all on day of d/c. This must be taught!
Also, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the less time a nurse spends educating her pt or pt's family before d/c the % of readmissions go up proportionately often with more serious problems then when initially admitted (or worse). It's such a shame when this is so completely avoidable.
If we don't or can't find the time to do this, you can be certain it won't be done, and patients will suffer for it.
Something I always recommend when pt's are going home on new meds or many different ones is keeping a notebook and pen right with their meds and keep a log, with medication, dosage, time and date noted as each pill comes out of it's bottle (this also gets them reading the actual prescription on the bottle too). For pt caregivers especially if more than one this is an absolute must. When the pt keeps their next appt. all should be brought to their doctors office. This shows medication compliance, that the patient cares and is involved in their healthcare, and opens an intelligent dialog between the pt/caregiver and doctor or nurse regarding how they've done since d/c. Almost always another teaching opportunity comes next!

while it is not a story of nurses but docs this story shows how educations is a very important thing:



plastic surgeon said he would do 1 of 3 procedures. One of which was suturing my eye closed. I told him I did not mind which one was done, I just dont want the one where you sew my eye closed. He says fine and we start the process of choosing which one to do.

about a month later my opthalmologist says he wanted to suture the eye closed. I told him No i did not want that. His response.......why. I explained that i would look wierd walking around with my eye stitched closed. He said no no no the stitches are not on the outside but on the inside.

him taking the time to ASK why I did not want the procedure made it so he could understand that I had a misconseption of the procedure and he was able to clear it up and make me feel better, and fine with having it. had my plastic surgeon asked he would have known but since he did not ask why I did not share it with him and so I had thoguht he was crazy for wanting me to walk around with black stitches on the outside holding my eye closed.

after that appointment with my eye doc, I agreed to the procedure and it made a diference to my quality of life for a little bit of time

Absolutely agree. Take care of yourself first, (take your breaks, drink water, PEE! and take a minute to breathe and laugh). Then comes your patients (cause when you are maxed out and frazzled you are much more likely to kill them) and then worry about overtime and the evals. Document document document. Keep your own notes and detailed accounts of super busy nights or nights you felt overloaded. Bring that with you to you eval and ask how management can help keep that from happening again.

Stand up for yourselves and your patients. We are skilled, valuable, smart and passionate people, there is no reason to compromise care for fear of being docked for doing your job right.