Ethical Issues in End of Life Care Jessica Moore Abstract In nursing, there are issues that others may not realize that go on at the end of life care. End of life care is about comfort and care of the patient and treatment of the patient during the end stages of their life. Drug use like opioids in end of life care could possibly be an ethical issue for nurses because some people might say that in trying to keep the patient comfortable they are also causing problems with the patient’s respiratory system functions. Opioid use might be good to help ease the pain of the dying patient but it could also be causing the patient to go through the dying processes faster due to loss of function in respiratory functions (Mohanti, 2009). Ethical issues can be in any end of life care situation through, no matter if the patient is an elderly patient that you were expecting to be there or a patient that was diagnosis with cancer and is still very young.
Monitoring for early recognition of adverse events, errors, and complications and initiating notification to the appropriate care provider for timely interventions are essential nursing functions that can have a significant effect on patient safety, quality of care, and resulting outcomes. Nursing sensitive patient outcomes are those that improve with greater quantity and better quality nursing care. (Cherry & Jacob, 2011) In the given scenario it is clear that that both, the nurse and the certified nursing assistant (CNA) need to have a better understanding of nursing sensitive indicators as well as the hospital’s policy and procedures. Failure to identify the nursing-sensitive indicators resulted in unnecessary use of restraints, development of pressure ulcer, and patient dissatisfaction with care. The use of restraints for Mr. J was an inappropriate action as he was not a danger to himself or others.
The intent of EBP is to improve the quality of the care that is delivered to the client. This increased knowledge, whether it is correct or incorrect, is a motivating factor for nursing professionals to have current and correct information available when working with clients in making healthcare decisions. Healthcare professionals, especially nurses, are the touch point of health care and are the key to cost effective quality care. To ensure that decisions are based on sound information nurses must utilize EBR. As technology and research in health care expands, EBP is becoming essential in delivering high quality patient care.
Upon completing both leadership assessment tests, I was able to analyze my strengths and create action plans in areas that need improvement. Rath and Conchie (2008) suggests to lead effectively one must be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to assess a nursing practice quality improvement issue and analyze how applying effective leadership methods developed from previous assessments could have improved the outcome. ROLE As a future advance practice nurse (APN) who is seeking a position in nursing management in the field of labor and delivery, it is imperative to always be aware of ways to improve the quality of care provided to patients. As a nurse administering high alert medications it is important to follow protocols and guidelines set in place to maintain the safety of the patients in our care.
Nursing-sensitive indicators represent nursing’s contributions to patient care. Nursing-sensitive indicators represent nursing’s contributions to patient care. RTT1 Task 1 RTT1 Task 1 Nursing-sensitive indicators reflect the structure, process and outcomes of nursing care (American Nurses Association, Inc., 2014). Patient outcomes that are determined to be nursing sensitive are those that improve if there is a greater quantity or quality of nursing care (American Nurses Association, Inc., 2014). One nursing-sensitive indicator is the development of pressure ulcers.
Thereby patients’ lives are guarded from stake of harm. Advantages of nursing theories are, they provide standardization of nursing whilst the nursing processeses are recognised as a problem solving approach. These theories also signify the individual as a whole hence personalised care is rendered. Other advantages would include expansion and development of nursing, positive effect on nursing students, professional and increased quality of care which is contributed by systematic approach. Rationale of work and having analytical knowledge on patients’ care are undeniable strenghths of nursing theories.
This should be done in order to help improve Interwest’s situation. Analyzing the employee’s utility will help determine satisfaction that the employee’s are expecting to receive from working at the hospital. The next bit of information that I would like to analyze would be the company’s compensation plan. Having the knowledge on how the employees are being compensated is extremely important because this will allow the knowledge on what employees are entitled to. 3.
The author of this paper, an emergency department nurse, will compare and contrast how she would expect nursing leaders and management to approach these issues in her department. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) defined quality improvement (QI) as a “systematic and continuous action that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups” (HRSA, 2011). An important role for senior leaders of a management team implementing a new quality improvement program is to create energy, positivity, and consistency with their team to ensure follow through with intended goals throughout their department or facility. Patient satisfaction scores offer insight into a department’s quality of care that is given to their patients. A management team utilizes both positive and negative comments given by their patients.
With the given scenario, many nursing specific indicators could have been observed to significantly improve Mr. J’s hospital experience. Restraint prevalence is the first issue that could be addressed. If the nurse was more aware of this he or she would know that restraints should only be used when medically necessary to prevent a patient from harming themselves, staff, or interfering with medical treatment that would ultimately cause the patient harm. Mr. J, from the description in the scenario, was calm with a diagnosis of mild dementia. Many other interventions could have been implemented to protect this patient from a fall which is yet
This can be accomplished through continuous monitoring, evaluation of any activities that need improvement. For example some hospital have QI teams made up of nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers. These teams’ helps in ensuring QI are done in an efficient manner. According to (L.Long, 2003) “Influencing nurses to accept and implement best practice and continuous quality improvement into everyday nursing activities and to change practice is a significant challenge for any nursing service.” I believe including nursing in quality improvement teams can help influence them into participating more in quality management. Usually quality improvements are viewed by staff as another workload added onto an already busy workload.