Friday, February 29, 2008

Most Misunderstood Theory

The nursing process is perhaps one of the most misunderstood nursing theories, and yet one of the most effective as well as practical. It takes time for students and new nurses to understand this process, and many fight it every step of the way, until one day a light bulb begins to burn brightly.
When performing the assessment part of the nursing process for a geriatric patient it is appropriate that the nurse is purposefully respectful. Many times elderly patients are not treated with respect, are dismissed, ignored or assumed to not be in control of their mental faculties. Addressing the client as Mr. or Mrs., until you establish or gain permission to address them differently, is the first step in establishing rapport that is so important in order to establish a trusting professional relationship. Many times an elderly client is able to respond to some questions but not others. One should not assume that because there is a deficit one presentation of an elderly individual that all areas are not functioning. Even the client residing on a specialty dementia unit, often is able to convey during an interview that they feel safe, they are treated with dignity and have choices when they are unable to remember the date, name of their home or the name of the town in which they live.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Protecting those who cannot protect themselves!

More and more we are hearing in the news abuse cases of vulnerable adults. How is vulnerable adult defined? A vulnerable adult is anyone who is limited in their ability to protect, provide or speak on their own behalf. An individual who is dependent on another person to provide the necessities of living. For the month of July we have been encouraged to wear purple ribbons to increase awareness for the prevention of abuse of vulnerable adults. If you know of abuse that is happening please call Adult Protective Services in your area. Sometimes to improve living conditions for another all it takes is that call.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Introduction

I am a professional registered nurse of 34 years. I have worked in many settings including hospital setting as a float nurse, in-service director, operating room circulating/scrub nurse, doctor’s office, psychiatric hospital, home health nurse, assistant director of nursing in a nursing home and as a nurse consultant for long term care. I knew from the time I was fifteen I wanted to be a nurse and have never regretted my choice of professions. I hope to share with readers some of my experiences, trials, successes, failures, and lessons.