Effect of Patient Care - Essay Example

?Running head: Effect of patient care Effect of Patient Care Introduction Patient care involves the provision of care to patients for the benefit of those patients. This care is paramount if recovery results are expected to be achieved as planned. This means that all people involved in conducting patient care should be efficient in their assigned tasks to ensure proper patient care is conducted (Eileen 2003). Different patients require different type of care due to the different types of ailments. This necessitates exemplary care in all patients so as to assist them cope with their ailments and other complications arising from the diseases. This task of providing patient care is solely the responsibility of health professionals who oversee that all procedures are followed. These health professionals have to follow the ethics code to ensure they do not compromise on the quality of care they award the patients. Examples of patient care include; cast care, bowel care, bladder care, amputation care, ambulatory care, circulatory care, among others. In all these, utmost and efficient care must be accorded to a patient at the right time and as expected. This is in order to reduce or altogether avoid further complications, which may arise in the process. It would be negligence on the part of a health professional if patient care is not provided at the stipulated time. Complications may arise as a result of negligence or incompetence in the line of duty (Rodney & Starzomski, 1993). Having a case of nurses responsible for providing patient care arriving late each day to attend to patients is disheartening. Patients should be attended to within the stipulated time without delays as their health is paramount. Such nurses may cause additional pain to patients. This paper is going to assess the effects on patient care of nurses arriving late to the duty. Discussion Effect of nurses arriving late for duty on patient care The act of nurses arriving late for their duty to accord proper patient care to the patients may lead to non achievement of goals in the medical sector. The primary goal and objective of patient care is to assist patients recover or those with terminal illnesses, supportive care that minimizes the challenges they face. When nurses decide to report late to assess the conditions of patients, there are chances of making the whole process of patient care a failure. In such instances, patient recovery goals may not be achieved as expected or as planned (Mitchell 2001). This is because; the nurses may find out that the condition of a certain patient deteriorated before they arrived for check up. As changes can be abrupt in ailments, a little delay may lead to complications which could otherwise not have happened had the responsible personnel arrived on time. An example is a diabetic patient who may be having challenges injecting insulin in the body. As glucose tests are to be carried out regularly, and necessary measures taken depending with the results, any delay in administering the right treatment can easily cause complications (Wagner 2000). Such patients may suffer from diabetic related complications if nurses continued to arrive late for work. Nurses administering patient care must be within points of call so as to take care of any eventuality arising from the ailments. This trend of nurses arriving late for duty may also strain the relationship between the nurses and the patients. Under patient care, the relationship between a health professional and a patient is extremely vital. This is what is emphasized as it assists in ensuring quality care is maintained. When a patient and a health professional are in good terms, the health profession would be at ease knowing that any changes felt by the patient would be easily communicated. This would assist health professionals to administer relevant medication to the patient (Health-EU 2012). In such a scenario, a patient would always feel free to speak of any development to a health practitioner concerning health. Patients at such instances feel loved and appreciated and this feeling enhances quick recovery as patients look forward to heal. On the other hand, this relationship may be constrained, thus making procedures harder and recovery challenging. A patient in dire need of recovery would easily feel unappreciated if the concerned practitioner reported to work late regularly. Such patients would feel the nurse has no concern over their health and relationships would be constrained. Such patients would feel uncomfortable opening up to any medical practitioner concerning any development in their health. Such patients would feel there is no need to speak about their current state of health to the nurses having concluded they are not valued by the said nurses (Boseley 2009). These constrained relationships are a hindrance to the attainment of patient care goals which are to enhance speed recovery of patients through quality deliverance of health services. The act of nurses reporting to attend to patients later than stipulated may lead to compromised health care. Patient care is supposed to be associated with quality and efficient health care to patients. Quality health care may be compromised by the trend of arriving late than expected in the sense that; once the nurse arrives late, time may be limited to perform all the premeditated tasks. This would greatly strain patient care therapy as a nurse may be forced to overlook some procedures due to lack of enough time (MedicalMalpracticeHelp 2012). Patients require enough time with health practitioners so as to have a thorough medical examination. Limited time with a health professional translates to less time to perform a though examination, which may lead to some symptoms being overlooked, which could later bear diverse repercussions. Patient care should always be about providing quality and efficient health care to patients in a bid to promote healthy strategies in the health sector. The act of nurses arriving late takes some hours away which could have been used to spend ample time with a deserving patient in the hope of promoting patient care views and objections. Patient care may turn to be a legal battle ground due to the tendency of nurses arriving late for duty. Patients may decide to take legal action against the nurses as a form of seeking justice after feeling neglected. Leaving patients unattended for longer periods of hours may promote hard feelings against the responsible personnel whereby patients may decide to take legal action. This would make patient care program an entanglement of wrangles as patients seek legal assistance for having to stay long without assessing care. Patients may seek legal assistance quoting negligence as the nurses may be neglecting their duties by reporting late. Bearing in mind the amount of care most patients need, it would be right assuming that nurses have neglected their duties to provide health care services to those that are in dire need. Patients should not be left unattended for long spans of time and when they take legal action, it would be in seeking their right to proper medication. Nurses have been sued in the past and this is usually unappealing as it is unethical for nurses to neglect their duties (Faye & Levine 1965). Nursing ethics dictate that they should serve without negligence, observing efficiency for the benefit of the patient. An example to show the effect of reporting late on patient care is a case involving a heart ailment patient. Such a patient requires regular undivided attention so as to ascertain the health condition (Effective Patient Care 2012). In such a case, a heart attack is prevalent and can occur without notice. Something is bound to go wrong when a nurse has not reported to watch over the patient within the stipulated hours. At such a time, there is a chance of the patient suffering complications and eventual death in such an environment may be inevitable. Such a nurse would be held responsible for the death of such a patient despite the fact that the patient was suffering from a heart disease, which could lead to death anytime. Another nurse was taking care of a patient suffering from postoperative complications after falling from his fourth floor window as he tried to climb down using an improvised rope. He sustained back injuries and was admitted in hospital to be discharged days later to continue receiving further help from his home. A nurse was bestowed the responsibility of administering care to the man as he continued to rest at home. One day, the man started showing signs of hypertension and tachycardia while the nurse was away, although the nurse was supposed to be present at the time of these occurrences. By the time the nurse arrived, the patient lay motionless and the nurse assumed the patient was sleeping. Hours later, after the patients showed no signs of movement, the nurse found out he had died. It emerged that some of the symptoms the patient revealed were caused by the prescribed medication to the patient. Had the nurse been there at the specified time, there was a greater chance of noticing the developments and take necessary action. These examples show that the trend to report to work later than the expected time may translate to more hours in courts of law as patients decide to take legal action against the said nurses. The patient care program may lose credibility if those assigned the duties of enhancing patient care. Such an institution of prestige as health should be respected considering the responsibilities that should be served. The moment patients learn that nurses are taking too much time to attend to the patients who are supposed to receive medical attention; patients care may decide not to rely on nurses especially on away-from-hospitals programs. Patients would want a program where their needs are met by personnel who appear confident and happy to carry out their duties. There arises a problem when the people chosen to take care of ailing patients start showing signs of neglect or dissatisfaction with their duties (Harris, Richards & Fincham, 2006). This trend by such health professionals would be a morale breaker on patients who have to rely on the services of nurses for their recovery. Nurses arriving late to conduct patient care do not project a good image to the patient and the family. The family of the ailing patient needs attention and information about the progress being made by the patient. The family also needs assistance on how to handle the ailing family member and inspect how the members are handling the patient. By the virtue of reporting to work late than the expected, there may be a chance where a patient may administer incorrect dosage without the presence of a supervisor. This would cause further complications in the medical field as families try to live with the condition of the family member. This shows that the tendency of nurses reporting to work late than stipulated can cause relations in the family constrained (Peterson 2006). This would cause the families rethink seeking the services of nurses to administer patient care. Anything happening to an ailing family member as a result of absenteeism of a nurse or late reporting to duty, may constrain family relations. The fame associated with patient care as a form of taking care of those ailing people among the healthy would be diminished. The mere fact of reporting to duty late may be taken to mean lack of seriousness among the nurses involved. This may be taken to mean that the nurses are not concerned with their responsibilities and this may start raising questions among those who have been seeking their services. Once a caretaker shows mixed signs, one may be forced to seek for alternatives as there appears to be no surety of gaining from such an undertaking. Patient care would be eyed with contempt, as people take time to assess all available options before deciding to engage in the services of nurses to offer patient care. This would paint a grim picture in the services of patient care and would eventually lose faith with the masses. Patients and families of ailing persons would want a place where their needs are met without appearing to beg for the services. Health professionals should be willing to follow their code of ethics which acts as a guide. Ethics would lead any professional in any field as it dictates what should be given the first priority. The life of the patient should always be in the mind of a health care provider and the moment this changes, there are a lot of questions to be answered concerning what the intentions of the health care professional are. Care should always be taken to ensure patients are given the first priority in the services offered (Seago &Ash, 2002). Furthermore, nurses are there to offer medical services to the ailing persons. Any change or deviation for such an endeavor leaves many questions unanswered. Patient care may just end up being a gamble where people pay to have nurses taking care of their patients, only for the responsible health professionals coming to dispense the required services much later at the discomfort of the patient, and family members. People may conclude that patient care services are just for making money and this would diminish the respect usually given to this department. It would appear that no seriousness is bequeathed the welfare of patients, whose recovery and entire health should matter most, especially to the health care providers. Encountering such predicaments, patient care would lose value on the eyes of the public as people try to deal with the repercussions brought about by lack of seriousness on the nurses. Nurses arriving for work late than expected may prompt additional costs in taking care of the patients in the sense that, persons related to the patient may seek other ways to get the same assistance or better than dispensed by the nurses. This additional assistance is to take care of the patient’s needs while the nurse is unavailable. Patient care may be reduced to a choice of last resort. This trend by the nurses may change the way people viewed patient care permanently. There would be need for patient care to be redefined and to redefine their goals and principles so as to understand the needs of patients. Some of the principles of patient care include; appreciating the vitality of, while showing the capability of providing patient information. Another objective of patient care is the ability to identify the different emotions shown by a patient and effectively attending to them. The need to recognize how a nurse’s response is emotionally toward a patient is vital. This requirement carries a lot of weight as there is a need from the nurse responsible for dispensing care to clearly recognize how patients expose their emotions. Recognizing one’s response to a patient emotionally would go a long way to gauge the relationship between the health care provider and the said patient. These emotions are brought about by the way the nurse treats the patient in terms of conversation, and general handling. A nurse who is arriving late than expected may be unwilling to demonstrate the prerequisite ability to provide with information about the patient. By arriving late, the nurse may be missing some vital information concerning the patient in question which is contrary to the requirements of patient care. The patient may be in an agitated mood when the nurse arrives caused by the nurse’s delay and this may cause friction between the health care provider and the patient. This friction will affect the effectiveness of passing information from the patient to the nurse which assists in giving an evaluation of the patient’s progress. This trend of nurses reporting late for their duties in patient care may prompt the emergence of incompetence in patient care. In patient care, the nurse should be able to execute history, as well as, the physical dexterities to the ailing person (Thomas 2011). These tasks are performed in line with managing time. Managing time in patient care is paramount as it enhances promotion of efficiency. Efficiency is paramount in patient care as there are no allowances for making errors which may prove expensive or even fatal in the long run (Cheung 1997). One way to ensure there is efficiency in patient care is by ensuring there is enough time to conduct necessary tests and evaluations on patients. Enough time would be acquired by ensuring nurses arrive before, at, or within the stipulated time without fail. Arriving hours later drives the issue of time management farther from the objectives of patient care. When a nurse is under pressure due to limited time allowance, there are probabilities of making errors (Unruh, Fottler & Talbott, 2003). Errors may be in the inability to make correct observations to the patient’s reception to medication, or in collecting and filling of patient information, among others. Patient care as a program taking care of the sick may be under scrutiny from relevant authorities when such news about nurses not managing time properly considering the subjects here are patients. Patient care may be investigated; an issue that may make it lose its projections and social standings. Things change drastically when a program or organization starts attracting the long arm of the law. The issue of nurses reporting to work late where patients are concerned is not a matter to be taken lightly bearing in mind that people’s lives are concerned. Once lawsuits get into any organization, the organization is viewed from a different point as it may emerge to have been inconsistent with its goals and objectives. Companies either private or public offering patient care services may be investigated in an effort to ascertain the legality of the services offered by the companies. The moment such cases arise, the probability of such companies or organizations losing funding are high. Some of these companies are funded so as to hire the necessary staff to dispense care to the ailing persons. This may change drastically when such incidents start to rise, whereby, funding is abolished. Some of these employees may be suffering from bad treatment from their seniors hence feel demoralized when working (Greene & Monahan 1981). Conclusion Patient care is very paramount in the lives of patients as they seek medical care. They have to be protected and their safety is guaranteed as they undergo treatment at their points of care (BCM 2011). This service to dispense care to these patients should be done in a way that is free from errors, negligence, and incompetence. Efficiency should be target anytime care is given to patients as this care determines the recovery or fail of the patients. Health professionals responsible for carrying out this task should observe the code of their professional ethics (Caplan, Light, & Daniels, 1999). There seems to be problems though, in the patient care sector especially when the said patients do not seem to get the required attention from the assigned personnel. Patients need undivided care and attention and those responsible for administering care should be willing to perform these responsibilities without fail or prejudice. Negligence comes in many forms and reporting late to work is a form of negligence where one can be accused of neglecting their duties . (Harris, Richards & Fincham, 2006) These nurses, on the other hand, may be suffering from lack of motivation which may lead them to have low working morale. All employees have to enjoy whatever they do, otherwise, there may arise a time when discomfort sets in. Discomfort may arise from lack of motivation and appraisal (Hitt 2011). This reduces the morale of workers, who may start neglecting their duties which they earlier cherished. All workers need to be treated fairly by their employers so that they can give their best and in return, achieve maximum productivity (Cho 2001). Employees are assessed with the level of productivity they achieve and if it low, then there is a problem in the way those employees are treated. References BCM, 2011. Patient care at its best, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, [Online] Available at http://www.bcm.edu/patientcare/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2012] Boseley, S., 2009. 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