Explanation of Quote - Essay Example

One of these is the application of fluid to patients. There are many who have debated on the role of the application of fluids to patients at various times of nursing care. In the view of Gonzales (2008), “Choosing the right fluids at the right time can make the difference between survival and death.” The common implication is that the administration of fluid to patients on timely basis may either contribute to their deaths or survival. In this essay, this assertion opined by Gonzales (2008) is critically assessed using academic and other professional journals and literature on nursing practice.

Explanation of Quote First, it is important to make meaning of some of the major terms used by Gonzales (2008) in the quote. Most importantly is the term, fluid resuscitation. Fluid resuscitation results out of fluid deficit, which also occur as a result of excessive fluid loss in patients with serious ailment. Clinical methods of restoring fluid to patients therefore constitute fluid resuscitation (O’Neill and Perrin, 2002). There are a number of fluids that come to play under fluid resuscitation.

Common among these are blood products, crystalloids, colloids, Albumin, Hydroxyethyl starches, Dextrans, Perfluorocarbon emulsions and Hemoglobin-Based Blood Substitutes (Curran, 2012). For Gonzales (2008) to state that ‘choosing the right fluids at the right time can make the difference between survival and death’ is a direct resonance to fluid resuscitation. Imperatively, she wants to imply that the right application of fluid resuscitation at the right time can save a patient’s life. The logical contradiction to this statement could also be given as the wrong application of fluid resuscitation at the wrong time could cause death.

Having mentioned a number of fluids that may be used in fluid resuscitation, there is the implication that selection is an important process in fluid resuscitation and should therefore not be taken lightly. Again, knowing the right time to apply fluid resuscitation is very important. So if fluid resuscitation cannot be said to be out rightly good or bad unless in context to the manner in which it is applied, then what are the benefits and risks of the fluid options in fluid resuscitation? In the case of Gonzales (2008), the fluid options given are Colloid and crystalloid in trauma population.

Below are some thoughts. Benefits of Colloid and Crystalloid in Trauma Population Trauma is a common situation that health practitioners and especially nurses deal with in their daily duties as healthcare providers. The National Institute of Mental Health (2012) posits that trauma comes in different forms. According to the Institute, there are two major forms of trauma and that “physical trauma includes the body’s response to serious injury and threat whereas mental trauma includes frightening thoughts and painful feelings.

” In most cases, physical trauma cases are those that require fluid resuscitation. On the benefits of using colloids as fluid resuscitators for patients suffering trauma, Kumar and Clark (2002) are quoted as stating that normal saline such as sodium chloride, which is a type of crystalloid “is useful for both short-term fluid replacement and when the fluid lost has been mostly sodium chloride” (O’Neill and Perrin, 2002). This means that crystalloids are very benefitial in cases