Managing Caring for Adults with Acute Health Care Needs - Essay Example

?Managing Care for Adult with Critical/Acute Health Care Needs The health of a person is a vital aspect that should be given ultimate attention. Thisis especially directed to people who have critical conditions. These are people that need constant help since they are not able to perform numerous activities. For example, some people that have acute conditions may not be able to walk from one place to another (AAOS Orange Books, 2010:7). Since their mobility is a problem, they will needs assistance from family members and any other person that is around. This also calls for ultimate attention from medical practitioners since they know how to deal with such conditions. For example, such conditions require constant medication (Foreman, Milisen and Fulmer, 2009:12). In addition to this, the conditions may require medicine that boosts the body’s functionality. As such, the medicine is vital in maintaining a person’s stable health. However, if this is not given maximum attention, the affected person may not get better in the meanest time (McGuire and Costa-i-Font, 2012: 256). Similarly, if maximum attention is not given to such persons they are likely to develop other complications which are associated with the infection. This could lead to further deterioration of the health of the person and in bizarre incidences, it could lead to death. When managing a sick person, there are a number of actions that should be involved in ensuring the health of the person is stable. First, there is a need to take a keen look at the person’s daily development. This is a critically ill person and needs constant attention. The critically ill person is not in a position to take care of his own health. Therefore, it is a prudent approach by the management to ensure the person is taking the stated drugs as per the prescription. The drugs are useful in ensuring his health is back to normalcy. Without such an approach, the person is likely to miss taking the drugs. This will be detrimental to his health as it may worsen. For instance, when the drugs are not administered at the right time, the functionality of the body will not be at its optimum. This could lead to cropping up of other opportunistic diseases, which will put his health in a quagmire. The second role in the management of the sick person was ensuring the person had substantive exercises and had a balanced diet. A sick person needs exercise and food just like any other person. This is to help the body recuperate to a better health. The food ensures the body organs are working properly and are helping the body to attain the much needed energy to stabilize the person’s health. However, when this is not done, the person is likely to get malnourished. As such, the person will lack energy to perform some activities on his own. For instance, a sick person that lacks energy will be adversely affected as he may not be able to move from one place to another. Similarly, the sick person will be affected in that he might not be able to feed himself. Exercises are equally important to a sick person. Exercises help the person to maintain a stable body balance as the metabolic activities are enhanced with exercises. Similarly, exercises enable the person to be active and get involved in some of the healthy activities which include socialising. Lastly, there was a need for constant evaluation of the person. This would help in noting the development in his health status. It is known that some diseases are likely to affect aging people in the society. These people have been through a number of issues and the complications may have been developing in the body though they were unnoticed. As such, old people are likely to have complications as compared to young people that have not gone through the conditions in life. This paper focuses on a 56 year old man who has a number of health complications. Initially, the man was admitted to hospital after constant complaints of shortness of breath. This was followed by a record of high respiratory rate and low saturation of oxygen in the body. The aging man also had productive cough which was characterized by thick and creamy sputum (Atkinson, 2007:16). This prompted doctors to take several tests on the man and discovered that the blood cells count in the body were low. However, the patient’s C - reactive protein was low and he was discovered to be Pyrexic. Professional medical practitioners discovered that these were signs of sepsis infection. The doctors evaluated the patient’s condition and stated that the condition was community acquired pneumonia. This is a condition that should be approached with urgency and promptness in terms of treatment. Delay in such an instance could cause dire consequences. Therefore, the doctors decided to take action before it was too late. To begin with the doctors decided to make several medical procedures to ascertain the condition and how it can be managed. Without such an approach, the doctors can give the wrong approach to the patient, which could lead to inappropriate treatment (Fairchild, 2012:18). Inappropriate treatment could worsen the situation as the body might react differently to the medication that has been given. The practitioners started with the management of the airway. This is a physical procedure that involves a number of activities done by professionals who have high sensitivity. First, the doctors have to listen to the patient’s chest and check for cuff leak. They also have to check the length of the endotracheal tube to ensure all the parts are functional and in good state. This will also include observation of the holder to ensure it was secure. All these procedures are carefully executed devoid of any mistakes. Making simple mistakes in such a procedure could worsen a patient’s situation. The ostensible purpose of the endotracheal tube is to assist a patient that is incapable of breathing individually without any help. However, there are some other reasons for using the endotracheal tube. The Endotracheal tube is used to hold the patient’s trachea open. This is the party commonly known as the windpipe. Keeping the windpipe open ensures there is free flow of air into the body of the patient. In addition to this, keeping the tracheas or windpipe open ensures there is ample space to remove mucus that is stuck in the patient’s lungs (Boyd, 2005:16). It is an admissible fact that when mucus is stuck in a person’s lungs, it is almost impossible to breath. Therefore, provision of such equipment will increase the chances of removing the mucus and paving way for passage of air. Similarly, the endotracheal tube is used to help a person to cough individually. The medial actions and practices were vital in ensuring the person was in stable health. However, some of the family members were brought back by some of the actions and procedures that were induced on the sick person. For instance, using the tubes in administering drugs and opening the endotracheal tract was a bizarre incident that they had never encountered. Though this was a normal procedure in the medical practice, the family members were not used to it. This sent chills of fear in them, but they were convinced that their family member’s health would improve with time. Apparently, this 56 year old patient needed optimum care and assistance to regain better health. Therefore, there were a number of strategies that were advice. First, there is need for constant observation and recording of the changes in the patient. If there are any other anomalies, then the medical practitioners should be informed. Noting any anomalies in the meanest time ensures the patient is given treatment at the right time (Pozgar, 2004:13). Secondly, there is need to provide special mouth care. The mouth is a special organ that dictates on the healing process. Therefore, when the mouth is given great care, it is possible that the patient will get better in the meanest time. For example, when the mouth is given optimum care, the patient is likely to get well sooner since the patient will be feeding on hygienic food. Similarly, mouth care helps in improving a patient’s appetite. When the patient has an appetite for food, the patient is likely to feed occasionally, which will improve the health. These clinical skills were vital and they convinced the medicals that they were b=necessary to help the person maintain stable health. Without these clinical skills, the situation would have been worse. For better health, there is a need for Selective decontamination of digestive tract (SDD). This is a procedure that is common in critical patients that have critical illnesses (Weitz, 2012:24). SDD is a procedure that includes applying antibiotic paste on the mouth, to the throat and the stomach. Similarly, it involves applying antibiotics into a vein in the patient. This improves the environment of the patient and prevents any further infections to the patient (Jared, 2008:11). Most of these patients are in the intensive care unit while others are critically ill. As such, they have little to do in concern to their hygiene. Therefore, it is a prudent idea to maintain their hygiene in high standards. This will improve their environment which will be free of any infections. However, when managing such a critically ill person, the management should have increased the number of medicals that were working on this person. For instance, more specialised medicals should have been contacted to improve the situation in a more elaborate manner. At times, it is not easy for a patient to take medicine on his own. The patient is weak and is not in a position to take medicine and pass it through the throat. This is a hard task especially when the patient has gone through a tough time during the sickness. As such, medical practitioners have to make a point in ensuring the patient is given the best care. For example, when it is practically hard for a patient to take medicine, the medical practitioners have an option of nasogastric medication (Kanack, 2009:17). This is a type of medication where the doctors use the Nasogastric tube for medication. In this procedure, the doctors take the Nasogastric tube and inserts the plastic tube though the nose of the patient. The tube is carefully inserted unto the mouth of the patient until it connects to the throat. The tube is then carefully passed through to the stomach. This makes it an easy task to give the patient medication as the tube will facilitates easy movement of the medicine to the stomach. This eases the work done by the patients as the patient will only wait for the medicine to work, though the patient has not been involved in taking the medicine (Surviving Sepsis Campaign, 2012:15). This is the same procedure that was done to the 56 year old patent as the situation at some time was not favourable for individual medication (Terry, 2012:18). This helped in ensuring the patient was responding to treatment form the medical practitioners. However, after a series of these procedures, the patient started to respond to treatment appropriately, with each medication recording an improvement. The patient needs regular testing to ascertain any improvement in his health (Roccapriore, 2003:8). This calls for occasional testing on the samples released by the patient. As such, there is need for regular sputum samples obtained from the patient. This will keep the doctors in constant reflection on the changes in the health of the person. Similarly, there is a need to keep repositioning the patient (Kuruvilla, 2007:21). This will prevent pressure on one side of the body, which could lead to pressure ulcers and DVT. In addition to this, the patient requires nutritional support. This helps in recuperation as the nutrients help ion strengthening the body after the sickness. This is an experience I learned from this situation. This patient needed special monitoring, which was continuously done each hour. This was done to keep accurate data on any occasions, changers and health issue that are occurring. Secondly, there was a need to reflect on the DOH recommendations to ensure the ventilator-acquired pneumonia was reducing (Lynn and Milbank Memorial Fund, 2004:31). This would prepare the patient to attain better health while in the facility. In addition to this, there are some other activities that improved the health of the patient. For example, there was constant need for chlorhxadine mouthwash, DVT prophylaxis, Gut prophyslaxis and PPI protein pump inhibitor (Hindle, Coates and Kingston, 2011:12). All these process were vital in maintaining the health of the patient as it was in constant medication. However, without such medical practices, the 56 year old patient would not have regained better health. There are a number of actions that should be taken in ensuring professional and personal development and learning. First, there is need to use evidence based practice in most of the situation. Using evidence based practice notes the problem in a person’s health and gives the possible solutions to such problems. Secondly, there is a need to specialize in various areas of practice. Specialisation ensures a person is enhanced to deal with the stated situations. Lastly, there is a need to keep a keen evaluation on the patients and note improvements in their health. This will assist in ensuring a person’s health is stabilized in the meanest time. References Lynn, J. & Milbank Memorial Fund (2004) Sick to death and not going to take it anymore: reforming health care for the last years of life, London, University Press. Hindle, A., Coates, A. & Kingston P. (2011) Nursing care of older people, London, Oxford University Press. McGuire, A. & Costa-i-Font J. (2012) The LSE companion to health policy, London, Edward Elgar Publishing. AAOS Orange Books (2010) Emergency care and transportation of the sick and injured [with access code], Oxford, Jones & Bartlett Learning. Atkinson J. (2007) Advance directives in mental health: theory, practice and ethics, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Boyd, J.H. (2005) Being sick well: joyful living despite chronic illness, London, Baker Book House. Fairchild, S. (2012) Pierson and Fairchild’s principles and techniques of patient care, London, Elsevier Science Health Science Division. Foreman, M.D., Milisen, K. & Fulmer, T.T. (2009) Critical care nursing of older adults: best practices, London, Springer Publishing Company. Jared, P. (2008) Nurse: a world of care, London, Emory University. Kanack, S. (2009) Effectively managing patient education: going beyond the joint commission requirements, London, HCPRO Incorporated. Kuruvilla, J. (2007) Essentials of critical care nursing by Kuruvilla, Oxford, Jaypee Brothers Publishers. Pozgar, G.D. (2004) Legal aspects of health care administration, London, Jones & Bartlett Learning. Roccapriore, M. (2003) Caring for the sick and elderly: a parish guide, Oxford: Twenty-Third Publications. Surviving Sepsis Campaign (2012) International guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock [online], viewed 06 May 2013 from . Terry, A.J. (2012) The LPN-to-RN bridge: transitions to advance your career, London, Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. Weitz, R. (2012) The sociology of health, illness, and health care: a critical approach, Manchester, Cengage Learning. Read More