Taking Care of African American Women Newly Diagnosed With HIV - Assignment Example

Nursing Theories s Introduction HIV infection is deemed as one of the most dangerous infections in the world. 66% of the HIV infected women in the U.S. are African American (Gaiter et al, 2013). Nurses, as primary health care givers are responsible for looking after the physical and the mental well being of each patient including HIV patients. A nurses’ role in taking of such patients is an essential component of comprehensive patient care. Keeping the target population in mind the nurses need to provide care through environment, address the patient’s emotional needs and build a stable nurse-patient bond. This can be achieved by following and applying a theory for each time of intended care i.e. Nightingales Environment theory to care for the patients’ environment, Watson philosophy and Science of Caring to help build a bond with the patient and Parse human becoming theory to cater to the patient’s emotional and psychological needs. This paper will explore each theory in detail and find its applications in taking care of African American women newly diagnosed with HIV. Philosophy of Theory Nightingales Environment Theory was theorised by none other than Florence Nightingale who is an aspiration for all nurses around the world. Florence Nightingale believed that the nurse was primarily responsible in utilizing the environment and assist in speedy recovery of the patient. This particular theory primarily focuses on taking care of the patient by managing the patients’ environment either at home or within the nursing settings. The theory states that the patients’ environment needs to be altered in such a way that the conditions are optimal for his/her comfort, well being and recovery. The alterations may include ventilation, temperature, air flow, cleanliness, bedding, food, and even offering of word of hope or advice. Posotive changes in one’s environment have a positive effect on the life and well being of a person. The second theory is Watsons Philosophy and science of Caring forms the basis of philosophical and ethical responsibility of nurses. It is the ethical responsibility of the nurse to provide heartfelt care to each and every patient that the nurse comes in contact with. It helps them develop a bond with the patients under their care. The nurses need develop a strong relation by offering dignity, respect and love to their patients. The nurses need to be open to their patient and take care of them with eagerness and warmth and build a caring and protective environment around the patient and guide the patient find inner harmony. The relation maybe made stronger by sharing experiences, offering hope and talking to each other without any ego or other problems. The Parse Human Becoming Theory of nursing will help nurses guide their patients towards emotional satisfaction. The theory focuses upon the quality of life and care provided by the nurses. Meaning, rhythmicity and transcendence are the three prime assumptions of this theory. This nursing model defines an individual person an open being who exists in harmony with the environment. The theory includes the Totality of Paradigm in which it is believed that human beings are made up of biological, psychological and spiritual factors each contributing towards making an individual a powerful entity. Application of Theory Each of the nursing theories finds its applications in real-life clinical settings. Firstly the Environment theory is of most importance as far as the physical well being of the patient is concerned. Deguzman and Kulbok studied the impact of a build environment upon vulnerable population within the framework of the nursing theory. The study showed that proper observation and evaluation of the patient’s environment could be made by the nurses and the probable changes could be suggested to the patient by the nurses since this built environment affects the overall health of the vulnerable population (DeGuzman and Kulbok, 2012). The theory was put into practical use by the staff nurses at Children’s Hospital in Boston who devoted time and patience to understand and identify the things that their patients considered important. The nurses put the patients; in the best environment as an intervention and improved the patient outcome (Curley and Hickey, 2006). In case of African-American women the built environment could be enhanced in terms of cleanliness and spreading awareness about HIV and protection against it. The nurses need to identify if the HIV women are caregiver to infants exposed to the virus and thereby extend care to the child as well. Furthermore the nurses need to educate their patients about the disease and help them prevent further spreading of the virus. Watsons Philosophy and science of Caring helps in establishing a bond between the health care giver and the patient. This theory has been inculcated in the McDowell-Williams caring Leadership model which is based on three tenets: care of patient and family, care of other teams and care of self. Watson’s model helped make “caring” the prime factor of the nursing profession. However the caring theory of Watson today needs to be expanded beyond horizon since the U.S. has evolved into a multicultural pluralistic society and several ethnic minorities are today a part of the U.S. population. The nurses and other health care givers needs to adopt to this growing diversity and meet the cultural demands of the patients they need to care for (Rexroth and Davidhizar, 2003). In case of HIV infected patients the caring model is of utmost importance. Firstly, being diagnosed with a deadly virus is frightening and hence the nurses need to extend sympathy and acre towards the women. Words of hope need to be delivered to ensure that the women do not lose hope. In many cases patients tend to feel ashamed after being diagnosed with HIV, the role of the nurses in such cases is to ensure that the patients do not feel guilty or ashamed. The nurses need to communicate clearly with the women explaining details of the disease and approaches to take care of the problem. They also need to establish a strong bond with the patient by exchanging experiences and stories with their patients in order to make the patient feel comfortable with themselves. Since, the infected population represent an ethnic minority the nurses need to adopt strategies to deal with the cultural population and take care not to hurt or challenge sentiments of either the patients or the family members. To do this, nurses needs to learn more about the ethnic population they are currently dealing with The Parse Human Becoming Theory of nursing caters to the emotional needs of the patients. Every individual has certain emotional needs even if they are not patients. A study explored eight important livid experiences that are of prime importance to individuals of a society and it was seen that respect was one of them (Mitchell and Hlaifax, 2005). Parse’s theory is a strong application based theory which helps patients acquire a philosophical outlook. When combined with Watson’s theory, both the theories maximise their strengths when focussed on comprehensive patient care (Walker, 1996). The Becoming human theory is of substantial importance in case of African American women infected with HIV primarily since the infection leaves the women with feelings of shame, anger and hopelessness. The nurse’s role comes into play here. The nurse needs to cater to the emotional needs of the patient especially when the patient is depressed and seeks attention. The nurse should explain the meaning of existence to the patient and assure the patient that a mere disease such as HIV only affects the physical component but cannot harm the spiritual and other mental components of the patient. The nurse needs to allow the patient to connect with a greater power of self realization. At this stage the women lose all self confidence and hence the nurse needs to inculcate certain behaviour such as respect, love and care when evr she deals with the patient. Similarities and Differences between Theories Each of the three theories that is used in patient care have only one goal i.e. the well being of the patient and optimal health care however the approach of each of the theories is somewhat different. However, in each of the cases, the nurses play an indispensible role in mediating the care. Nightingale’s environment theory is based on making changes to the patients’ environment and has nothing to do with the patients’ thoughts, feelings or emotions. This theory helps in creating a positive change around the patient. On the other hand the other two theories relies mostly on the patient’s inner thoughts and feelings. However even though Watsons Philosophy and science of Caring and The Parse Human Becoming Theory deal with the patients emotions and thoughts they are considerably different. In Watson’s theory it is the nurse who is responsible for creating a bond between the patient and herself. The entire success of this is based on the nurse’s attitude and effort. The nurse through her words and actions can easily make a patient feel loved and cared for without feeling prejudiced. Compared to this The Parse Human Becoming Theory also relies on the nurse’s role in helping the patient realise his self-worth and understand the meaning of his existence and the harmonic relation between his existence and that of the environment around him. However, much of the success of this particular theory depends on the patient himself since even though the nurse is the initial guide, it is the patient who needs to self explore and connect the spiritual and mental components of his biological self. Conclusion Caring is the prime focus of nursing and nurses today need to adopt several strategies in order to ensure quality care to the patients. HIV infected women are vulnerable and are not only physically broken but are also mentally and psychologically devastated which adds to their physical illness as well. Amalgamation of the three theories i.e. Nightingales Environment Theory, Watsons Philosophy and science of Caring and The Parse Human Becoming Theory will help ensure both the physical and emotional well being of the patient and help the patient deal better with her condition. References Curley,M.A. and Hickey,P.(2006). The Nightingale Metrics: Nurses at one institution improved outcomes by putting patients ‘in the best condition for nature to act.’American journal of Nursing, 106 (10), p.66-70. DeGuzman,P.B. and Kulbok,P.A.(2012)” Changing health outcomes of vulnerable populations through nursings influence on neighborhood built environment: a framework for nursing research.” Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 44 (4), 341-348. Gaiter,J.L. et al.(2013). Sisters empowered, sisters aware: three strategies to recruit African American women for HIV testing. AIDS Education and prevention, 25 (3), 190-202. Mitchell,G.J and Hallifax, N.D. (2005).” Feeling respected-not respected: the embedded artist in Parse method research.” Nursing Science Quarterly ,18 (2), 105-112. Rexroth,R and Davidhizar,R.(2003).”Caring Utilizing the Watson Theory to Transcend Culture.” The Health care Manager, 22 (4), 295-304. Walker,C.A. (1996).” Coalescing the theories of two nurse visionaries: Parse and Watson.”J Adv Nursing, 24 (50), 988-996. Williams,R.L. et al.(2011).”A caring Leadership model for Nurses future.” International Journal of Human caring, 15 (1), 30-40. Read More