Minimizing Risk in the Older Adult on a General Ward - Essay Example

Minimizing Risk on the Older Adult in a General ward Minimizing Risk in the Older Adult on a General ward. The paper will highlight on the experience gained while taking care of the elderly people in the hospital and precisely in the general wards. According to the Hecht, (2006) it is important to keep patients information confidential while handling hence the paper will alter names to ensure that the clients information does not get to the community. The paper will lay more emphasis on the importance of mitigating risks imposed on Andrew while admitted to the hospital. At last the paper will tackle the necessary information, skills and strategies that can be used in the process of mitigating the effects of the patients cares risks (Logan & Angel 2011). The knowledge required to ensure that there is adequate care of these clients, should be drawn from a multidisciplinary team. Risk management is the process that is ensured at mitigating the occurrence any preventable incidences in a hospital setting or any other institution. Some of the potential risks that can be alleviated include patient injuries, financial loss and patient accidents. The process of risk management involves identification, assessment and prioritisation of the identified risks. After that, there is application of resources on the activities to monitor, minimise and control the impact and probability of unfortunate events taking place. Notice of certain events (NOCE) guidelines educate that students should report to the board in case an event took place. This will be termed as an offence hence calling for performance or conduct action taken against the client. On the other hand Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) guidelines are also used to reduce the number of errors that can occur in the hospital most of the errors are emanating from poor medication practices and patient care have been taken care of in the guidelines. Thus, these guidelines are very crucial in risk management since they are geared towards deterring the occurrence of such unwanted incidences. The elder people who have more than 65 years are predisposed to a number of conditions that are degenerative or as result of their degenerating systems (Petty 2009). To begin with, as one gets older, their immune system’s ability to protect them from diseases keeps deteriorating hence keeping the elderly in the danger zone. At the same time, patients suffer neurocognitive deterioration due to old age, which reduces their ability to reduce to take care of themselves. Some of the conditions developed is reduced hearing and visual problem and development of dementia as a whole. Andrews as a patient should be aware of the developments and guide the friends and relatives among significant others (Tran & Johnson 2010). The most important process in the nursing care provision services is to receive adequate information on the progress of the patient. The information obtained at this stage will ensure that the previous care of the client has to be considered in the continued care of the client. This will be useful in determining the effects of the previous care and ensure that a more productive regime is maintained. If wrong information is captured and used in the management of the client, then that will lead to harming of the client and causing injury in one way or another (Junttila et al. 2007). I was asked to provide my nursing services to Andrew who was seventy years in the ward. Andrew had problems that has been because of poor self-care old age. He was admitted with angina and cancer of the colon. The client is transferred from bed to chair by the help of assistants on requesting. The prolonged hours of seating on a wheel chair, will have to affect a number of other body systems more the musculoskeletal system (Dumas & Ramadurai 2009). He lost confidence in self after falling two years ago, hence braking his ribs, which is the reason, that he must have assistants taking care of him. In fact, the care of self and client gave me an opportunity to explain to the clients on the importance of medical care as opposed to their own wish. As the severity of the illness and pain continued to get worse, Andrew refused to eat and drink. This would easily results to the patient’s developing malnutrition and dehydration in the process. To prevent the development of these conditions, my mentor and I had to reassess the nutritional status of Andrew by using the convectional assessment tools likes Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. After the assessment, the patient had to seek the services of a dietarians for better management and improvement in the health status (Pillay 2010). Andrew had to be monitored on a weekly basis taking into account the efforts 0f Andrew in maintaining good health. Lastly, to maintain the comfort of Andrewes which is part of management, my mentor and I assessed the patient’s pain by using abbey pain scale and administered pain relief drugs (Fetter 2009). Having mental illness, Andrew had to be admitted in a bed that was close to the nurse’s station and ensure that there were minimal injuries. At the same time, he had tested positive of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. Hence he has to be isolated to prevent the cross infecting of the cognition to other patients. Moreover, I used personal protective equipment to protect myself in case I wanted to provide services in his room. I had to handle the personal protective equipment used with a lot of care to avoid cross transmission. I had to utilise the national health guidelines. I had to ensure that the environment and the equipment used on Andrew did not pose any danger owing to the fact that he had this methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (Tomey 2009). I learned that it is the obligation of hospital nurse to ensure that they identifies the risk factors of the patients. We had to follow up the clients and ensure that they were fairing on well. I managed to gain a lot of experience in the adherence of patients to medication and how to ensure that they maintain it (Pillay 2010). However, it is important that the client be served to maintain their comfort. I served a number of issues that Andrew was suffering. The experience, gave me the opportunity hence I will be able to handle such cases in case they are once again. The wards rations together with the mentor is one of the most important parts in the management of students while studying. They get an opportunity for one to learn on new developments in the health care sector. It increases exposure of the client, it gives them hope of getting better when a painting of the mentally ill client (Khan & Bhatti 2008). Conclusion Concisely, interacting of clients at the hospital set up is a great deal since it opens up one to a myriad of expenses in the process. It gives one independence to make vital decisions that can be used to determine the continued care of a client. At the same time, the experience was a revelation. It made how fatal they can be and me aware of the major incidences in the hospitals. Together with my mentor, I learned a lot which would be very useful in my service provision in the future. Hence, I am likely to be able to identify risk and develop guidelines on mitigating them timely. Reference list Dumas, L.G. & Ramadurai, M., 2009. Pain management in the nursing home. The Nursing clinics of North America, 44, pp.197–208. Fetter, M.S., 2009. Curriculum strategies to improve baccalaureate nursing information technology outcomes. The Journal of nursing education, 48, pp.78–85. Hecht, S.S., 2006. Cigarette smoking: Cancer risks, carcinogens, and mechanisms. Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery, 391, pp.603–613. Junttila, K. et al., 2007. Data warehouse approach to nursing management. Journal of Nursing Management, 15, pp.155–161. Khan, M.M. & Bhatti, M.I., 2008. Islamic banking and finance: on its way to globalization. Managerial Finance, 34, pp.708–725. Logan, P.A. & Angel, L., 2011. Nursing as a scientific undertaking and the intersection with science in undergraduate studies: Implications for nursing management. Journal of Nursing Management, 19, pp.407–417. Petty, W.C., 2009. PACU-Why Hand Washing Is Vital! Journal of Perianesthesia Nursing, 24, pp.250–253. Pillay, R., 2010. Towards a competency-based framework for nursing management education. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16, pp.545–554. Tomey, A.M., 2009. Nursing leadership and management effects work environments. Journal of Nursing Management, 17, pp.15–25. Tran, D.T. & Johnson, M., 2010. Classifying nursing errors in clinical management within an Australian hospital. International Nursing Review, 57, pp.454–462.  Read More