Provision of Patient Care - Essay Example

Provision of Patient Care Author Institution Provision of Patient Care Introduction The assistant in Nursing (AIN) is an emergency category of a health care worker in Australia. The primary responsibility of an AIN is to support the registered nurses (RN) and the enrolled nurses (EN) in delivering the general patient care (Hally, 2008). The RN should always supervise the duties delegated to the AIN, and, therefore, the RN retains the overall responsible for the functions delegated to the AIN. A qualified AIN is supposed to have completed the Certificate III in health services assistance according to the Australian mid-wifely board. According to (Hally, 2008), the following are some of the rules that are supposed to be carried out by the AIN in today’s health care system. Roles of an AIN Patient meals: The AIN plays the role of taking care of the patients during meals. This is by positioning the patients safely to receive meals, preparing over bed tables, opening packages as well as assist with cutting up food (Hamlin et al., 2009). He can also involve in physical feeding the patients who are unable to feed themselves and making drinks and make them more comfortable. Daily living patient activities: Assisting the patients out in showering, oral hygiene, hair care, nail care, dressing and grooming of the patients. The AIN helps in observing the much needed essential skin integrity and reporting the patients' skin conditions to the RN and doing facial shaves for the male patients (Hamlin et al., 2009). Patient mobility: The patients who are not able to move require someone to help them move from one place to the other. The AIN contributes to transfer such patients from bed to chair, help them change position in bed and assists the nurses with patients’ transfers and manual handling (Hamlin et al., 2009). It is also the duty of the AIN to re-apply for the anti-embolic stockings for the patients. Patient toileting: This is an important role played by the AIN; there are patients in a health care system that cannot help them to the toilet. The AIN assists these patients by taking them to the toilet, emptying, measuring and recording urine from urine collecting drainage bags and reports any abnormalities to the RN (Hamlin et al., 2009). Records the urine output on a fluid balance sheet and performs a routine urinalysis and reports the findings to the RN. Communication: This is critical role played by the AIN by maintaining confidentiality, dignity and privacy of patients, reporting a conflict to the RN, seeking advice from the RN on how to handle an individual conflict. The AIN assists in demonstrating safety awareness and reporting unsafe issues to the RN. Communicates effectively to the RN when acquiring and communicating clinical information, relays messages to patients and refers patient's inquiries to the RN (Hamlin et al., 2009). Environmental maintenance: The AIN implements infection control standards with all work undertaken, making up post-operative beds and arranging bed linen as required. Maintains cleanliness in a patient's surrounding and assists in restocking the treatment room (Hamlin et al., 2009). General: Assists the nurses in settling patients for sleep, makes up discharge beds, and provides patients’ escorts and patients’ companionship whenever advised by the RN (Hamlin et al., 2009). Applies practical intervention procedure for behavioral problems, attends to simple dressings and takes and records patients’ observations. Documentation: It's the duty of the AIN to ensure that information and data regarding patients are recorded on appropriate charts, it is complete and ensures that organizational policies are adhered to. The AIN reports all incidences to the RN and completes the Advanced Incident Management system forms as necessary (Hamlin et al., 2009). The RN and AIN Improve Patient Out Come and Ensure Safe Practice The role of these nurses is to plan the patient's path through the stay in the hospital, taking them through their admission journey to discharge and finally to the community (Leonard et al., 2004). The combination of the care plan nurses create, the constant observations and assessments and the interventions they perform when things don't go according to the plan are the ones that make a difference to the patients' outcome. A safe quality care requires the health service to have an adequate number of nurses, nurses who are educationally and clinically prepared, a proportion of skills, in terms of the RN, the EN, and the AIN. It should also have a manageable workload for nurses and sufficient resources to enable the nurses to deliver the best possible care (Leonard et al., 2004). Practicing the following will ensure a safe practice and will also improve the patient's outcome health wise. A real relation with colleagues: Nurses should maintain a good relationship amongst themselves so as to operate in a safe health care system and also achieve better patient outcomes (Hamlin et al., 2009). Adequate support services: To achieve the desired outcomes, nurses should offer appropriate support to one another (Leonard et al., 2004). By practicing this, they can solve a particular problem as a team thus giving a better outcome. Time to discuss patients’ problems: This is because they can identify different problems that a patient may be undergoing and in their discussions can give possible solutions. Thus ensuring safety at work and optimizes the patient's outcome (Hamlin et al., 2009). The opportunity to participate in policy decisions: This is a critical issue in providing greater achievements because when all air given an opportunity to chip in their contribution to a decision-making procedure. One becomes more motivated and a part of the project thus optimizing the outcome (Hamlin et al., 2009). A powerful nursing leader: The RN should be a powerful leader and by this he can achieve the set goals by showing others the will and how to go about various problems. The power of the RN affects the efficiency and effectiveness of a health care system (Leonard et al., 2004). An environment that recognizes the work of the nurses: This plays a significant role in achieving quality results in that the nurses are motivated in their work. It enhances security at work because the nurses are aware of their significance in that health care system. A strong organizational support: strong organizational support to the nurses brings about a positive effect on the patients outcome and also plays an important role in ensuring security (Leonard et al., 2004). Nurses play a significant role in surveillance in health care. This means that a nurse can identify and correct a mistake that is done by the physician, the pharmacist or the fellow nurses. This intervention can prevent injury and illness. Responsibilities of a Registered Nurse A registered nurse acts as a medication administrator plays the role of an administrator, assessment and management of client including complex nursing care. A registered nurse also undertakes research programs (Sellgren et al., 2008). The RN should take the following responsibilities when working with the AIN. Monitoring and the assessment of the status of health for health consumer: The patient must have a care plan developed by the patients registered must say who has undertaken a comprehensive evaluation. To delegate the RN must determine the level of skills and knowledge required to ensure safety, security and comfort to the patient (Sellgren et al., 2008). The RN must provide ongoing monitoring of the status of the patient for whom he handles delegation to the subordinate nurses such as AIN. While taking care of the patients, the AIN is should always report to the RN when the patients' responses are less predictable or changing by frequent assessment, care planning, and evaluation (Hamlin et al., 2009). Providing direction: It is the responsibility of a registered nurse to provide direct or indirect guidance in agreement with the nature of delegated activities such as the AIN. He must always be available for timely advice regarding any nursing needs. An appropriately educated and trained RN may direct care across more than one setting if health consumer needs are predictable (Sellgren et al., 2008). Evaluating and monitoring of care: The RN is accountable for assessing whether the AIN executing the delegated jobs maintains all the standards and outcome. The AIN also monitors and evaluates the outcomes of the duties delegated to the AIN. Risk assessment: If the RN has made a judgment that delegation should not be done then he must communicate this to the other health care assistants (Sellgren et al., 2008). The RN handles reporting to the most senior person in the unit to avoid concerns capable of jeopardizing the patients. How the RN can achieve competencies with the help of the AIN The AIN can assist the RN to achieve competencies by doing the following. Ensuring effective communication: The AIN should provide collection and recording of effective communication to help the RN act on it effectively (Lee et al., 2002). The correct information will help the RN to draw effective conclusions on patients thus achieving competence. Proper method documentation: The AIN should ensure that all information collected from the patients is properly recorded so as to have the precise track of the patients' records (Lee et al., 2002). The RN relies on the information documented so as to draw conclusions to the certain situation with patients. Assisting in the patient's daily activities: This is an important role played by the AIN of helping with the patient's daily activities. This is an important role played by the AIN, which helps the RN to achieve competence (Lee et al., 2002). Conclusion In conclusion, it is very clear as per the above discussion that the RN cannot perform effectively alone without the help of an AIN. Therefore in every health care system today there should be a proper working relationship between the nurses which will improve their competencies (Bradbury et al., 2007). There should also be enough resources to facilitate the performance of duties by the nurses. To achieve the desired outcomes and in solving the patient’s problems, there must be a proper working team towards the same. References Bradbury‐Jones, C., Sambrook, S., & Irvine, F. (2007). The meaning of empowerment for nursing students: a critical incident study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 59(4), 342-351. Hamlin, L., Richardson-Tench, M., & Davies, M. (2009). Perioperative nursing: an introductory text. Elsevier Australia. Hally, B. (2008). A guide for international nursing students in Australia and New Zealand. Elsevier Australia. Leonard, M., Graham, S., & Bonacum, D. (2004). The human factor: the critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 13(supply 1), i85-i90. Lee, W. S. C., Cholowski, K., & Williams, A. K. (2002). Nursing students' and clinical educators' perceptions of characteristics of effective clinical educators in an Australian university school of nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 39(5), 412-420. Sellgren, S. F., Ekvall, G., & Tomson, G. (2008). Leadership behavior of nurse managers about job satisfaction and work climate. Journal of Nursing Management, 16(5), 578-587. Read More