Individual Nursing Care Research Articles

Individual nursing care for senile patients with Parkinson's disease and constipation

目的 探讨老年帕金森病患者便秘的个体化护理措施及效果.方法 对35例伴有便秘的老年帕金森病患者采取有针对性的个体化护理措施,观察效果并与一般护理组进行比较.结果 35例存在便秘的老年帕金森病患者,经个体化护理后,显效20例,有效13例,2例无效,效果优于对照组.结论 个体化护理措施可有效预防和缓解老年帕金森病患者的便秘。

Health Diplomacy through Collaboration and a Story of Hope in Tsunami-Ravaged Banda Aceh, Indonesia: A U.S. Public Health Service Nurse Officer Perspective

As a registered nurse, I have witnessed the powerful influence of bedside care for > 10 years. Yet my experience aboard the USNS Mercy--the first interagency deployment designed to provide humanitarian assistance to tsunami-stricken Indonesia--revealed a direct link between individual bedside care and health diplomacy. Despite desperate medical and humanitarian needs in the province of Banda Aceh, the Mercy was met with suspicion and resistance by the Indonesian government. In the first few days, it seemed uncertain that the Mercy would be asked to assist in any humanitarian capacity. The Mercy crew and staff agreed only to assist at the request of the Indonesian government. Ultimately it was the emergent medical needs of a 10-year-old survior, evacuated to the ship by Australian and German organizations, which established the seeds of health diplomacy between the United States and Indonesia. This article explores the ways in which health diplomacy can be fostered by individual medical and nursing care, through the story of one young survivor of the East Asian tsunami. My experience of compassionate and culturally centered care aboard the USNS Mercy touched the hearts and minds of care providers and, ultimately, won the trust of local government officials and the people of Banda Aceh.

Factors Related to Stress in Outpatients with Permanent Colostomies

The main purpose of this study was to explore factors related to stress in outpatients with permanent colostomies, using a convenience sample. Subjects were selected from one medical center in southern Taiwan. The Stress of Colostomy Patients Scale and demographic data were collected using questionnaires either at the colorectal outpatient department or in the home of colostomy patients. Seventy-three subjects with colostomies participated in the study. Other diseases and caregivers of colostomy patients influenced overall stress in outpatients with permanent colostomies. The five major stressors were: "I have urination problems"; "I feel tired easily owing to physical decline"; "I can't travel freely because of my colostomy"; "I worry about recurrence of the disease"; and, "I suffer from insomnia". This study provides important information for assessing the stress level of outpatients with permanent colostomies and for developing nursing assessment tools for colostomy patients. To alleviate the overall stress of colostomy patients and to help them return to the activities of daily living before the operation, health care professionals could design individual nursing care plans based on data from assessment tools.

Alternative therapies for the holistic care of the HIV/AIDS patient

The holistic nursing care of individuals infected with HIV/AIDS involves promoting psychological and physiological well-being as well as fostering socio-cultural relationships and supporting the fulfilment of spiritual aspirations.
 
 Opsomming
 Die holistiese verpleegsorg van individue met HIV/VIGS behels die bevordering van psigologiese en fisiologiese welsyn, sowel as die bevordering van sosio-kulturele verhoudings ten einde geestelike strewes te verwesenlik.
 
 *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.

Psychoanalysis in Psychiatric Institutions - Theoretical and Clinical Approaches

The paper presents historical remarks about psychoanalysis in institutions with a special focus on the contributions of nurses working in psychoanalytic settings. A case report of the forensic psychotherapy ward in Reichenau Mental Hospital, which is organised as a therapeutic community, shows how individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy and special nursing care contribute to significant progress in the treatment of a severely narcissistic arsonist.

Striving for becoming at-home in the midst of dying

Research interviews with 12 patients at an inpatient, free-standing hospice in Sweden were analyzed, using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach, to show the effects of individual nursing care as experienced by the guests. The findings revealed that the effects of, and reactions to, nursing care were inseparable from the hospice milieu and the patients' situation, which was interpreted as including the prospect of becoming homeless. Thus, the effects of hospice spirit (nursing care and milieu) as experienced by these hospice patients represented the contrasting possibilities of hindering--or contributing to--the prospect of becoming homeless. What the patients spoke about was either a consoling or a desolating hospice spirit. A consoling hospice spirit supports experiences of wholeness and communion, i.e., becoming at-home in the midst of dying, while a desolating hospice spirit results in feelings of alienation and fragmentation, i.e., feeling homeless. Considering the dying person to be a guest rather than a patient is an important component of Swedish hospice philosophy and supports the view of the dying person as an autonomous and dignified human being.

Charting Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves analyzing data and making judgments about patient conditions, progress, and nursing interventions. Critical thinking forms the basis for quality documentation. As nurses' expertise in critical thinking grows, nurses can record how the unique considerations for each patient guided individual care and resulted in positive outcomes. Emphasizing individual nursing care and patient outcomes from that care helps meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) standards and gives nurses credit for their expertise. Techniques of critical thinking supported by advanced critical care nurses can lead to improved documentation for entire nursing units.

Acute intermittent porphyria: a nursing case study

Nursing care for a patient with AIP can be challenging. AIP is a complex disease with various signs and symptoms and is often misdiagnosed. Recognition of the signs and symptoms of AIP could be life-saving. Ways to avoid exacerbations, as well as counseling regarding possible genetic transmission, are important aspects of the nursing care of individuals with AIP.

The Peyote Way: Implications for Culture Care Theory

The development and provision of culturally sensitive and meaningful nursing care is a challenging yet essential element in our rapidly changing health care environment. This article describes the use of the theory of Culture Care to assess, understand, and plan care for an aphasic Navajo man who followed very traditional ways. It is an example of how nursing praxis can be applied to a clinical setting. A description of a Navajo peyote ceremony serves to illustrate the importance of incorporating traditional healing practices into nursing and collaborative care for individuals from diverse culture backgrounds. It also describes how the participation in the Native American Church benefitted the client and his family. By using the Culture Care theory, the authors were able to make predictions about the influences of a culture specific expression, the peyote ceremony, had on the client's care.

HIV-patients self-evaluated health and functional status. Basis for individually-adapted nursing care planning

The first case with HIV-infection in Sweden was recognized in the beginning of the nineteen eighties. Since then 2972 cases have been identified. The purpose of this study was to investigate HIV-infected patients' perception of their everyday life situation. Two questionnaires were used: Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) and one developed for the purpose of this study. Twenty patients, mean age 44 years with T4 cells, crucial for the immunological status, ranging from 0.15-0.2 x 109/l at a research unit participated in the study. The HIV patients investigated had high SIP-scores as compared to healthy controls. Thus the patients perceived their everyday health related behavior as impaired. The functions related to work, recreation-pasttime and sleep-rest were most impaired. Those who still were working and had had no physical impairments also evaluated their general health as being better as compared to non workers. The study, even when a small one, showed that the health related behaviors of these patients have a large individual variation. Therefore it is important to develop individual nursing care for this group of patients.

The recognition and non‐recognition of problem‐solving stages in nursing practice

A requirement for high-quality individualized nursing care is that nurses must recognize and attempt to solve patients' health problems. In this study, it was decided to investigate problem solving using a model similar to the nursing process derived from the general literature. Insight into nurses' perceptions and understanding of problem solving was gained by interviewing 116 nurses using vignettes of clinical problem solving. Data analysis revealed that many informants failed to discuss some problem-solving stages, in particular planning and evaluation. Conversely, problem assessment and implementation attracted more comment. The implications for these variations in nurses' problem-solving behaviour are examined in relation to contemporary nursing issues.

A QUESTÃO DA APLICAÇÃO DE TEORIAS/MARCOS CONCEITUAIS NA ENFERMAGEM: RELATO DE EXPERIÊNCIA NA UFSC.

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de discutir a viabilidade da aplicação de teorias de enfermagem na prática. Para tal, organizamos o conteúdo a partir da discussão sobre teorias em geral, sobre teorias na enfermagem e sobre teorias de enfermagem. Em seguida discutimos a aplicabilidade das teorias de enfermagem e compartilhamos algumas experiências de aplicação de marcos de referência (teóricas ou conceituais) na assistência de enfermagem a indivíduos, famílias, grupos e comunidade.

Solving patients' information problems by the nursing process and collaboration between the medical and nursing staff. Part II. A study of how the system functioned.

ABSTRACT A system for assessment and solution of patients' information problems was studied. The system is a modified nursing process with built‐in collaboration and communication between medical and nursing staff, including individual nursing care plans for information. The effects on patients' satisfaction with received information were evaluated together with the staff's functioning in the system. Data were collected by a questionnaire sent to patients, estimations by physicians and from the nursing records. An improvement of patients' satisfaction with information occurred for medications, examinations, and their results a year after the study started. The interviews on admission were not entirely satisfactory. A planned problem‐solving process did not occur. New norms for patients' need for information were established and a process of change was initiated.

How do group meetings make a community Therapeutic?

Following an abrupt shift from a therapeutic community with emphasis on group meetings to a hierarchical medical model on a mental hospital floor, disturbed patients required extensive individual nursing care. This increased work load for the nursing staff resulted in admissions having to be limited to the rare cases who needed little or no nursing care. As patients were discharged, the vacancy rate went up to approximately 20% for a week and remained high for another two weeks. Nursing staff-patient relations deteriorated. Subsequently, it was possible to resume the emphasis on the groups of a therapeutic community and to observe the contrast. The experience showed how groups can effect and support a therapeutic community. It clarified some of the mechanisms by which groups positively affected disturbed patients. Some mechanisms by which the staff, community, and group meetings favorably influenced the nursing staff-patient relationship and intrastaff communications became clear also.

A creative approach to individualized nursing care.

A creative approach to individualized nursing care.