A Compassionate Healthcare in ICU
Added on 2021-06-17
17 Pages4744 Words57 Views
Leadership ManagementMaterials Science and EngineeringHealthcare and Research
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1A compassionate healthcare in ICU unitsThe Name of the StudentThe Name of the CourseThe Name of the ProfessorThe Name of the SchoolThe City and State where it is locatedDate
2A compassionate healthcare in ICU unitsIntroductionWorking in a hospital is a serious business. Nursing takes an understanding, quick and intelligent thinking, time, and total dedication to achieve the level of advanced skills required forthe job. It is a way of getting involved in a healthcare industry and handle patients on an individual level. This is heavily based on a caring culture which can be termed as a professional practice in an innovative environment aimed at improving patient and commu7nity health. Having had a chance to work at The Royal Melbourne Hospital in the ICU ward for a period of one year under a trainee program, l was privileged to get a clear picture of what happens behind the closed doors and curtains of Intensive Care Units in hospitals. An ICU is a ward staffed, equipped, and specifically designated to provide observation, care, and treatment to patients withinjuries, complications, trauma, invasive surgery, organ failure, accident victims, illness or potentially life-threatening illness whose recovery is possible into the normal body or mental functioning[ CITATION Net14 \l 1033 ].During the one year at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, there were a lot of gaps in the healthcare service delivery to the ICU patients that took a lot of input to make improvements. I observed that there was a high rate of nurses turnover which resulted always resulted in an understaff challenges due to a high number of patients. This was due to a poor or negative workplace culture that subjected the nurses to stress and pressure as nurses had to handle the patients while juggling with high demands from the management. This had led to a poor engagement of the nurses working without motivating that greatly affected the recovery of patients from the ICU due to the poor health care services they were receiving. Over the year, thehospital had a change in management that strongly invested in a positive work culture that
3transformed the whole healthcare to the patients to great standards (Brauchle and Wildbanner, 2018). Therefore, l strongly advocate for a positive work culture in the ICU units as the key to a quality healthcare culture.An overview of nursing in ICU wardsIn the period of one year at the ICU ward, there were critical decisions, very stressful conditions, and ethical dilemmas that were part and parcel of our daily duties and responsibilities. ICU nursing focusses intensively on all the defined aspects of basic healthcare nursing and support of life, and therefore combine the art of nursing with observation, intuitive interpretation, insightfulness, and the reactions of the slightest imbalance in the patient’s condition (Boev et al., 2015, pp.276-284). In the effort to provide a quality and compassionate healthcare to ICU patients, we faced great challenges with a poor work culture that had a poorly structured healthcare culture (Mealer et al., 2012, pp.292-299). I observed that a patient, for instance, could have their medication given at late hours from the intended time, or their frequentcheck-ups skipped with no one to make a follow-up or bother at all. The expert nurse could makea routine check on the performance of the nurses and treatment of the frustrated patient’s ones or twice a week with a couple of complaints from the patients which were never followed up by the nurse in charge.As a new recruit to the team, l took interest to examine the patients’ view over the healthcare they received at the hospital. I had to stay late and extra shifts in order to connect withthe patients at the ICU unit. To achieve this l had to be attentive to their needs and preferences at all the time l was called upon to provide care. There were those who claimed that had there been a quality healthcare they could have taken lesser time to recover but since the services were averagely given, it took long periods of time to get out of the hospital (Ziebland et al., 2012,
4pp.219-249). For instance, on one of the evenings, a blood cancer was sharing her experience that the worst time at the unit was during the night as the number of the nurses on night shift wasalways very low in comparison to the patient’s number. She explained that getting attended to at night could take a while as the available nurses struggled with fatigue whereby a single nurse attended to more than four patients at the same time. At the facility, below are the challenges thatwere faced in the effort of delivering a compassionate healthcare to the patientsChallenges that faced ICU wards The entire year at the Royal Melbourne Hospital gave a clear overview of the challenges faced by the staff that hindered a quality healthcare to the patients.The nature of nursing work in the ICU unitThe ICU environment could sometime get very hectic and a noisy place that exposed the nurses to all sorts ofstimuli (Breau and Myriam, 2014, pp.16-24). Nursing in ICU was described as a very demanding practice which posed high emotional and physical risks in providing care for very ill patients fighting for their lives. Heavy workload for ICU nursesNurses had a greater responsibility in conjunction with their patients more than other departments at the hospital. This caused a lot of anxiety to the nurses with other different sourcesas such the fear for failing to use various ever-advancing medical equipment well, the anxiety that arises from fear of impossibility of not offering enough support to the patient and their family in times they need it most, and the fear of not recognizing the symptoms and signs that require urgent intervention as quick as possible to the patients. The greatest causes of torment for
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