Effective Nursing Practice Assessment 2022

EFFECTIVE NURSING PRACTICE
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ABSTRACT.
Influenza is a seasonal disease that affects individuals especially the young below five years and
the old above sixty five years. It is caused by influenza virus which is a respiratory virus and
commonly affects people in the cold season. Precautions should be taken to avoid spread of
influenza virus from infected to uninfected individuals especially those in large group facilities.

Nurses taking care of aged infected individuals should carry out risks assessment to avoid the
many complications that occur among these people. Multidisciplinary approach to caring of aged
influenza patients is core to the treatment of aged patients in care facilities.
INTRODUCTION.
Professional client-centered nursing care is care given to individual patients according to their
specific needs. The patients are involved in the decision-making process concerning their
treatment and their needs both physical and emotional taken care of by the nurses. To offer
quality care nurses have to therapeutically connect to the patients and understand their cultural
and personal needs. A multidisciplinary approach is at the core of the patient-centered care and it
is useful in the treatment of aged patients. This essay will be discussing what influenza is, how it
is spread and the risks it poses to older people. Influenza infection control precautions, nursing

care and assessment of influenza aged patients, and an interdisciplinary approach to managing an
influenza patient will be discussed.
Influenza is a disease caused by respiratory RNA virus influenza virus. The influenza virus has
three subtypes A, B, C and belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae (Ryu, 2016). Generally,
influenza affects a wide range of people during the cold or winter season. Under Baltimore
classification influenza virus falls in group five which has negative-sense single-stranded RNA
viruses. Influenza is commonly described as flu because of the respiratory and systemic
symptoms that influenza patients present with such as headache, fever, cough, and rhinorrhea.
Influenza transmission is higher when there are low humidity and low temperature. There are
three major modes of transmission that have been identified for influenza and they include
inhalation of aerosols containing the virus, coming into contact with contaminated objects such
as fomites and by directly contacting infected people. Inhalation of aerosols containing the virus
by un-infected person leads to infection through the respiratory route and this happens when an
infected person sings, coughs, sneezes or even speaks (Thangavel & Bouvier, 2014). When an
uninfected person comes into contact with influenza contaminated fomites such as pillows used
by an infected person they can easily get infected too. Spread by direct contact with infected
individuals happens when infected individuals touch un-infected individuals for example when
kissing. The risk to older person describes the dangers that influenza poses among the older
individuals upon being exposed to the disease (Smetana et al. 2018). Individuals aged 65yrs and
above where Mr. Jimmy Holden has an increased likelihood of developing serious complications
compared to healthy younger individuals. Aged individuals have a weakened immune system
that makes them prone to influenza complications such as croup, viral pneumonia, and
encephalopathy, myocarditis, and Guillen-Barre syndrome (Rothberg & Haessler, 2010).