Patient-Centered Care in Nursing

Safe Patient-Centered Care

Safe Patient-Centered Care refers to the provision of services to patients with key priority of meeting their needs and ensuring that patients are satisfied. Patients are always the center of care for all nurses or doctors (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The main interest and happiness is to ensure that the patient not only gets well, but also is satisfied with the services accorded to him or her. Throughout the Galen’s Program Student Learning Outcomes for the Associate Degree Nursing Program, I have ensured that Patient Centered Care is part of my services as I interact with different patients and coworkers. I have realized that principles of care giving in nursing are adhered to. For this reason, the first aspect that I have integrated into my work is to consider all the team members as caregivers. I have let this known to the coworkers, thus providing the best services to patients. In most cases healing is not instant, which makes it mandatory for one to establish a healing relationship with the patient as a continuous process. In my work, I have ensured that care given to patients reflect their needs, choices and values. Further, I have come to the deep understanding of the fact that information that is shared with the relevant individuals, at the same time gives hope to the patients through the recovery process. This has also included offering patients safe environment, which is peaceful enough to provide emotional support. In some instances, family and friends have been instrumental in assisting with some information or other areas when offering these services.

One of the examples of my experience in offering safe patient centered care is when I was attending a cancer patient in one of the hospitals in town. The patient had been hospitalized for three weeks and was to be discharged at the end of the fourth week. However, she felt that she had stayed in the hospital too long and, therefore, was not willing to stay any longer. As a nurse, I was tasked to ensure that the patient would not escape from the hospital. I gently talked to the patient and showed her the need to stay calm and wait until her time of discharge. She accepted and formally discharged after one week. She would call back and appreciate the services I offered to her.

Caring Behaviors in Nursing

Caring behaviors are referred to as those traits that are found in nurses while serving patients (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Nurses are expected to behave in a caring manner that shows they mind their patients. Some of the basic caring behaviors that should be exhibited by nurses include being a good listener, exercising some attention, comforting patients, being honestand respectfull, giving information for patients to make their decisions, showing responsibility and patience, calling patients by their names, demonstrating sensitivity by touching patients while talking to them (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). In my first experience on a ward of forty patients, I was able to create a good relationship with all of them and mastered their names within a week. This is essential for a nurse as it helped me in having easy time serving the patients.

Communication Techniques in Nursing

Communication, which is sharing of information from one person to the other using an appropriate media, is important in the nursing profession. It is important for a nurse to realize that the patient is the most sensitive person to deal with (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Therefore, knowing how to apply communication skills and techniques is crucial. The basic aspects of communication such as timing, media, and accuracy, among others need to be applied. One example is when I had an experience with a deaf patient in the hospital. Unfortunately, I was not aware that the patient had a hearing disability. He was supposed to take some water after a meal. However, I tried to explain why this was necessary. After I knew that he did not understand me, I requested for an interpreter with whose help I apologized to the patient.

Clinical Judgment in Nursing

Clinical judgment refers to a well-informed decision made by a nurse after an elaborate process of observing, reflecting and analyzing available or observable data or information (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Nurses should always make sure that they make a well-informed decision that is unquestionable. This is critical in avoiding mistakes while serving patients. In my practice, a patient who was hospitalized for child delivery happened to be HIV positive. However, she did not know about her status when coming to the hospital. As a nurse, I decided not to inform the patient as she was in her labor pains. The news of her status would be revealed later after giving birth. This helped to avoid instances of death of the mother, child or both, due to shock.

Collaboration in Nursing Practice

Collaboration is vital in nursing as without it, one cannot be in a position of offering qualitative services to the patients. Collaboration refers to working as a team in all areas to ensure efficient service delivery. These include the assumption of responsibilities, solving of problems, communication, setting of goals and so on (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The main purpose is the customer’s satisfaction. It is a core element in healthcare organization and services. I recently realized that there was no good collaboration in the hospital that I was attached to offer services. The higher management was not in touch with the lower levels, which created a disconnection. As a result, one would hear some complaints almost on a weekly basis. Services would as well be affected thus not satisfying the customers. An example is when the situation of a patient deteriorated after it was realized that the surgeon was not around. The nurse in charge tried to contact the office but the reply took long to come by. This caused the patient to be transferred to another hospital.

Leadership in Nursing

Leadership is the ability of one to influence others to follow a given course of actions. As indicated above, success in nursing is subject to the amount of collaboration exercised by the parties concerned. One element of leadership in nursing is service to excellence (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). A nurse should ensure that she is committed to the core purpose and has passion for the profession. Accountability is also important to nursing leadership. One should as well be able to work in a team and prioritize important aspects of nursing profession such as service, quality, people and growth (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Healthcare values should be the drivers of leadership. In the health facility that I worked, I was able to convince fellow colleagues not to start the cold strike, but rather engage the management solving issues. As a team leader in a group of twenty nurses, I convened a meeting and emphasized the need to respect nursing values and keep in mind the suffering patients.

Conclusion

The practice in nursing has taught me a lot, especially in upholding the values entrenched in the code of conduct. The above experiences played a key role in my career pursuit, enhancing service delivery to patients.