Effective Healthcare Services For Patients: A Nursing Perspective

Framework for offering quality healthcare services to patients

Discuss about the Drug Therapy Protocol for the Administrating Atorvastatin for the Treatment of suspected Wound Infections.

All the patients deserve to be provided with the utmost quality of healthcare service that can help in improving the health and facilitating the recovery process. To achieve all this, the nurse has to dedicate the time and be ready to attend to the patient by prioritizing the needs and putting them primary at all times.  A nurse who is interested in leaving a positive impact on the life of a patient must observe all the professional and ethical codes of conduct governing the nursing discipline. That is what will make Mavis to receive quality care that will facilitate her recovery. Meaning, the nurse attending to her must be ready to effectively communicate to her, involve her participation, respect her cultural views, assess and evaluate her condition effectively before making a decision on the right kind of intervention and treatment to offer her.

Mavis came to the healthcare facility to seek for medical attention because she was in a dire need of it. From her medical history, it appears that the woman has been battling type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, her major challenge is that she has not been managing her condition as expected because of her poor way of compliance to medication and dietary requirements. Therefore, to assist her, the nurse has to have a well outlined care plan which indicates all the activities that will be undertaken when attending to her.

The first thing to be done to the patient is the carrying out of an assessment. Here, the nurse will have to carry out a physical examination, blood tests and any other necessary examination that will enable the nurse to get enough information about the status of the patient. The information from the assessment should be used alongside the health history from the electronic data record for the patient (Rajith, & Ravindran, 2014). For the nurse to do this well, he will have to be patient enough to carry out all these procedures because they are quite informative and will provide all the information that is needed. The only good thing is that is that Mavis is conscious and able to talk. What is now required is her cooperation which the nurse must be ready to earn by employing effective interpersonal skills.

Once the assessment process is effectively done, the nurse will have to come up with an appropriate implementation plan that suits the patient. Since the patient had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus, the most appropriate intervention to give her will be the prescription of the atorvastatin (Ha, Baek, Cho, Hwang & Kim, 2014). It is the only drug that the patient requires because it is capable of helping her to manage the wounds and the ailing condition. The patient should be given this drug because it is the medication used for the people who have a risk of contracting heart attack. It can also be used for the patients who are at risk of stroke and want to reduce the amount of High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density Protein (LDP), and other fatty substances. The drug suits the patient because it will be administered orally (Jahangiri, et al., 2016). Meaning, the patient will not find a challenge using it.  However, to ensure that the intervention is a success, the nurse will have to come up with an evaluation plan to monitor its effectiveness. Since the patient has a history of incompliance, the nurse will have to come up with a plan to ensure that she complies with all the medication conditions such as dosage, diet, and administration (Shayanfar, Ghavimi, Hamishekar & Jouyban, 2013). 

The story of Mavis and how to handle her case

Nursing is always a challenging endeavor because it involves a wide range of activities. Whenever a patient goes to a nurse, the nurse has to perform many activities because each of them is essential in the treatment and recovery of the patient. This is exactly what Mavis expects when she visits the healthcare facility to seek for the services of a nurse. Therefore, to assist her holistically, the nurse has to execute her responsibilities well.

The first responsibility that a nurse has to communicate well with the patient because the overall success of the treatment process depends on the way they communicate. Effective interpersonal communication is a key component of the treatment process because it creates a healthy relationship between the patient and a nurse. The nurse, therefore, has a challenge of demonstrating her interpersonal communication skills such as critical listening, appropriate use of non-verbal signs, and proper use of verbal skills to pass a message to the patient (Kaushal, Kern, Barrón, Quaresimo & Abramson, 2015). At the same time, the nurse has to be respectful because it means a lot to the patient. To be respectful simply means that the nurse should respect the opinion of the patient no matter how conflicting it might be.

The other obligation that the nurse must execute when attending to Mavis is the appreciation of her cultural values especially regarding health matters. From her records, Mavis appears to be a member of the indigenous community. She belongs to the category of people who still do not appreciate modern medication because it does not resonate well with their cultural traditions (Peter, 2017). When she comes to the healthcare facility to seek for medical intervention, Mavis can only be content if she is served by the nurses who respect her culture. Hence, to appeal to her and win her confidence, the nurse will have no choice but to respect, tolerate, understand, and appreciate the cultural values of her indigenous people no matter how conservative, superstitious or unique it might be (Truong, Paradies& Priest, 2014).

Last, but by no means the least, the nurse attending to Mavis will have to e ready to discharge her educational roles. Apart from the assessment, examinations, and prescriptions, the nurse will have to educate the patient and teach her everything that she needs to know regarding her condition and whatever action she should take to deal with it. The first lesson that Mavis should acquire is that she should know about the type 2 diabetes mellitus from which she suffers (Silva, Zanin, Vicentini, Corat & Fatibello-Filho, 2014). The nurse should tell her everything to do with the management of the condition and how she should engage in physical exercises, use recommended diet, and work in collaboration with the medics. The other thing that the patient should know is about the usage of the atrvastatin that has been prescribed for her. The nurse must ensure that the patient knows about the right dosage, method of administration, and the reasons why she must comply with the medication directives (Birks, Cant, James, Chung & Davis, 2013).

Conclusion

Mavis’s case is a complicated one. Her medical records show that she has not been complying with the dosage and dietary requirements for her diabetic condition. Besides, she is a member of the indigenous community which still holds certain superstitions as far as the matters of modern health care are concerned. Therefore, to effectively serve her and address all her needs, the nurse has to come up with a well organized healthcare plan that suits her. In the efforts to provide her with the requisite assessment, implementation and evaluation procedures, the nurse should ensure that she embraces the use of effective interpersonal communication and multicultural approach to attend to the patient and put her in the right path to recovery. 

References

Birks, M., Cant, R., James, A., Chung, C., & Davis, J. (2013). The use of physical assessment skills by registered nurses in Australia: Issues for nursing education. Collegian, 20(1), 27-33.

Ha, E. S., Baek, I. H., Cho, W., Hwang, S. J., & Kim, M. S. (2014). Preparation and evaluation of solid dispersion of atorvastatin calcium with Soluplus® by spray drying technique.

Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 62(6), 545-551.

Jahangiri, A., Barzegar-Jalali, M., Garjani, A., Javadzadeh, Y., Hamishehkar, H., Asadpour- Zeynali, K., & Adibkia, K. (2016). Evaluation of physicochemical properties and in vivo efficiency of atorvastatin calcium/ezetimibe solid dispersions. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 82, 21-30.

Kaushal, R., Kern, L. M., Barrón, Y., Quaresimo, J., & Abramson, E. L. (2015). Electronic prescribing improves medication safety in community-based office practices. Journal of general internal medicine, 25(6), 530-536.

Peter, R. K. (2017). Essentials of Managed Health Care. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Rajith, B., & Ravindran, A. (2014). BSA nanoparticle loaded atorvastatin calcium-a new facet for an old drug. PloS one, 9(2), e86317.

Silva, T. A., Zanin, H., Vicentini, F. C., Corat, E. J., & Fatibello-Filho, O. (2014). Differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of nanomolar levels of atorvastatin calcium in pharmaceutical and biological samples using a vertically aligned carbon nanotube/graphene oxide electrode. Analyst, 139(11), 2832-2841.

Shayanfar, A., Ghavimi, H., Hamishekar, H., & Jouyban, A. (2013). Coamorphous atorvastatin calcium to improve its physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties. Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, 16(4), 577-587.

Truong, M., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2014). Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews. BMC health services research, 14(1), 99.