Caregiving

How vital is care giving to your patient?

Care giving plays an important role in taking care of the patient. It teaches the basic but essential things one needs to know while handling a sick person. Care giving covers almost all of the things that are practically done by a caregiver or a home nurse. It is really important to be given to a patient since it will make the patient comfortable, leading to a fast recovery. 

Care giving suggests and teaches ways that can really promote comfort to a patient like how a patient's room should be, changing the position of the patient, helping the patient to lie down and sit up, attending the patient's personal needs, helping him/ her dress up, how to feed the patient properly, and what are the appropriate activities a patient should most likely do even if he/ she is sick. All these things are being covered under care giving. This is how vital care giving is to a patient. All the necessary and basic things or care needed by a patient is being introduced, discussed and explained by care giving.

4Ws and 1H

BANDAGING

1. WHAT is it?

Bandaging is a treatment given by a home nurse or a caregiver to someone who is injured or is experiencing uncontrolled bleeding.

2. WHEN should one apply a bandage?

As stated earlier, bandaging will be used for emergencies when someone is injured or has uncontrolled bleeding. Usually, bandages are applied to restrict a certain part of the body from moving too much for it not to feel pain. Bandages are also used for sprains and strains.

3. WHERE is a bandage usually applied?

Actually, it can be applied in any part of one's body. It can be applied in the arms and legs, the chest, the head. As long as these parts are injured or have bleeding.

ILLNESSES

4. WHY is there a need for one to consult a doctor immediately if he/ she is not feeling well?

One should not just simply ignore the feeling he/ she is going through. This may be an indication of a certain illness or disease. If one experiences certain symptoms of a certain disease, he/ she should consult the doctor and tell what he/ she is undergoing. One should not just simply base what he/ she is going to do from his/ her own knowledge. Doctors will take care of you and they know better than you, that's why you have to consult them.

5. HOW are signs and symptoms helpful to a person?

If a person has a good background knowledge on these things, and if he/ she is having certain symptoms of an illness, then they have already set this mindset that they have to ask for a doctor of what it is since a simple cough or fever may lead into a greater danger. It is better for one to go to a doctor immediately and not wait for these signs and symptoms to worsen. That is why background knowledge on signs and symptoms comes in handy if one is experiencing them.

Making a Bed

1. Why do we need to know how to make an unoccupied and occupied bed?

We need to know how to make an unoccupied and occupied bed in order to keep the patient comfortable. Making the bed and the sheets will help one learn how to avoid having creases which may irritate the patient's skin. 

2. How does making a bed help in the fast recovery of our patient?

The proper arrangement of the bed can actually make the patient feel comfortable. if the patient will feel comfortable and can rest well, then the patient will not have any stress and can recover fast. if the bed is unprepared and there are creases formed, the patient may feel irritated and uncomfortable, thus, he/she may not rest well. This may slow down the process of the patient's recovery

3. As a good home nurse, how will you be able to render your services to your patient through bed making?

Through the bed making, I can render my service of comfort. Since I already have the basic background of the dos and don'ts in bed making, I know that I will be able to meet my patient's needs for rest and that is in the form of bed-making.

Bathing the Patient

1. Why do you need to give a bath to the patient?

I need to give bath to a patient since giving the patient a bath will help him/ her feel refreshed, it will help stimulate blood circulation in the body, and of course, giving the patient a bath will keep his' her body clean and this will help in his/ her fast recovery.

2. What are the materials needed for bed bath or sponge bath?

The materials needed for a bed bath or sponge bath are rubber sheet, 2 big towels, 2 small towel, a basin with warm water, soap, and a light blanket.

3. What’s the importance of using a urinal or bedpan?

If a patient is expected to be bedridden, the urinal or bedpan is of utmost help. It will be a very great inconvenience for a bedridden patient to try to stand up and walk towards the bathroom to pee. The urinal or bedpan is very important here since this would really minimize the great effort of the patient to go to the bathroom and it will be more convenient to use bedpan or urinal.

4. What do you mean by back rub?

Back rub is actually a back massage that relieves muscular soreness and aids in some healing process.

5. How do you differentiate cold compress from hot compress?

A cold compress uses towel with wrung-out cold water to relieve pain or inflammation. A hot compress uses a hot compress cloth or hot gauze to relieve congestion.

Home Nursing Techniques

1.  If you are a good home nurse, what are the various home nursing techniques that you need to apply that will make the patient feel comfortable and speed up the recovery?

As a good home nurse, I must know and learn how to make an unoccupied and occupied bed, how to take vital signs and how to bathe the patient. The techniques will my patient feel more comfortable since these things don't exert much effort for the patient to move and if the patient will feel more comfortable, then it will help in the fast recovery.

2.  Why should the home nurse monitor the vital signs of the patient?

A home nurse should monitor the vital signs of the patient to know if patient is sick and to how sick the patient is. Taking the vital signs is important because this will help a home nurse determine if the patient needs to be rushed in the hospital and taking the vital signs can help determine if there are any 'abnormalities' in the patient.

3.  How do you take the body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure of the patient?

In getting the temperature, a thermometer is used. In taking the pulse rate and blood pressure, a sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope is used.

4.  What are some practices that the home nurse must follow that will promote comfort to the patient? 

A home nurse should practice how to make an occupied and unoccupied bed since proper preparations are really important since I learned that if the sheets have some fold, it can irritate the patient. A home nurse should also practice how to bathe a patient.

5.  How will you differentiate signs from symptoms of illnesses and diseases?

A sign is observable and measurable. One can easily see and know if someone is sick since there will be something visible to be noted that there's something wrong with a person. A symptom is not observable but it can only be felt by the person who experiences them.

6.  If you are the doctor, what will be your basis in giving the diagnosis for your patient?

If there will be signs of some illness that my patient possesses, I will try to moderate my patient and ask him about what things he/ she is experiencing (symptoms). After some time, if this continues, then I should give a proper diagnosis to my patient after a proper examination of the illness my patient possesses.

Administering of Medicine to Patient

From our discussion, administering medicine to patient play an important role in making the patient feel much better. A home nurse or not, one should have enough background knowledge about this topic. Knowing this, one can be a great help in case he/ she meets someone who feels that he/ she needs some kind of help in what medicine to choose. This topic has been very helpful to me. It helped me understand the essential role of administering medicine to patient.

Proper administering of medicine to patient can help the patient feel much more better, thus making the recovery fast. One should take note of the important things when administering the medicine. First, one should know the right medicine to be taken by the patient. If you would give a medicine that is not appropriate for the patient's sickness or what have you, the person's condition would definitely worsen. Second, remember to only give the right amount of dosage and right approach. Excess amount of dosage can worsen the condition and lack of dosage will not be very effective in alleviating the person's sickness. Third, remember to take the medicine at the right time. Fourth, right route. Lastly, the right patient. If you are going to give a medicine for toothache for someone who has has headache, the medicine will not take effect and may worsen the person's condition. So, it is important to know to whom you'll administer the medicine.

In administering medicine to patient, one should remember the in important things mentioned above. In a simple way, a person, no matter how young, can already be helpful to his/ her own community. it pays to know this information. In the future, if ever one gets sick, you can save money if you'll know what to do and if you have the knowledge  of what medicine you'll buy. And who knows? You might be a future nurse or doctor.

Image sources:

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Introduction to Home Nursing

Why do you think health care to the individual, to the family and to the community is important?

This was a question asked on us when we were discussing Home Nursing. I believe that this was my first time to really discuss thoroughly the highlights of Home Nursing and highlights of being a home nurse. I usually think that when someone is sick, there should always be a doctor present or a professional nurse to attend the sick. But due to this discussion, I was able to learn that there could someone who is called a 'home nurse'. Also, from this lesson, I learned about the highlights of home nursing and health care and its significant role in an individual, in the family, and in the community.Actually, there are many reasons of why health care is important, but for me these are the reasons.

To an individual, health care is really important because, a person in not proper condition may have trouble of dealing the things that he/ she is supposed to deal. Being sick or in a bad condition can interfere with a person's activities which maybe really important to a person's life. A person may not be able to think properly since physically, the person is experiencing pain. A person may not work properly and do his/ her job well since the body is not really working and does not coordinate very well.

To the family, it can mean less expenses and closer ties. As a family grows, there will be more and more expenses to be paid like the bills for water and electricity, the tuition and school supplies for the kids, and the daily needs like food and clothes. If a member in the family gets sick, the family will have to spend more money than usual and this may create financial problems. So, staying healthy can be a big help to a growing family. Another thing is, the family can have more time to have HAPPY bondings. If one sick, usually the family worries a lot and stays by the patient's side, momentarily asking of what he/she is feeling. Instead of using the time to have outings or other forms of bondings, the family is stuck in hopelessness waiting for the patient to recover. So, health care is important for the family.

To the community, having a proper health care can lead into productivity within and among the community. If one person in the community is sick, usually, the other people can be also affected by the sickness. they may catch the sickness and this will disable them to be a productive member of the community. Another thing is, having a proper health care can make each member of the community responsible after their own health and discipline  for their proper hygiene.

Card

Over the Christmas break, we were asked to give a card to our parents or guardian/s. This is to show that we appreciate what they've/ he/ she has done for us. So, that's just it.

My letter was a thank you and somehow a sorry letter too. I wrote this kind of card because, I wanted to show that I am grateful for what they did for me and I would like to say sorry for the times I've been such a pain. Truth is, sometimes, it's hard to hard to distinguish what I'm showing to them and what I'm actually feeling for them. Sometimes, I can't show nor tell them that I'm really thankful, so I just act it out. So, when the card happened, I think it was a great opportunity to deliver my parents a message I liked to express.

After giving the card to my parents, I felt happy and light since I got to make them smile just because of my simple doing. It brought me the feeling of contentment and happiness.