Hello Class,

Within my tenure as a nurse in Colorado's chronic disease unit, I had the privilege of caring for a patient who was facing complications associated with end-stage kidney disease, ultimately progressing toward the final stage of life. The patient's journey commenced with recurrent urinary tract infections that gradually deteriorated over time, resulting in the emergence of pyelonephritis. As the patient's condition worsened, they started to manifest fever, chills, flank pain, and profound fatigue.

Collaborating closely with the medical team, we commenced a proactive course of action by administering potent antibiotics and diligently overseeing the patient's vital signs and laboratory findings. Despite our best efforts, the infection persisted and evolved into sepsis, placing the patient in a critical condition. This unfortunate turn of events has placed the patient in a critical condition, requiring immediate attention and intensive care. The patient and their family were provided with information regarding the gravity of the situation, and conversations transitioned towards prioritising the patient's comfort and preserving their dignity during their final moments.

As the patient's health continued to decline, the family remained a steadfast source of support, offering emotional solace and actively engaging in care-related choices. During the patient's final hours, I had the privilege of observing the remarkable influence of advanced pain management, palliative care, and the comforting presence of the family. The serene passing of the patient emphasized the significance of managing end-stage complications through a collaborative approach involving various healthcare professionals and effective communication.

This experience has further strengthened my dedication to advocating for the desires of our patients, fostering transparent discussions regarding treatment choices, and delivering comprehensive care throughout the terminal phases of life. As a nurse, I acknowledge the honor of providing assistance to patients and their loved ones amidst difficult circumstances, and I hold onto this knowledge as a testament to the significant impact nurses have in the lives of those they attend to during this sensitive period of end-of-life care.

   

Week 7 Discussion Forum

    

• Although we know you did not complete a full research project, you  completed the research proposal with an idea of what your actual results  could be. If you ever do complete a full research project, an important  step is making sure your research is published/disseminated so that  other nurse educator professionals can benefit from your hard work.  There are many ways to disseminate information in nursing as seen in  your text, including many different nursing journals. As a nurse  educator, you will engage in professional development and find  peer-reviewed information to share with your students. Think about your  proposal and where it might fit if it were published. Describe how you  would disseminate your work and the reasons for your choice.

Hypertension

 

Although nurses take active leadership roles in hospitals throughout the U.S., they are underrepresented on hospital boards. Since a 2011 survey found that only 6%Links to an external site. of board members in 1000 hospitals were nurses (meanwhile 20% were physicians) there has been a push toward including nurses in the boardroom. As part of this push, a national coalition of organizations, including the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), and the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) among 18 other nationally-recognized organizations, has been formed to create the Nurses on Boards CoalitionLinks to an external site., which seeks to implement a comprehensive strategy that will “bring nurses’ valuable perspective to governing boards, as well as state-level and national commissions.” With big players like AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation backing this initiative, it is likely their recommendation that nurses play bigger roles in “improving the health of all Americans” will see mores nurses becoming movers and shakers not only in their field but also in hospitals as a whole.

After completing the required readings identified above, please respond to the following prompt:

Choose one of the ten barriers identified in Addressing Barriers in Leadership for Nurses and search the library databases for at least one quality/scholarly article that pertains to the barrier and discuss/share the findings in the article.  Does the article support or refute the concept of the barrier?  What questions are left unanswered in the article?

Michele Seibler

Yesterday Oct 11 at 8:42am

Option 1

I was a bit unclear on what a bureaucracy was until this week's lesson and readings. From what I understand and according to the text, a bureaucracy is a complex and hierarchal organization where several offices, each with a specific task, have a clear chain of command, and appointment and advancement of personnel are based on merit. A bureaucrat is someone who works for a bureaucracy (Greenberg & Page 2019, pg. 366). Bureaucracies are all around us – the DMV, financial organizations and insurance companies are a few examples. After understanding what a bureaucracy is, I think they can both help and hinder my life. Bureaucracies are something that we need to live as citizens of the United States, but often they have rules and regulations that can be a hinderance in many aspects of our lives. The rules and decisions of bureaucracies seem to be made without the public's best interest in mind, and the public often isn't involved in decision making. They all revolve around money. They are often unclear with the public, leaving people confused and overwhelmed with things they don't understand. It can take months to resolve certain issues or get question answered. Processes that should be simple can be very stressful. John Launer wrote an article titled “Battling Bureaucracy,” which is what it feels like sometimes. He explains how he jumped through hoops with bureaucracies trying to help a friend get money back. One of the things he said a couple of times in the article was “money problems figure more in peoples' lives than medical problems, especially now that we're in a serious cost of living crisis” (Launer 2023). One thing that is a large issue in bureaucracies is communication. These organizations are not good at communicating with the public; it often feels as if you're trying to talk through a wall. You could talk to one representative and have them tell you one thing, then speak to another and find out something completely different. This makes everyday things, like dealing with insurance companies, very stressful and difficult. If these bureaucracies can become more transparent with the public, it would help tremendously and there would be less confusion and frustration. 

References

Greenberg, E. S., & Page, B. I. (2019).
The Struggle for Democracy, 2018 Elections and Updates Edition (12th ed.). Pearson Education.

https://ambassadored.vitalsource.com/books/9780135246863

Links to an external site.

Launer, J. (2023). John Launer: Battling Bureaucracy.
BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online).

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p206

Links to an external site.
 

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