Nursing interventions and client safety at Charters Towers Hospital

Nursing

Clinical Placement Report - Charters Towers Hospital in Queensland, Australia

Describe the complex nursing interventions delivered by the service

In the course of a given day nurses at Charters Towers Hospital will engage in multiple interventions depending on the health status of the patients being treated. Complex nursing interventions used by the service provided at Charters Towers Hospital include interventions related to complex nursing procedures such as: nasogastric/gastrostomy tubes for delivering patient nutrition; catheterizations for ensuring waste elimination; wound care which may include changing sterile dressings;

oral suctioning; stoma care; tracheostomy care to help prevent infection; oxygen therapy to promote proper lung and respiratory functioning; suture line care; IV therapy to delivery medications; dialysis; and barrier/reverse barrier nursing.

Classic nursing interventions delivered by this service also include pain management to reduce pain in patients, which may include non-pharmacological interventions such as icing or applying heat to the affected area (Campbell & Sigsby, 1995). Hot and cold application are commonly used to decrease pain, inflammation and other symptoms in patients (Campbell & Sigsby, 1995). Other interventions include infection protection and control, and management and monitoring of specific conditions.

Describe how the service ensures the safe administration of medications to clients

Medication errors can prove deadly to clients (Meadows, 2003). The service currently adopts multiple practices to ensure that errors resulting from medications are minimized. Examples include use of technology to minimize errors, improving processes and procedures and building a culture within the organization that promotes safety and safe practices (Meadows, 2003).

Studies suggest that more computerized order entry of medications helps reduce errors by limiting interpretation errors due to handwriting (Meadows, 2003). Thus more order entry is involving computers to protect patients. A culture that supports safety and safe practices has also been adopted to provide nursing staff and patients information about drug therapy and medication to ensure that everyone is aware of the need for safe practices when utilizing and dispensing medications.

Describe the strategies used to ensure nursing practice is performed within legal requirements and ethical frameworks

Nurses now "live and work in a world where there is no single reality but many coexisting realities among which they must choose" (Johnston, 1999:1). Given that through more and more nurses are forced to make legal and ethical decisions and take steps that will determine the best processes to adopt to ensure that moral and legal processes are adopted and followed.

Under the Australian Nursing Federation nurses are encouraged to have a clear understanding of patients rights regarding their health care delivery in hospital settings and within the community (Johnston, 199). The guidelines established by this federation provide a guide under which nurses can carry out their interventions in a legal and ethical manner. The guide suggests that nurses have an obligation and duty to carry out and follow patient rights regardless of their own beliefs and opinions, which means patients have the right to the highest standards of care, to select their own medical practitioner, to be informed of treatments, to refuse treatment and more (Johnston, 1999: 453). All nurses adhere to these guidelines to ensure the highest ethical and legal standards are maintained in nursing care in Australia.

Describe how you contributed to the nursing plan of care for a client with a chronic health problem.

A cared for a patient on Oxygen Therapy who was also receiving nebulised ventolin. My role included not only caring for the patients medical needs but also balancing service and ensuring the patients rights and desires were met but also that the patient was educated and provided a practical method of understanding their condition and treatment options.