The Patient in the Family diagnoses the ways in which the worlds of home and hospital misunderstand each other. The authors explore how medicine, through its new reproductive technologies, is altering the structure of families, how families can participate more fully in medical decision-making, and how to understand the impact on families when medical advances extend life but not vitality.
"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.
This one-of-a-kind guide offers easy-to-understand explanations, advice, and management options for patients or parents of patients with cystic fibrosis. The book explains the disease process, outlines the fundamentals of diagnosing and screening, and addresses the challenges of treatment for those living with CF. As one reviewer said, this book “is the only complete answer book for everyone living with the disease. It is an indispensable resource for families of children with CF, adolescent and adult patients, and physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and social workers involved in the care of CF patients.”
ICU events are not uncommon but knowing what to do when a loved one is placed there is. This work explores the ICU with an eye toward guiding families to getting the best care for their beloved patient Intensive care will touch almost all of us at some point – whether directly, or through our families and or friends. This book is for every family of patients in the ICU, who have suddenly entered an intimidating and alien world, in which they feel powerless and out of control. In simple, direct language, Lara Goitein, MD, gives clear explanations of all aspects of intensive care – what all those lines and tubes are; common conditions such as sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); physical changes in patients and what they mean; common procedures and their risks and benefits; and the people and the culture of the ICU. One full section of the book is devoted to Covid-19-specific issues. In addition, the book provides concrete advice for how family members can be effective advocates on behalf of their loved ones –what to know before giving consent for procedures, how to interact with ICU staff, how to help the ICU team guard against common complications of ICU care, and how to approach important decisions about end-of-life care. Along the way, the author gently reminds of us of what, in the end, matters most in the ICU. For readers who may be distracted and exhausted, this is a clear, accessible guide with concrete recommendations for getting the best care and asking the right questions along the way. A compassionate resource in a time of extreme stress, this book offers support to anyone touched by an ICU stay.
Good healthcare is about more than making a diagnosis and giving the correct medical treatment - the experience of those going through the system is hugely important. As a result, the use of patient stories or “narratives” in learning is gathering significant support and interest. This is a collection of such narratives from children and from the parents of children with a range of long-term or complex conditions. They would be useful for medical students and instructors, but also for anyone working for children with chronic and complex conditions, including nurses and other allied health professionals, as well as psychology students. There are also essays on points arising from a parent and from those involved as a tutor and as a student. A free sample chapter is available via the Downloads / Updates tab on our website.
Designed to help students learn how to create nursing care plans and effectively document care, this practical book focuses on the nursing plans that are most important, ensuring that students learn what they need to know and that they can find the information they need easily without being distracted by irrelevant information. Packed with easy-to-understand information and focused on helping students develop critical reasoning skills, this respected text presents the most likely nursing diagnoses and collaborative problems with step-by-step guidance on nursing actions and rationales for interventions. More than 85 nursing care plans translate theory into clinical practice. This exciting revision includes special risk consideration icons called “Clinical Alert” (derived from the most recent IOM report) that integrate patient-specific considerations into each care plan. Other enhancements include a streamlined format for easier use; new care plans for maternity, pediatric, and mental health nursing.
Brian Boyle tells a personal story of his fight back from near death after a horrific automobile accident. He focuses on his experience as a patient who, while in a two-month long medically induced coma, was unable to move or talk to anyone around him, yet he was able to hear, see and feel pain. Brian slowly clawed his way back to the living and found the strength to live to tell his story in his acclaimed memoir, Iron Heart. Now Brian provides vital information from the patient’s perspective to help caregivers gain valuable insight that will help them understand new ways on how to provide care to both patients and their families. By completion of this book, the participant will be able to: Recognize the variety of feelings and emotions of the patient Identify simple methods and interventions to provide emotional support to relax the patient Determine the importance of particular amenities to a patient who may be unable to communicate Evaluate patient life-history to determine appropriate intervention techniques Understand the motivational role that communication has between the healthcare provider and the patient and his or her family Brian’s story about catastrophe, survival, and transcending all odds has implemented new and innovative strategies for improving patient safety and quality of care on a national level, as well as serving as a learning experience for healthcare providers of all levels and backgrounds. When it comes to the patient experience, Brian has become a mouthpiece for the voiceless.
America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009-roughly $750 billion-was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.
Imagine: You are a hospital Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, medical or nursing director, patient safety specialist, quality improvement professional, or a doctor or nurse on the front lines of patient care. Every day you’re aware that patients and families should be more engaged in their care so they would fare better both in the hospital and after discharge; their care could be safer and more seamlessly coordinated; patients should be ready for discharge sooner and readmitted less often; your bottom line stronger; your staff more fulfilled. You enter into new payment models such as bundling with an uneasy awareness that your organization is at risk because you don’t know what the care you deliver actually costs. Like most healthcare leaders, you are also still searching for a way to deliver care that will help you to achieve the Triple Aim: care that leads to improved clinical outcomes, better patient and family care experiences, and reduced costs. Sound familiar? If so, then it’s time to read The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare through Co-Design. This book explains how to introduce the Patient Centered Value System in your organization to go from the current state to the ideal. The Patient Centered Value System is a three-part approach to co-designing improvements in healthcare delivery—collaborating with patients, families, and frontline providers to design the ideal state of care after listening to their wants and needs. Central to the Patient Centered Value System is seeing every care experience through the eyes of patients and families. The Patient Centered Value System is a process and performance improvement technique that consists of 1) Shadowing, 2) the Patient and Family Centered Care Methodology, and 3) Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing. Shadowing is the essential tool in the Patient Centered Value System that helps you to see every care experience from the point of view of patients and families and enables you to calculate the true costs of healthcare over the full cycle of care. Fundamental to the Patient Centered Value System is the building of teams to take you from the currents state of care delivery to the ideal. Healthcare transformation depends not on individual providers working to fix broken systems, but on teams of providers working together while breaking down silos. The results of using the Patient Centered Value System are patients and families who are actively engaged in their care, which also improves their outcomes; providers who see the care experience from the patient’s and family’s point of view and co-design care delivery as a result; the tight integration of clinical and financial performance; and the realization of the Triple Aim.
