Nowadays, cancer is still considered to be one of the most dangerous diseases that involve numerous complications and significantly reduce people’s chances to return to normal life even after the expensive treatment. Despite the fact that medical scientists have made a range of important discoveries that can help patients to recover faster, the situation for those who have cancer is still unpromising as is clear from cancer mortality rates all over the world and in the United States. An effective approach to cancer care should consider both physical and emotional needs that cancer patients have.
Supportive Care: Managing Complications and Treatment Side Effects
Cancer can be listed among the most common diseases that can have a negative impact on the majority of systems of the human body. In general, cancer includes numerous diseases affecting different organs that have one common feature: they are caused by the abnormal growth of cells that perform their functions improperly and can spread to different organs within a short period of time.
The causes of cancer can be extremely different; in some patients, the disease gradually develops due to the negative impact of external factors such as work-related stress, the lack of sleep, improper diet, bad habits, radiation exposure, and contacts with poisonous substances. Also, it happens that cancer occurs in children or adolescents even though there are no obvious reasons – it this case, patients are likely to have an inherited predisposition to certain types of cancer.
Considering the nature of cancer, the approach to the care of cancer should include two main components. To begin with, it should enable nursing specialists and other health professionals to fulfil the physical needs of cancer patients. The primary attention must be paid to an effective pain management helping cancer patients to devote time to their hobbies and distract from the physical signs of their disease. In addition, healthcare professionals who provide services to cancer patients should utilize a range of ways to manage negative physical symptoms manifested in patients.
As for the latter, they are related to the disease or caused by the treatment and its impact on patients’ health. Importantly, pain management strategy must be based on the current condition of a patient and the stage of cancer. With the lapse of time, pain management strategies can become less effective, and this is why healthcare professionals should design a few strategies.
The most common complications of cancer and its treatment (such as chemotherapy) include breathing problems, difficulty sleeping, weight problems, bleeding, and the lack of appetite. All these complications have a significant impact on the quality of life of patients as they cause both physical and emotional effects such as inanition of the body and the development of depressive disorders. To mitigate these symptoms, it is possible to use the safest sleeping aids, exclude the consumption of coffee, and the use of special diet and antiemetics.
To lessen the psychological effects of complications, it is necessary to use the second component of the approach to care. It involves providing psychological support to patients and their relatives if the latter need help. Considering that cancer is a dangerous disease that often leaves people no chances to survive, individuals who have been diagnosed with this disease (especially those who have advanced cancer) are extremely sensitive. Also, they are more susceptible to depression.
Understanding that their life will never be the same, many cancer patients start paying focused attention to soul-searching, and it is the task of the members of cancer care teams to support them. Among practices that healthcare professionals can utilize to encourage their patients, there is “a model of patient-centered communication” helping to reduce emotional stress in individuals with cancer (Dean & Street, 2014, p. 143).
The three components of emotional care that can help cancer patients to cope with stress include the readiness to acknowledge patients’ stress, find out about its underlying causes and the primary sources of fear, and provide an empathetic response to make patients understand that their feelings matter. There is no doubt that the relatives of cancer patients also experience a significant stress that can be compared to the mental condition of people who have this disease.
Knowing that, healthcare professionals should be ready to discuss the problem and the most likely outcomes with cancer patients’ relatives. The latter can be an extremely difficult task because many people are not ready to hear the truth. Therefore, the relatives of individuals with cancer may also need to be provided with medical or psychological treatment (Götze, Brähler, Gansera, Polze, & Köhler, 2014).
The model of patient-centered communication that includes three steps can be regarded as an effective approach to the provision of emotional care that can be used to help patients with different stages of cancer. Even though patients have various emotional needs based on the stage of cancer that they have, it does not mean that the amount of psychological care that patients with an early stage of cancer receive has to be smaller than that of individuals with advanced cancer.
When designing a strategy that will help to provide emotional care to cancer patients, the emphasis has to be placed on emotional needs and psychological properties of people who have been diagnosed with cancer. Thus, the combination of two elements of care that are expected to improve cancer patients’ physical and mental condition forms the basis of supportive care in cancer. This approach to cancer care can be seen as effective as it attempts at fulfilling all needs that individuals with cancer have.
The Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer
To define that a patient has cancer, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze abnormal symptoms that a patient complains about and conduct a range of tests helping to exclude other diagnoses that have these symptoms. In practice, it can be rather difficult to make a diagnosis as soon as possible because a lot of cancer patients do not have specific symptoms when the disease just starts to develop.
When making a diagnosis, it is pivotal to analyze the necessity of each test that is planned to be conducted because the use of unnecessary tests may sometimes cause complications and reduce patients’ chances to survive. To diagnose cancer, healthcare professionals are supposed to exclude other possible causes of abnormal symptoms. To do that, it is necessary to consider patients’ family history to find out whether they have a genetic predisposition to this group of diseases. Also, it is extremely important to take into account the information on other diseases that patients have had, their current lifestyle, and possible psychological changes.
In addition, physical examination is an important step as it can help to define unobvious traumas that cause symptoms similar to those of cancer. After that, the decision concerning diagnostic tests to be conducted needs to be made. The list of the most commonly used diagnostic tests helping to confirm the presence of cancer includes a number of laboratory tests that help to analyze various biological fluids such as urine, blood, or saliva. These tests provide the data on the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, neutrophils, urine ketones, and other properties of biological liquids that change due to the presence of cancer (Sabatino, White, Thompson, & Klabunde, 2015).
The use of laboratory tests presents an effective method helping to define the potential causes of symptoms that patients report. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to use only such tests in order to make a reliable diagnosis. If the results of laboratory tests point at possible cancer, it is important to use medical imaging.
If the diagnosis is confirmed, healthcare professionals are to determine the stage of cancer. There are four approaches to staging that can be used: clinical that is focused on the results of imaging procedures, post-therapy that is applied to patients who did not have surgery, pathologic that is used only after surgical treatment, and restaging that is applied to patients with recurrent cancer (“Staging,” 2015). The particular aspects of patients’ physical condition to be analyzed include the size of tumors, the regions of the body where they are located, and the presence of metastases.
Conclusion
In the end, specialists who take care of patients with different stages of cancer should utilize a supportive approach to care that helps to fulfil both physical and psychological needs of cancer patients. When providing care to individuals with cancer, it is necessary to put emphasis on common complications such as nausea, weight reduction, and sleep problems that often occur due to the treatment of cancer and design a few strategies helping to manage these negative symptoms. In addition, the use of a patient-centered approach to patient communication that involves providing emotional response and supporting cancer patients and their relatives should be used to address the common problems of such patients.
References
Dean, M., & Street, R. L. (2014). A 3-stage model of patient-centered communication for addressing cancer patients’ emotional distress. Patient Education and Counseling, 94(2), 143-148.
Sabatino, S. A., White, M. C., Thompson, T. D., & Klabunde, C. N. (2015). Cancer screening test use – United States, 2013. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 64(17), 464-468.
Staging. (2015). Web.
Götze, H., Brähler, E., Gansera, L., Polze, N., & Köhler, N. (2014). Psychological distress and quality of life of palliative cancer patients and their caring relatives during home care. Supportive Care in Cancer, 22(10), 2775-2782.
Smarter Working Initiative For Employee Performance
The development of information and communication technology (ICT), as well as the globalization processes associated with breaking borders in doing business, has led to finding new ways of organizing people’s work and cooperation. In this context, the concept of smarter working has been developed as managers’ and individuals’ response to recent changes in working processes and employers’ expectations regarding outcomes. Although today managers only start to implement the principles of smarter working in organizations, this approach can be discussed as effective to improve employees’ engagement, motivation, performance, and productivity while referring to this idea at both organizational and individual levels.
The Definition of Smarter Working
Smarter working can be defined as a complex approach to managing individuals’ work while providing them with more flexibility, autonomy, and means for collaboration because of using the most innovative ICT. At the organizational level, smarter working should be regarded as a managerial strategy to organize the overall working process and communication between employees.
Thus, the key features of this approach are the provision of individuals with flexible schedules that suit them best depending on their productivity or specific needs, the absence of dependence on the workplace and office areas, and the active use of ICT to promote communication and collaboration. Consequently, the application of the principles of smarter working in an organization leads to arranging offices according to employees’ needs to provide them with opportunities for working alone or in a team as well as using flexible working hours and remote work.
At the individual level, smarter working is associated with organizing the work of an employee in a way that most suits his or her needs and capacities. While being provided with opportunities to choose flexible working hours and the place to work, a person decides what schedule to follow and whether to work in an office or from home to be more creative and productive. The result of this approach is the increase in employees’ autonomy, enthusiasm, productivity, and engagement.
Thus, smarter working can be applied by managers to improve the performance of their employees in the context of changing the corporate culture, and this approach is used in agile organizations that follow the people-centered culture and create dynamic teams of empowered employees to achieve the set goals. In this context, employees with different work styles can use their potential and successfully collaborate.
How Smarter Working Can Be Achieved
To achieve the realization of the principle of smarter working concerning the performance of employees, it is possible to follow some recommendations. Firstly, the overall managerial practice should be changed while shifting from evaluating the work by the presence at the workplace to evaluating the outcomes. The number of working hours and the work place is selected by an employee depending on goals and deadlines. Secondly, it is necessary to make schedules and calendars of all employees and channels for contacting them available and shared between team members.
Collaboration is an important component of smart working should be achieved despite the presence or absence of employees in one room. Thirdly, it is important to guarantee the availability and work of ICT to conduct virtual meetings and enhance online communication. Fourthly, it is necessary to organize the sharing of electronic documentation and employees’ access to all tools they need in the workplace and at home. Fifthly, in the workplace, employees should not be limited in using unassigned desks, gardens, or some quiet spaces to complete their working tasks depending on their needs.
Additionally, there are two more guidelines for applying smarter working by individuals. Firstly, it is recommended to find out what specific conditions make a person more productive, concentrated and motivated, including preferences to work in quiet or noisy spaces, in an office or a park. Secondly, it is critical to determine the hours of the highest productivity for every person to set a schedule that will contribute to improving performance.
Smarter Working for Enhancing Organizational Performance and Productivity
If employees work at the most effective locations for them and choose appropriate flexible hours, they are more concentrated on work, stimulated, and satisfied. As a result, their performance increases, and distractions and mistakes become eliminated. The use of ICT contributes to making cooperation and communication simple and active, without causing the members of multinational teams, for example, to meet each other.
Thus, it is possible to save resources, decrease costs, and save employees’ energy for completing working tasks. The application of smarter working is associated with more flexibility, independence, and freedom for individuals who become more responsible for their activities and presenting outcomes of their work. This approach leads to increasing their motivation to work better and be more productive.
Conclusion
Smarter working has become actively applied in modern organizations, especially agile ones, to recognize employees’ needs, address their talents, and improve their productivity. The realization of this principle is associated with accepting the presence of various work styles that should be taken into account while managing employees. Furthermore, in the modern context, smarter working is based on the use of ICT to enable communication and enhance performance.
Role Of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
Introduction
The nursing role has evolved to be at the forefront of primary and clinical care in the health care system. Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) have roles in research, administration, and providing high-quality patient care. The advanced nursing role requires skilled and highly motivated individuals that influence the nursing profession and even health care reform. It is a role that is consistently evolving and developing to encompass all aspects of patient care and safety. This essay seeks to explore the role of nurse practitioners as APRN through relevant research.
Description
Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who receive a master’s education and board certification in a specific specialty such as family practice or pediatrics. This allows the nurse to have more specific medical knowledge as well as administrative abilities. Duties of a nurse practitioner include acute illness and injury diagnosis and treatment. Other common responsibilities include immunizations, recording vital signs, physical exams, and managing chronic medical issues. Depending on state requirements, these nurses can prescribe medication. Nurse practitioners seek to collaborate with physicians on many things; however, state laws direct on whether an independent authority is practiced. This advanced role provides numerous opportunities for specialization and career advancement (Nurse Journal, 2017).
Role and the NPSG’s
Nurse practitioners thrive in situations of complex problem-solving and compassionate patient care. The focal focus of nurse practitioners is to provide preventative and holistic care, working individually with each patient, which is rewarding professionally and ethically. Nurse practitioners are considered clinical roles as their primary duty is to provide primary patient care as well as direct to any medical services necessary.
Besides, they provide treatment for acute illnesses and injuries along with specialized treatment. In a clinical setting, they are essential to the hospital operation. However, a nurse practitioner has non-clinical duties, including possible administrative tasks. Also, the primary factor of working with patients and their families to guide, consult, and educate them based on their treatment is considered non-clinical.
The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) are released on an annual basis recommending improvements to ambulatory care where nurse practitioners are most common. These measures are meant to improve the health care system by prioritizing patient safety. One of the first goals is to improve patient identification before receiving treatment, medicine, or blood transfusions. Nurse practitioners are at the forefront of patient care. Improving and confirming information through electronic health records allows meeting this goal. It is also recommended to improve staff communication, specifically test result communication.
As nurse practitioners often delegate patient tests, they can take the initiative to communicate with other professionals so that test results are received at an appropriate time. Time spent with a patient allows meeting another goal of identifying the patient’s risk of self-harm. Through proper training, nurse practitioners can see observable signs of mental illness and as well as show compassion for a patient so that they feel safe. Finally, many goals related to preventing infection fall under nurse practitioner duties. They are responsible for upkeeping the department cleanliness as well as practice correct handwashing techniques. Also, proper procedures such as the timely removal of catheters and the utilization of medical supplies help ensure hygiene in medical care (The Joint Commission, 2017).
A nurse practitioner is a stressful profession requiring patience, focus, and perseverance. Long hours worked by health professionals often hurt their performance which can endanger patient safety. In a review of claims against nurse practitioners, most involve failure to diagnose correctly or improper treatment which is a core competency. It is recommended for nurse practitioners to be aware of their actions and keep records of any medical interventions or tests to confirm (Leigh & Flynn, 2013). As evident, there are numerous factors impacting nurse practitioners in their profession which exposes tremendous influence over patient safety.
Research Articles
In a critical review, several professionals conducted an evidence-based assessment of patient safety strategies over four years. This was done due to the overwhelming public interest and followed policy change in patient safety. The publication focuses on the importance of theorizing, identifying context, and followed by practical implementation of safety guidelines. It is emphasized that not all issues have yet been addressed and this assessment analyzes the safety strategies for the most hazardous safety violations.
Some suggested changes include hand-hygiene, precautions to prevent infections prominent in health-care settings, and interventions to reduce falls (Shekelle et al., 2013). It is important to note that nurse practitioners are trained to practice the guidelines emphasized10.1002/jhrm.21124 by this research. The strategies that the article encourages to implement are directly related to the nursing department and many duties of the nurse practitioner. However, either legislation, hospital guidelines, and systems, or management do not allow for the improvement of these strategies to increase patient safety for which nurse practitioners are responsible.
A literature synthesis was conducted to evaluate the impact of nurse practitioners on cost, care quality, patient satisfaction, and waiting times in an adult emergency department. Emergency departments are considered the forefront of critical patient care with growing traffic, causing service expansion of active nurse practitioners.
The systematic review showed evidence of a positive influence of nurse practitioners on emergency departments. Specifically, quality of care and patient satisfaction increased, which was connected with decreased waiting times. No sufficient evidence was found to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. This evidence serves as a basis for hospitals to staff more nurse practitioners in the emergency department as the demand for faster and quality care increases in society. Nurse practitioners can provide effective service within professional and safety guidelines (Jennings, Clifford, Fox, O’Connell, & Gardner, 2015).
Expert Opinion
The expert opinion described is by Leigh Montejo MSN, FNP-BC who is a National Public Health Service Corp scholar. It begins with a report published by the Institute of Medicine which led to massive reforms on micro and macro levels of health care to prevent medical errors. This resulted in improved policies, guidelines, and continuing education. Nurses are a patient’s advocate and the last line of defense against possible medical errors in their treatment. In the education curriculum for nurses, it is important to emphasize constant awareness to reduce any possible incidents.
While severe medical mistakes are rare, seemingly innocent errors such as a wrong test have a possibility of erroneous results. Nurse practitioners have direct access to the patient, reviewing and conducting various procedures that a physician may recommend. With the introduction of electronic health records, it is crucial to review and constantly update the patient’s profile, as the system has flaws. When an error is detected, the process which led to it should be evaluated. Meanwhile, the nurse practitioner provided a high quality of care and protected the patient’s safety (Montejo, 2013).
References
Jennings, N., Clifford, S., Fox, A., O’Connell, J., & Gardner, G. (2015). The impact of nurse practitioner services on cost, quality of care, satisfaction and waiting times in the emergency department: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Science, 52(1), 421-435. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2014.07.006
The Joint Commission. (2017). Hospital National Patient Safety Goals.
Leigh, J., & Flynn, J. (2013). Enhance patient safety by identifying and minimizing risk exposures affecting nurse practitioner practice. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 33(2), 27-35. doi: 10.1002/jhrm.21124
Montejo, L. (2013). Nurse practitioners play an important role in preventing errors.
Nurse Journal (2017). What roles does a Nurse Practitioner have? Web.
Shekelle, P. et al. (2013). The top patient safety strategies that can be encouraged for adoption now. Annals of Internal Medicine, 158(5), 365-369. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-158-5-201303051-00001