NURSE/PATIENT EMPOWERMENT

Kelly Ransom

The best strategies for a nurse to empower patients, is to allow them to make decisions and participate in their plan of care. If a patient is unable to make their own decisions, we as nurses must advocate for them. Nurses become the voices for our patients. With guidelines and protocols that must be followed, it becomes difficult to speak out or do the things that we find are best for our patients. Nurses are taught critical thinking skills and learn to adapt when needed. On many occasions, I have sat down with my patients and had genuine conversations and encouraged them to talk about their feelings and ideas. Nurses are able to assess situations and issues by just having a conversation. We can involve therapy or pain relief by having our patients stand to straighten a bed or employing other activities. Patients can become so centered on pain or the treatment, that other means to distract away from that focus helps.

With the use of the NDNQI, nurses and institutions are able to build on data that empower nursing knowledge related to quality of care according to Montalvo, I. (2007). This influences care and care processes and in turn affect patient outcomes. Empowering a nurse with knowledge is only beneficial to the patient and the care provided. Finding ways to prevent falls and infections, explores the opportunities to provide strategies and interventions to decrease the likelihood of these events happening. When a nurse is given the power of knowledge and a management staff that will support them, changes occur for the better. 

Working in long-term care as the infection control specialist and staff development coordinator, I am empowered by my staff to provide the knowledge and skills sets that are beneficial to our residents. Reoccurring falls and falls in general are one of the top priorities in the nursing home setting. As a healthcare team, we evaluate falls and breakdown to time and place of occurrences and put plans into place based on individual residents or units. Utilizing quality improvement data, we find what is most beneficial and effective. Being encouraging to my staff daily and providing education to increase their knowledge, is how I empower my staff. One particular nurse was a new graduate and felt unsure of what she was doing. Allowing this nurse to make decisions and encouraging her helped to bring up self-assurance and advocate for her patients.

 

References

· Garrard, L., Boyle, D. K., Simon, M., Dunton, N., & Gajewski, B. (2016).  Reliability and validity of the NDNQI® injury falls measureLinks to an external site. . Western  Journal of Nursing Research, 38(1), 111-128.  http://doi.org/10.1177/019394591454281Links to an external site.

· Montalvo, I. (2007).  The national database of nursing quality indicatorsLinks to an external site. .  The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(3). http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume122007/No3Sept07/NursingQualityIndicators.html