Home healthcare nurse
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Home healthcare nurse · Oct 2013
Medication appropriateness at end of life: a new tool for balancing medicine and communication for optimal outcomes--the BUILD model.
The BUILD model was created to provide a systematic framework for hospice clinicians to have important conversations with patients and families as well as facilitating useful conversations with interdisciplinary teammates. Although this article focuses on medication appropriateness and discontinuation of medications, this model can also be used when discussing prognosis, code status, goals of care, drug diversion, and when collaborating to develop a plan of care. When provided with a communication tool that is versatile, logical, and effective, hospice clinicians may use it, supporting improved patient care outcomes.
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Home healthcare nurse · Jul 2013
Spirituality in nursing: nurses' perceptions about providing spiritual care.
Providing spiritual care is an important foundation of nursing and is a requirement mandated by accreditation organizations. Spiritual care is essential in all clinical areas but particularly in home care and hospice. Clinicians may be unable to respond to spiritual needs because of inadequate education or the assumption that spiritual needs should be addressed by clergy, chaplains, or other "spiritual" care providers. ⋯ Professional nurses (n = 69) working in 2 large healthcare organizations completed the Perceptions of Spiritual Care Questionnaire. Approximately, 33% of the nurses worked in home care. Significant correlations were found among those nurses whose reported nursing education programs adequately prepared them to meet spiritual needs and taught ways to incorporate spiritual care into practice and those who did not.
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Home healthcare nurse · May 2013
Case ReportsEffective pain management of older adult hospice patients with cancer.
Pain is subjective and a unique and individual experience. For those involved in the care of hospice patients, pain management can be challenging and is not always effectively managed. This case study explores an older adult cancer patient's pain experience at the end of her life with implementation of pain management strategies from hospice.
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Home healthcare nurse · Apr 2013
ReviewEvidence about the pharmacological management of constipation, part 2: implications for palliative care.
Constipation remains a challenging problem for patients and caregivers in home healthcare. Part 1 of this two-part series discussed the scope, physiology, and evidence-based practice for nonpharmacological interventions for constipation. This second article will focus on evidence-based pharmacological prevention and management of constipation, medication cost, and implications for palliative care.
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Home healthcare nurse · Mar 2013
EditorialThe good, the bad and the ugly in the changing healthcare landscape: the role of nurse practitioners in meeting increasing demand for primary care (the good), CMS and contractor oversight of home health agencies (the bad), and the sad demise of the Medicaid hospice benefit in Louisiana (the ugly).