Home healthcare nurse
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Home healthcare nurse · Oct 1999
Integrating disease management and wound care critical pathways in home care.
This article discusses the need for an integration of the concepts of disease management and critical pathways as a foundation of a healthcare delivery system. The steps in the process for development, implementation, and evaluation of a wound care critical pathway are reviewed and variance classifications are defined. Co-pathways and algorithms are presented as methodologies for dealing with variances. A template of a wound care critical pathway that has been developed for use in the home care setting is included.
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Home healthcare nurse · Aug 1999
ReviewNursing the terminally ill. Being with people in difficult times.
There are many impediments to being present and actively listening to people in difficult times. The authors discuss numerous suggestions nurses can use to "be" with patients experiencing a life-threatening or terminal illness. Methods such as eliminating external intrusions, using meditative practices, and ways to create a therapeutic milieu are presented to help the nurse understand how to listen to and be with patients.
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Positive spirituality preserved through religiosity' can be a useful tool in the care of people who are dying. Spirituality concerns the connectedness with self, others, environment, and the Other. Religiosity describes postures and acts done alone or in company with others that preserve practices and spiritual understandings for the good of the terminally ill. The home care and hospice nurse must understand these principles and act in concert with the care team to accomplish care goals.