Nursing times
-
More than 70,000 people die each year in nursing and residential care homes, yet comparatively little attention has been paid to end-of-life care practice and its challenges in this setting. ⋯ Training is vital in helping staff to engage sensitively, respectfully and creatively with dying residents. Staffing levels must be sufficient so staff can sit with residents and care in a way that is attuned to their personality, life history and wishes. relatives help to ensure a "civilised death".
-
An increase in minimal-stay surgery has reduced opportunities for nurses to discuss patients' anxieties about anaesthesia and the procedures that they will undergo. To allay patient anxieties and therefore promote a good recovery from surgery, nurses need to put in place a planned programme of information provision for patients. They are in a good position to promote patients' feelings of control and ability to cope, and help them to think positively.