Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Davidhizar.
Nursing can be a career that will bring you great joy and rewards. Undoubtedly, your journey to attaining your LP/VN license will be filled with many good times as well as difficult times. Organization and discipline will help to make this time a more positive experience. Once you've become licensed, your possibilities are endless. Nursing can be your passport to success.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This article addresses the needed shift in nursing education from an information-driven approach in teaching to a process that promotes higher level thinking and clinical judgement. Strengths and weaknesses of problem-based learning and competency-based education in nursing are presented. Whereas the former focuses on critical thinking and clinical judgement, the latter's emphasis is on clinical competency. The appropriateness of the philosophies in both academic and practice settings is discussed.
Home care providers must assess clients for any difficulties they may have with adjusting to changes and losses in their lives. They should consider the possibility that clients may be depressed and at risk for suicide. Home care providers' attention to psychologic dynamics may help a client face the losses that accompany growing older with integrity rather than despair.
The Colonies settlements along the United States-Mexican border are reflective of third-world communities. Although most of the residents are U.S. citizens, they lack the basic educational and work opportunities found in most parts of the country. Because of the limited infrastructure, diseases controlled in most parts of the world are epidemic within these communities. Using the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model, public health nurses can be instrumental in coordinating services in partnership with community members to enhance health and social service programs.
Coping with stress is an important skill during these trying times. This article outlines some skills you can use to respond positively to stressful situations in the car, the office, and clients' homes. Coping strategies for dealing with stress in personal situations are also discussed.
In today's health care environment, many health care managers choose to move to a new setting. Because environments vary from setting to setting, a manager who plans to move needs to evaluate potential "fit" in the new locality. An evaluation of "fit" includes an assessment of both the job culture and persons in the environment. The Giger-Davidhizar transcultural assessment model provides a model for evaluating a new job culture.
The ability to persuade is a critical skill for the health care professional in relating to employees, colleagues, and groups of individuals if health care objectives are to be promoted. However, persuasion is an art, which requires careful preplanning and deliberative actions if it is to be carried out successfully. Persuasion done in a friendly manner is more likely to be effective. This article provides techniques that will enable the health care professional to use persuasive methods most advantageously.
Alcohol is a teratogen and it can cause lasting birth defects called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)/Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE). FAS is one of the leading causes of mental retardation. FAS/FAE can result in a myriad of behavioral, learning and developmental problems. There are estimates of 12,000 new cases of FAS yearly. The school nurse plays an important advocacy and educational role in helping the child with FAS. Family involvement is important for the child with FAS.
For many clients in home care with chronic illness the real work of getting well involves learning to adjust to chronic illness and to disability. Learning to adjust to disability by maximizing the abilities and qualities that are present can mean overcoming otherwise very significant problems while still maintaining a high quality of life. Home care providers play an important role in helping clients and their families optimize functioning to do the real work of getting "well."
It is important to identify signs of clinical depression such as pessimism, refusal to eat, diminished concern about personal appearance, and reluctance to make decisions. Medical referral for clinical depression is imperative because there are medications and other interventions that can effectively alleviate the feelings of sadness and despair that accompany clinical depression. One must determine if loneliness is a symptom of depression or an emotional state that can be changed by one's own efforts. Whether the lonely person is the health care giver or a health care receiver, the ability to use creative strategies for coping with loneliness can turn loneliness into a more comfortable experience.
The needs of the RN-BSN student are unique. If the RN-BSN student is to be successful in a degree completion program, it is important that the program be designed with the needs of the student in mind. It is important that the program be tailored to the needs of the student who may already possess expertise in nursing. This will enhance the likelihood that the student will stay in the program and that learning will occur.
Cultural diversity is increasing in the United States as increasing numbers of minorities enter the United States from abroad, and cultural diversity is especially prevalent in the health care workplace. In fact, the health care professions are particularly interested in the presence of minorities among caregivers because this often enhances the cultural competence of care delivery. Nevertheless, subtle discrimination can still be found, and managers must be alert that such behavior is not tolerated. Use of the Giger-Davidhizar Cultural Assessment Model can provide managers with information needed to respond to diversity among staff appropriately.
Obtaining a satisfactory relationship with the supervisor is essential for the LP/VN who has just taken a job. Both personal and job satisfaction will result when a compatible trusting relationship can be obtained. How to effectively disagree with a supervisor is a skill every employee should have. It is especially important for the LP/VN who may feel the supervisor's idea may adversely affect patient care, agency function, or personal effectiveness in performance. Strategies have been described for obtaining a positive working relationship with the supervisor.
The nurse's ability to use "benevolent power" can be a very useful tool in relating to patients. Use of "benevolent power" takes advantage of the nurse's power and authority by virtue of positions However, rather than focusing on the nurse's needs or manipulating the patient in a negative way, use of "benevolent power" allows the nurse to respond to the patient situation in a way which is beneficial and positive for the patient.
Health care reform, innovations in technology, and the need to make health care cost-effective have affected all aspects of health care practice and education. Critical thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, leadership and motivation skills, computer literacy, and cultural sensitivity are all capabilities nursing graduates must now possess if they are to practice effectively in the complex and competitive contexts that today define the health care marketplace. Partnerships with community agencies are essential if faculty are to prepare a new generation of nurses who will be proficient in the skills that 21st-century nursing practice will demand. Although academic institutions have made some changes to meet marketplace demands, nursing educators, practitioners, and researchers must thoroughly reconceptualize their philosophies and retool their curricula in response to these changes.