Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Davidhizar.
In today's tight economic climate, it is essential to make every meeting productive. The responsibility for this belongs largely to the person conducting the meeting. If members do not actively contribute, the chair may need to deal with this behavior, either at the time of the meeting or afterward, depending on the solution. Chairing a productive meeting is a challenge for the Licensed Practical Nurse Manager.
Job satisfaction affects employee morale, which in turn affects employee productivity. Therefore, managers need to learn about contributing factors and use the factors within their power to improve job satisfaction. Extrinsic rewards, such as a high salary and good work benefits, are important, but studies show that how a job makes an employee feel is the greatest determinant of job satisfaction. Managers can influence the emotional effect of work on an employee through, among other strategies, recognizing the employee's efforts, providing opportunities for the employee to participate in decision making, and allowing the employee to grow professionally.
An investigation for serious illness can be terrifying for the client. While diagnostic procedures are a high priority, a supportive interpersonal approach for the fear the client is experiencing is also a significant aspect of client care. The nurse is in the ideal position to provide such support and have a significant impact on the client's psychological state.
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Positive bedside manners are essential when caring for patients. Positive bedside manners should be utilized wherever patients and their significant others are encountered. Putting your best foot forward is the first step in establishing a therapeutic relationship. Attention to one's professional image is important if the client is to see the licensed practical/vocational nurse as someone that can be trusted. Next is actively communicating interest and concern. It is also important to communicate empathy and respect through words and actions. The LP/VN must practice attending skills in order for the patient to experience the physical and psychological presence of the nurse. Communicating availability and following up on requests promote the establishment of trust. It is important for the nurse to avoid defensiveness, maintain a professional manner, answer questions honestly, demonstrate integrity, maintain a positive attitude and practice intentional encouragement. All the characteristics will demonstrate a positive bedside manner and will communicate caring and concern to clients and their significant others.
The nutritional problems that go along with HIV infection and AIDS are significant and in fact contribute to death. Nutrition not only affects overall health but one's ability to respond to therapies and quality of life. Malnutrition and "wasting syndrome" result from compromised nutritional status. Early detection and intervention can decrease the dramatic problems caused by these conditions. Regardless of the stage of illness, Medical Nutrition Therapy needs to be individualized and prioritized as an integral part of one's total care.
There are may factors to consider when denial is encountered in a patient situation. Denial is a simple concept but is complicated by ego-maintaining mechanisms that denial may produce. It is important to evaluate each individual situation in order to identify suitable approaches for the situation. Denial may not be something that the nurse should take away since it can serve an important balancing function between depression and wellness.
Some nurses have the goal to lead others and to be in charge of patient groups and groups of staff. They want to make changes at the upper levels of the organization and see their actions affect large numbers of people. Many others, however, really desire to be a bed-side nurse giving excellent patient care. They want to enjoy the close relationship that can make an individual feel better about him or her self as a person and the satisfaction that they have made a difference in one person's life. However, whether the nurse leads through a management position or practices leadership techniques in bedside nursing, all nurses are leaders and need to demonstrate expertise in the use of leadership techniques.
Nursing has long been preoccupied with its own image (Kalish & Kalish, 1987). However, the professional image of license practical/vocational nurses is vitally significant because it influences not only how you feel about yourself, but how others including physicians, other professionals, and patients relate to you and how much responsibility and empowerment you have. Your power to speak as a patient advocate and to influence policy decisions is intricately related to your image as work and in the community. Professional image is complex and is the result of impressions made by appearance, written communication, attitudes and behaviors, and time management. Frequently, the impressions you make in the first twelve seconds of meeting an individual is the one they will retain about you. Since ultimately, the image the public has of your profession begins with you attention to professional image involves a 365 day a year commitment (Stille, 1992).
OBJECTIVE: This first article, of a two-part series, presents the foundation for patient education in the nuclear medicine department. The need for patient education through mandates, such as the JCAHO, is discussed and the relevant literature surrounding the delivery of patient education is reviewed. The emphasis is on proper learning by patients, including the means of maximizing the facilitators to learning and minimizing barriers that limit patient learning in the clinical setting. After completing the article, the reader should be able to: (a) describe the mandates for patient education; (b) discuss the current practice of patient education in health care; (c) describe the effective implementation of learning; (d) list barriers and facilitators to patient learning; and (e) give examples of how barriers to learning can be minimized and facilitators can be maximized. Practical applications will be discussed in the second article.
There is a shortage of clinical nurses, particularly in the area of psychiatric nursing, who feel competent and comfortable writing for publication. This is unfortunate since clinical nurses have valuable experiences to share, to promote and advance the nursing profession. This manuscript describes the work of one Director of Nursing at a state hospital who mentored the nursing staff to write for publication. Over a period of five years some 28 articles have been published by nurses at this hospital. This success in publication has led to an increase in self-esteem among nurses, an increased willingness to share their writing experiences with others, and increased numbers of workshop presentations on clinical subjects. This article describes how the mentoring process can be used to promote authorship, and specifically, how it was used at this one hospital.
Obtaining a nursing position is often the first challenge for the graduate nurse. Understanding the interview process and making a plan that will ensure the graduate is placed in the best possible light is important for success in the interview process. This paper discusses getting ready for the interview, setting up the interview, dressing for the interview, the actual interview and following up the interview. Adherence to these guidelines can facilitate the graduate's success in obtaining the desired position.
Not passing the NCLEX is traumatic for both the graduate and the nursing program's faculty and dean. The faculty need to look at the program and make some strengthening changes such as higher admission requirements, more time in some clinical course, or increased use of NLN tests for specialty areas. Additionally, a supportive faculty member needs to assist the graduate who has not passed to make an individualized plan for succeeding the second time. A variety of ways to assist the graduate in studying, that have been found useful at the author's school of nursing, have been suggested.
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Giving encouragement is not generally stated as a high priority role of health care supervisors. Traditionally, technical skills and productivity on the job were aspects that received the supervisor's primary focus. However, there is a growing appreciation that encouragement is a transformational leadership technique that is related to productivity on the job and to quality work. Use of encouragement is a leadership technique that fits in today's people-oriented work climate.
Presentation skills are important, especially for supervisors, who need to communicate effectively with various audiences. There are a number of guidelines for effective presentations, including overcoming performance anxiety, knowing the subject, using an effective nonverbal style, planning, communicating enthusiasm and charisma, attention to the environment, and, perhaps most important, involve the audience in the presentation and meet audience needs. Even in today's "high-tech" world, attention to the basics of presentation skills will help supervisors in being professionals and leaders for their organizations.
Individuals who are unqualified to fulfill a role are impostors. Often, competent practitioners feel they are unable to successfully practice their profession and suffer from an impostor syndrome. In health care, this can have a number of negative outcomes, including a poor reflection of the institution through the individual's actions. In many cases, impostorship can be prevented or remediated through the use of techniques such as identification, mentoring, and promotion of positive self-concepts. This article reviews a number of these techniques to help supervisors, especially new supervisors who may have feelings of inadequacy and impostorship, in developing a positive self-image.
Memos are a simple and effective form of communication in the health care system. Memos can strengthen group performance and praise individual behavior. However, all too frequently memos can be time-consuming, inefficient, and even harmful to effective interpersonal communication. The prudent manager should guard against a memo that is too long, will be taken offensively, will be perceived as negative, or is written when the manager is angry. In the long run, verbal communication is usually more effective than a memo delivered in haste.