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Useful tips for psychiatric nurses to teach patients

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Teaching patients about the merits of being hygienic, precautions to be taken for cure, and such other things related to the betterment of a patient are normal duties a nurse is expected to do and all nurses are taught to do, as part of their learning process.

Teaching patients who are of stable mind will not be so difficult a task and will be related with the disease and the prevention of the disease.  However, teaching patients affected by mental health disorders requires some special skills – the skills that are to be found more so in teachers in the primary school and more so in all mothers who are the first teacher to their son or daughter.

The role of a psychiatric nurse is not just providing care and assistance in the cure of the ailment, but total and whole care of the patient, a patient who has a serious problem with his or her mental growth and capability.  The type and nature of teaching will not be the same for all the psychiatric patients and each patient requires specific and individual care.  That makes the job more challenging and interesting for a psychiatric nurse.

Before assuming the role of a teacher for a psychiatric patient, the nurse has to take a deep look on the assessment record of the patient, and look out for the following things about the patient:

  • The patient’s level or understanding capability and knowledge
  • Patient’s present state of mind and the emotional requirements
  • What needs to be taught to the patient should be ascertained
  • Psychiatric patients are generally perceived to have unstable mind.  Assessing the level of concentration, orientation, and attentiveness assumes prime importance
  • Level of understanding or the literacy level of the patient

These are some of the basic things that a psychiatric nurse should ascertain before embarking on the job of teaching the psychiatric patient, the basic things, things that will help the patient do things independently, try to take decisions independently and fell confident about himself or herself.

The atmosphere for teaching, or the therapeutic milieu, motivation levels of the patient, learning disabilities and such other things should also be taken into consideration by the psychiatric nurse.

It is the responsibility of the psychiatric nurse to determine the right mode of education for the patient, give due consideration to the behavior, literacy level, understanding capability, concentration levels, attentiveness and such other related aspects.  Teaching psychiatric patients can take place in many different modes.  It can be in the form of lecture to the group; giving written instructions in the form of pictures, or drawings, – depending upon the level of literacy of patients, role-playing activities, recreational activities and/or such other related activities aimed primarily at educating the psychiatric patient and striving to transform that patient to a normal person.  Involving the patients active in the learning process, making them perform or repeat the actions carried out by the nurse or in role-playing activities would be an ideal way of making the patients learn the things in a better way.

Blog post by Nursing Blog.

Written by Nursing

April 15th, 2010 at 9:25 am

Posted in Nursing

Useful suggestions to enroll and get first aid certification

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Learning about the importance of First Aid and getting a certificate granting you the knowledge to extend professional first aid to the needy people in emergency is one of the most satisfying things you can do in your life. By learning this course, not only will you be saving a person’s life in the case of emergency, but also you will be following the precautions to avoid being party to an emergency situation.

The synonym for First Aid is the Red Cross Society which has set the standards for professional first aid certification courses. The quality of the education is un-matched and is the international benchmark for First Aid, to say the least. A certificate from Red Cross is recognized internationally.

To get trained and certified in first Aid, all you need is to contact the local office of the International Red Cross and enquire about the various types of first aid courses they conduct. Any person aged above 13 years can be eligible to get the basic first aid course.

A number of first aid courses are offered by Red Cross. Courses related to safety of children, babysitters’ course are offered to juniors. Advanced first aid courses including the CPR or cardio pulmonary resuscitation are offered to adults and people working in factories, establishments, people employed in land, air and sea transportation services and for other types of people.

Check out the list of courses offered by the Red Cross and decide which of these courses will be ideal and suitable for you. Mostly, the courses are conducted in the weekends and can be completed in few weeks. Enroll in the ideal course, check the timings of the classes and be prepared to attend the classes on time, every time.

You need to be serious about the course and display the curiosity and willingness to learn the intricacies of the course. Always bear in mind that this knowledge of first aid will be helpful for saving a person’s life in the quickest possible time in the event of emergency and you should be alert, mentally strong and quick to react in the given situation. Ask questions, if you have doubts, and get the concept and approach clearly understood to do the subject. You should not panic when you see an accident or a person suffering in the accident spot.

The pay is not as great as cna training but it is good nonetheless.

Written by Nursing

February 25th, 2010 at 10:25 am

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Nursing course – An Analysis

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Nursing course and cna training– An Analysis

Every year thousands of students take up nursing course every year with the aspiration of helping mankind. Nursing is one of the widely chosen employments. Nursing is the leading course of the health professional course among many that are currently available. To become a nurse, you must have completed your under graduation in first class. Class is very important here to choose a challenging medical professional carrier. Your under graduation is the base for all your higher studies. So, every college, university or institute looks for under graduation scores and class of passing. If the nursing college is satisfied with the scores or pass percentage then you would definitely get into the same university or college of your choice. The latest training modules include instructions and techniques that will improve the nursing course overall thus giving better training in patient care to the nursing students.

It is important to analyze and check how useful a nursing course and well the students gain out of the course. A nursing course must help students to get bag full of knowledge. Nursing needs critical thinking and lot of decision making knowledge. As nurses deal with human body, a good nursing course must help the students understand the biology and microbiology in a better way. A good nursing course must help each and every student to become a complete knowledge base that can be referred back for any clarification or to get doubts cleared.

Every students dream is NCLEX exam. A nursing course must prepare the nursing students with NCLEX exam in mind. NCLEX exam is nothing but the National Counsel Licensure Exam. To get nursing license, every nursing student must pass the state licensing exam which is nothing but NCLEX. The questions for this exam are taken from the study material that has been part of the course or the curriculum. So, had the nursing students studied and understood their course, NCLEX is very easy to clear.

Every good nursing course must give hands on experience with instructions. Under graduate nursing students will also be asked to give a demonstration of various procedures. Nursing students must be educated on intravenous insertion, checking correct blood pressure etc. A good nursing course must help students by giving real time cases for reference. Nursing students must be able to review themselves and also their friends. This will help them review different issues or various people thus increasing their exposure. A nursing instructor must be a good guide and help the nursing students understand each and every step during the nursing course.
When you are planning to join a nursing course, do check if the course follows all standard nursing policies and procedures. This is very important as courses that fail to adhere to the rules and regulations are not considered or not approved by many universities. While attending patients, nurses must correlate situations to science concepts and be quick in decision making. This is also known as critical thinking. A good course must make a nursing student well equipped for critical thinking. Real time examples must be shared with the nursing students for their better understanding.

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February 1st, 2010 at 8:23 pm

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Why Red Cross First Aid Training is considered the best

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Whenever you hear or read about a major calamity or catastrophe, such as an earthquake, where considerable amount of damage and loss of property/lives took place, you would have also noticed that the first organization to reach the spot at the earliest possible time invariably will be the Red Cross Society.

How is it possible and what are they doing there? Well. Red Cross Society is the synonym for first aid and their organization as well as volunteers for this organization have the motto of lending their helping hand to the victims at times of calamities. Established in the year 1881, this non-governmental organization has been doing pioneering works in providing first aid and disaster-relief in all places across the world.

The services of Red Cross is not utilized only in times of calamities or emergencies. They do a lot of social services to the locality and neighborhood and strive to make this place a happy one to live.

They create an awareness of First Aid to the individuals, to the corporate, to the communities and also to the public at large.

They have been setting standards in First Aid and devising new systems and procedures to administer first aid to the people. Just as a doctor is for the patient, Red Cross is for First Aid. That does not mean you should call Red Cross only for each and every emergency situation to administer first aid.

You can get certificate on first aid course from Red Cross and follow the principles taught to you to act as a first aid provider. The standards adopted by Red Cross are updated regularly and they also do research and refine the mode of first aid frequently. Being updated and providing the best in the world-class services as far as First Aid is concerned is the hall-mark of Red Cross Society. It is because of this pioneering effort and their service, they are considered to be the best in providing First Aid as well as First Aid Training courses.

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January 28th, 2010 at 9:53 am

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Importance of CPR in first aid training

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Learning and mastering the art of CPR or cardio pulmonary resuscitation is one of the essentials of advanced training in first aid.  According to available data, emergencies such as heart attack or stroke are among the major accidents that require immediate action and first aid.  Also, it has been found that more than 70% of the cardiac attacks such as stroke, choking or heart attacks take place invariably at home or a place well away from the reach of the nursing home or hospital.

What is cardio pulmonary resuscitation?

It is one of the techniques in first aid administered to a patient who experiences sudden cardiac arrest or heart attack.  Using the technique of CPR, a trained first aid person will need to immediately swing into action, try to breathe into the patient’s mouth such that the problems in breathing can be temporarily arrested.  He or she should also try to press the heart and to infuse some sort of life into the heart’s functioning.  This immediate response will arrest the attack from further damage and can give breathing time to take the patient to the hospital for further treatment.  This is the general idea of CPR and needs additional precautions as well.

You can imagine the importance of CPR in treating a patient’s life if subjected to a cardiac attack.  To save a person’s life and to administer the correct type of CPR, you should invariably have training and effective practice in handling the same.  The time at your disposal will be relatively limited and you should act instantly.

Getting training in CPR is not difficult at all.  Two full days of classes and training will enable you to get certification in CPR.  It is very essential that most of us get equipped with this important first aid course which will go a long way in saving the life of innumerable people in case of emergencies.