caregiving in the nursing department and the entire medical sector
For a very long time, caregiving in the nursing department and the entire medical sector was one-way—practitioner-oriented. That is, patients were never involved in most of the procedures despite being the subjects of treatment. Fortunately, researchers and medical professionals realized that this approach was not sufficient and that there was a dire need for a more inclusive approach. Madeleine Leininger was one of the researchers who developed models that have since been applicable in nursing. Specifically, Leininger’s culture care model and the Sunshine Model are focused on improving the interaction between caregivers and patients and increasing the involvement of the latter in caregiving such that nurses consider the cultures of patients in designing care plans (Wehbe-Alamah, 2018). This paper, therefore, analyzes a case study of a patient who showed some symptoms to illustrate the application and significance of Leiniger’s culture Model.
Leininger states categorically that a patient’s day-to-day activities or lifestyle play a critical role in determining the caregiving plan to use. This consideration is particularly important because the proposals need to fit in the patient’s schedules so that they get more comfortable in pursuing those goals or following the plans. Therefore, the first factor that a nurse will have to consider in the case of Mrs. Franklin-Jones from the case study is her forgetfulness. The patient has admitted to being forgetful, thus sometimes missing her medications. This admission is a very critical condition that the nurse will have to factor in the plan because failure to follow prescriptions would hinder the patient’s chances of recovery. Secondly, the nurse will have to note the patient’s busy schedule and occupations.
Thirdly, the nurse must consider the patient’s gender. Leininger states gender as one of the factors that should count when administering care because different genders respond differently to some prescriptions and would, therefore, require distinct measures that work best for each of them (McFarland, & Wehbe-Alamah, 2017). Finally, the nurse must consider the patient’s medical history and family background. Mrs. Franklin-Jones has already stated that her mother died from a similar condition, which proves that she is also prone to succumbing to the medical condition, thus must take her medication seriously.
The theory of Culture Care Diversity is essential for various reasons. First, it helps the nurses to realize and acknowledge the fact that people go through different experiences in their day-to-day lives, which typically impact other aspects of their lives, including the seriousness that they give to medication. From the case study, it is evident that the patient knows how dire her condition is having seen her mother succumb to a similar problem. She also knows the measures that can help her recover because she had sought medical attention before and received guidelines. Yet, her culture still causes her to forget to take those medications. This situation shows that subjecting such a person to the conventional caregiving methods that do not consider cultural diversity would not be of any benefit to the patient as far as her recovery is concerned. On the other hand, the theory of culture care diversity enables this identification and designing of measures that help to correct the specific conditions that the patients face while also addressing their challenges.
Secondly, the theory engages the patients more in caregiving and allows them to participate actively in designing caregiving plans. Again, most conventional methods provided prescriptions without considering patients’ conditions, a situation that often led to noncompliance. This theory corrects this situation by helping the nurses and patients to go the extra mile in caregiving. The patient shares her daily schedules and general culture for the nurse to identify a specific plan that can best solve the situation.
PLAN OF CARE
Client: Mrs. Franklin-Jones
Nurse: Julie Hernandez
Date Initiated:
ASSESSMENT
DIAGNOSIS
OUTCOMES
INTERVENTIONS
EVALUATION
The patient has recovered well and, therefore, moved from the emergency room to the Cardiac Intensive care
Acute myocardial infarction.
The movement to the Cardiac Stepdown unit
- Therapy: the patient will go through various treatments to help continue with recovery. Heparin would be an option.
- Nutritious advice
- Stress management
- Increase physical activities
- Weight Management
- Reminder for medical adherence
The first evaluation point would be the patient’s compliance with the medication, and this will be determined by how many times the patient has forgotten to take medicine within a stipulated time. (The nurse will remind her every time in case she forgets).
Next will be to check the response to the medications and proposed action plans.
Although Leininger’s theory has proven significant, as discussed above, it has both strengths and weaknesses. The first strength of the argument is that its concepts and proposals are highly generalized. Generalizing the theory has specifically been helpful in nursing because it allows the nurses to apply its concepts and relationships to different situations depending on the patients that they are dealing with at a particular time. Secondly, the theory mainly focuses on the cultures of the patients and stresses the significance of nurses considering those cultures when providing care. As a result, patients receive care depending on their personal experiences and cultural backgrounds because the nurses become culturally sensitive. Finally, not only is the theory simple and easy to follow but also stresses care as the primary focus of nursing, unlike the conventional methods which focused on people or the environment.
On the other hand, the theory also has some limitations. First, nurses using the approach might end up making wrong clinical decisions because the application of the argument is usually subject to the understanding of their values and concepts. Therefore, any slight misinterpretation of the ideas and expected patient outcomes would result in dire consequences. Secondly, the theory’s focus of caregiving on cultural consistency defies the collective knowledge in the contemporary world that bases nursing on holistic care. Finally, the approach provides limited applicability. However, despite these limitations, a nurse that figures a way around these challenges while implementing the theory would record commendable and admirable results.
Case Study 2: Watson’s Transpersonal Caring Relationship
Jean Watson had a different ideology of caregiving. Unlike Leininger, who opined that nursing should focus on the cultural identities of the patients, Watson opined that caregiving should take a holistic approach. Therefore, through her theory of the Transpersonal Caring Relationship, she states that the primary focus of nursing should be health promotion. In her assumptions, she believes that health promotion does not only entail providing medication. Instead, it must focus on “preventing illness, caring for the sick, and restoring health” (Willis, & DM, 2017). These requirements mean that the nurse has a significant role to play in caregiving, more so when following the holistic view that Watson proposes in her Transpersonal Caring Relationship theory. First, the nurse must help all the patients that they handle to overcome the individual disharmonies that would otherwise prevent them from healing naturally. Secondly, the nurses must nurture personal lifestyles to create care relationships with the patients that they deal with daily. Finally, the nurses must ensure that they maintain these care relationships in a loving, kind, and composed manner so that they record maximum benefits.
From Watson’s theory,
love is a crucial factor and is evident in the way the nurse treats and
interacts with the patients. First, the approach requires that the nurses
develop a heart-centered relationship with all the patients that they interact
with (Willis, & DM, 2017), and this is only possible when there is love.
Secondly, love is evident in the kindness that nurses show towards the
patients. Different people typically face different situations that also
require various interventions. Some of the problems that patients usually face
challenges always need the nurses to go out of their way and do more than their
duties state. For example, a patient may have other factors that hinder them
from recovering from their primary conditions. In such situations, it takes the
nurses’ kindness to help the patients out, which shows an act of love. Finally,
love makes the nurses to be composed when handling even the most difficult of
patients.
There are several ways
that nurses can creatively use self to create a healing environment. First, the
nurses can make the patients feel comfortable around them by winning their
trust. As already mentioned above, some patients may undergo secondary problems
like domestic conflicts that hinder their natural healing processes. Such
patients are always never ready to share those experiences with third parties,
including the nurses. Yet, the information is usually crucial to their
recovery. However, nurses can help solve this situation by winning the
patient’s trust. This intervention would enable them to gain much knowledge
from the patients and improve their efforts in providing holistic care.
Secondly, the nurses can use self creatively by designing caregiving plans that
best fit the patients’ conditions and lifestyles; this is achievable by being
compassionate to the patients.
Watson’s theory also has
strengths and weaknesses. The main advantage of this theory is that it places
patients in the context of family, culture, and community. This placement helps
the nurses to concentrate on improving the patients’ health through less
technical approaches. Secondly, the theory creates a personal relationship
between the nurses and the patients, thus improving the overall caregiving
experience. Finally, the procedure helps to boost the patients’ natural recovery
process, which also enhances their recovery and response to the medication that
they receive. However, the main limitation of the approach is that it focuses
too much on psychosocial, social practice, thus giving less significance to the
patients’ physiological needs, which is a critical aspect that always needs
addressing. Otherwise, despite this limitation, the theory is generally
beneficial, and nurses that manage to implement it while overcoming this
challenge always end up giving patients the best care.
Conclusion
It is evident from the
the discussion above that caregiving has gradually changed from the conventional
methods that did not engage patients in more patient-involving practices.
Leininger and Watson proposed care models that nurses could use to provide the
best care to patients. While Leininger’s model mainly focuses on improving the
interaction between caregivers and patients and increasing the involvement of
the latter in caregiving such that nurses consider the cultures of patients in
designing care plans, Watson opined that caregiving should take a holistic
approach. Both of these approaches have proven to have both strengths and
limitations. Additionally, nurses can achieve maximum benefit to the patients
if they overcome the challenges of both methods as they implement the models.