Class Talk Fall 2016

The ways that I engage in self-care in the clinical setting are to pack myself healthy food like fruit and yogurt, wear compression socks (I’m prone to foot pain), and bring water with me so that I do not get dehydrated. My water bottle actually has marks on the side so that I can measure how many ounces I drink in a day. Unfortunately its usually about 8 oz but I’m working on beating my current high score!

I asked a friend in the program and she mentioned that recovery is important to her – she goes to a massage school in TO for inexpensive massages on a regular basis. I think I’ll try that too, as controlling stress is another one of my goals. i think that managing stress and anxiety will be a big factor in my success in the clinical setting going forward.

Reason #1 that self care is important for professional development: we can be a good example to patients by taking our own health seriously (Mills, 2015).

Reason #2 that self care is important for professional development: there is a link between compassion towards oneself and compassion towards others (Mills, 2015)

My plan to refresh over spring break is to get back into music. My hand has finally recovered pretty well after my car accident over the summer and I’m ready to start playing my viola again.

References

Mills, J., Wand, T., & Fraser, J. (2015). On self-compassion and self-care in nursing: Selfish or essential for compassionate care? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(4), 791-793.

Self care can be anything from maintaining clean hygiene to meditation. It encompasses things we do on a day to day basis, and we may not even know we are participating in self care.

For example, I like to do nothing after clinical days. I will sit in front of the television with my girlfriend and binge watch Grey’s Anatomy. Other days I might go to the gym and lift weights for an hour and a half. What I think is most important is having someone to talk about my day with. I’ve learned that it’s important to sort through the day and and think about how it makes me feel.  In the hospital we don’t get much time to reflect on events and how they might effect us, that’s why I think it’s important to have that time for introspection.

During clinical days I will usually take a 15 minute break to grab some coffee, it’s nice to get away for a little bit. During my lunch I will sit in my car and watch videos online, just to relax my mind a little bit. One thing I’ve been doing to increase my water intake is every time I go to get my patients water, I try to drink some water myself. That way, even if I don’t feel thirsty, I remember to have water.

One friend I asked told me that one thing she does for self care is making sure to take her lunch despite how busy she is. She makes sure to take that time to sit down and eat her lunch.

Self care is important because:

1. It helps to prevent burn out.
2. If we can’t take care of ourselves, what makes us qualified to take care of others.

Self care can be anything from maintaining clean hygiene to meditation. It encompasses things we do on a day to day basis, and we may not even know we are participating in self care.

For example, I like to do nothing after clinical days. I will sit in front of the television with my girlfriend and binge watch Grey’s Anatomy. Other days I might go to the gym and lift weights for an hour and a half. What I think is most important is having someone to talk about my day with. I’ve learned that it’s important to sort through the day and and think about how it makes me feel.  In the hospital we don’t get much time to reflect on events and how they might effect us, that’s why I think it’s important to have that time for introspection.

During clinical days I will usually take a 15 minute break to grab some coffee, it’s nice to get away for a little bit. During my lunch I will sit in my car and watch videos online, just to relax my mind a little bit. One thing I’ve been doing to increase my water intake is every time I go to get my patients water, I try to drink some water myself. That way, even if I don’t feel thirsty, I remember to have water.

One friend I asked told me that one thing she does for self care is making sure to take her lunch despite how busy she is. She makes sure to take that time to sit down and eat her lunch.

Self care is important because:

1. It helps to prevent burn out.
2. If we can’t take care of ourselves, what makes us qualified to take care of others.

Self care can be anything from maintaining clean hygiene to meditation. It encompasses things we do on a day to day basis, and we may not even know we are participating in self care.

For example, I like to do nothing after clinical days. I will sit in front of the television with my girlfriend and binge watch Grey’s Anatomy. Other days I might go to the gym and lift weights for an hour and a half. What I think is most important is having someone to talk about my day with. I’ve learned that it’s important to sort through the day and and think about how it makes me feel.  In the hospital we don’t get much time to reflect on events and how they might effect us, that’s why I think it’s important to have that time for introspection.

During clinical days I will usually take a 15 minute break to grab some coffee, it’s nice to get away for a little bit. During my lunch I will sit in my car and watch videos online, just to relax my mind a little bit. One thing I’ve been doing to increase my water intake is every time I go to get my patients water, I try to drink some water myself. That way, even if I don’t feel thirsty, I remember to have water.

One friend I asked told me that one thing she does for self care is making sure to take her lunch despite how busy she is. She makes sure to take that time to sit down and eat her lunch.

Self care is important because:

1. It helps to prevent burn out.
2. If we can’t take care of ourselves, what makes us qualified to take care of others.

Self care can be anything from maintaining clean hygiene to meditation. It encompasses things we do on a day to day basis, and we may not even know we are participating in self care.

For example, I like to do nothing after clinical days. I will sit in front of the television with my girlfriend and binge watch Grey’s Anatomy. Other days I might go to the gym and lift weights for an hour and a half. What I think is most important is having someone to talk about my day with. I’ve learned that it’s important to sort through the day and and think about how it makes me feel.  In the hospital we don’t get much time to reflect on events and how they might effect us, that’s why I think it’s important to have that time for introspection.

During clinical days I will usually take a 15 minute break to grab some coffee, it’s nice to get away for a little bit. During my lunch I will sit in my car and watch videos online, just to relax my mind a little bit. One thing I’ve been doing to increase my water intake is every time I go to get my patients water, I try to drink some water myself. That way, even if I don’t feel thirsty, I remember to have water.

One friend I asked told me that one thing she does for self care is making sure to take her lunch despite how busy she is. She makes sure to take that time to sit down and eat her lunch.

Self care is important because:

1. It helps to prevent burn out.
2. If we can’t take care of ourselves, what makes us qualified to take care of others.

I must say I have rarely seen nurses wash their patients hands, unless they’re giving them a bed bath. Often times when I see patient hands, on appearance they look dirty and would benefit from a warm rag with soap to clean and prevent the spread of infection. The patient touches many objects in the room that the health care team either touches with their hands or clothes. These germs can be spread room to room if the team is not as diligent as possible to wash their own hands and minimize their exposure to contamination. Cleaning the patient’s hands three times  a day would be very beneficial not only to limit the spread of germs but also to tend to the personal care needs of the patient.

I must say I have rarely seen nurses wash their patients hands, unless they’re giving them a bed bath. Often times when I see patient hands, on appearance they look dirty and would benefit from a warm rag with soap to clean and prevent the spread of infection. The patient touches many objects in the room that the health care team either touches with their hands or clothes. These germs can be spread room to room if the team is not as diligent as possible to wash their own hands and minimize their exposure to contamination. Cleaning the patient’s hands three times  a day would be very beneficial not only to limit the spread of germs but also to tend to the personal care needs of the patient.

I must say I have rarely seen nurses wash their patients hands, unless they’re giving them a bed bath. Often times when I see patient hands, on appearance they look dirty and would benefit from a warm rag with soap to clean and prevent the spread of infection. The patient touches many objects in the room that the health care team either touches with their hands or clothes. These germs can be spread room to room if the team is not as diligent as possible to wash their own hands and minimize their exposure to contamination. Cleaning the patient’s hands three times  a day would be very beneficial not only to limit the spread of germs but also to tend to the personal care needs of the patient.

Imagine spending a week in bed. You eat there, go to the bathroom there, and entertain visitors there. Now imagine that due to illness and heavy medications, you are disoriented and scratch, pick, and pull on wounds, dressings, IV lines, and urinary catheters. You can’t get up to go to the shower or the sink. Good thing your hygiene needs are being taken care of by the healthcare team, right?

Not so fast. A 2015 study by Fox, et. al., stated that “researchers reported that patients unable to wash their hands had their hands washed by nurses only 14% of the time.”

That is a harsh fact, but one that lines up with what I have seen in the clinical setting. Foaming in-and-out has pretty good adherence by nurses but patient hygiene is more crisis-oriented and revolves around immediate needs, usually related to managing bowel movements.

When I am doing my assessment in the morning and I check cap refill, I usually notice the state of my patients’ hands. Unfortunately they are usually pretty crusty, and I’ll use wet wipes to clean them up.  The Fox, et. al. study used a TID 2% chlorhexidine patient-handwashing intervention to see if it would reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

The results of that study were no statistically significant reductions in HAIs. There are also some drawbacks to using CHG, such as skin redness, irritation, and allergy potential. That said, I still want to implement a patient hand-washing regimen into my practice because hand hygiene is still the best way to prevent infection, as well as being important for patient dignity.

References

Fox, C., Wavra, T., Drake, D. A., Mulligan, D., Jones, L., Bennett, Y. P., & … Bader, M. K. (2015). USE OF A PATIENT HAND HYGIENE PROTOCOL TO REDUCE HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS AND IMPROVE NURSES’ HAND WASHING. American Journal Of Critical Care, 24(3), 216-224. doi:10.4037/ajcc2015898

Growing up, it seemed like my family members were always on some type of medication. I don’t remember when it started, it just seems like they always took pills before bed. As the years passed I heard words like “high blood pressure” and “diabetes.” These words meant nothing to me at the time but now I know they were the reason my family members were taking those pills. For my interview I had a conversation with my parents. They had been taking their medications for a long time so they knew what they were taking and to my surprise they even knew about brand vs. generic names. When it came to talking about side effects and safe doses, I seemed to lose them. They had no clue about the safe doses of their medications, assuming the pharmacist and doctor knew what they were doing and that they would take care of them. I stressed the importance of information and especially with medications it’s not necessary to put all the faith in health care workers who are human and can make mistakes.