Essay on Nursing Individualised Care

Introduction

Individualized patient care is a relative new term in the health care industry that involves the recognition and treatment of the patients as autonomous entities. In the United kingdom, the NMC provides a set of codes and regulations that are adhered to by the Nurses and the mid-wives. The first section of the NMC code epitomizes individualized patient care. It concerns itself with prioritising people. Section one of the NMC entails treating patient with respect and dignity. The subsequent parts in section one expound on how the patients ought to be treated in order to demonstrate respect and compassion. Section two of the NMC code entails listening to the patient’s needs and preferences. The subsequent parts in this section expound on how a nurse can listen to the patient’s concerns and preferences. The third section of the NMC strives to ensure that the patients’ physical, social, psychological and psychosocial needs are addressed. The section concerns itself with protecting the vulnerable children and ensuring their welfare is taken care of. Section five of the NMC code entails respecting the privacy and confidentiality of the patient. The first part of the NMC code captures what really entails individualized patient care. In this paper, we explore the various ways in which nurses can provide individualized patient care for the patients. Specifically we examine the various methods that have been used and are currently being used in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. Key consideration is paid to how the nurses ensure that the care is personalized through assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Individualized patient care is a nursing practice that is founded on the recognition of the patient as a distinct individual who requires both respect and dignity. Individualized patient care is a patient centred approach to the rigours and demands of nursing. Individualized care is tailored for the needs and preferences of a particular patient. In the Individualized patient care model, the nurse is expected to recognize and take care of the patient’s beliefs, values and expectations of healthcare. The nurse is also expected to be cognizant of the patient’s demographic and health status. The caring tenet of Individualised patient care includes both the emotive care and the repeated tending activities done by the nurses to the patients. Individualized patient care is said to exist where the nurses and ward sisters spend more time with the patient than that required to dispense their duties. Besides, in individualised patient care the nurses and the patients build a rapport that facilitates communication between them. In individualised patient care, the patient is made aware of all the ward activities. Thus, in an individualised patient care setting the patient knows what he/she is going to expect.

Principles of Individualised Patient Care

The first principle of individualised patient care is valuing people. Valuing people includes the acts of treating people with dignity and respect. The service provider works with the service user to come up with services that address the service user preferences and unique needs. Second, individualized patient care entails recognizing autonomy of patients. Each patient is treated as a single unit capable of making its own decisions. Moreover, the unique choices of the patient are respected. IPC also entails understanding one’s past and current experiences in life. In most cases, one’s experiences have an influence on the health care needs. Both the service provider and the service user are also required to understand the nature of their relationship and how the relationship influence the services rendered to the patient. The environment also forms a core part of individualized patient care in that there are organizational values that are pinned on individual centred needs.The organisations are required to be responsive to the needs of individuals.

Ways in which Nurses can provide individualised patient care

Collaborative care and Support Planning

Nurses can provide individualized patient care to patient with long-term disabilities and disorders through collaborative efforts in caring for the patients. The nurses interview the patients to establish what is considered important by the patient. After that, the nurse works in conjunction with the patient to come up with the best treatment plan (Larkin, Boden, Newton, 2015, pp 1463-1476). The terminal step involves the setting up of health goals for the patient and supporting the patient to ensure that they achieve the respective health goal. For example, Nurses usually work with diabetic patients to come up with individualized treatment plans. The nurses usually work with the patients to determine the history of the patient’s disorders and other related characteristics. Through this it is evident the nurses recognize the autonomous status of the patients; which is a principle of the individualized patient care. The Islington Clinical commissioning Group (CCG) has put in places measures through which the healthcare professionals work together with the patients in coming up with personalised treatment plans. The cooperation is often witnessed in the management of diseases such as dementia, diabetes among others.

Experience-based co-design

EBCD is a service improvement technique, which entails partnership cooperation’s between nurses and patient to together co design healthcare services. In EBCD, information is gathered from the patients using interviews, observations and group discussions (Tsekleves and Cooper, 2017, pp 25-34). The next step involves the identification of touch points and assigning of scores to positive and negative feelings. The touch points constitute the points, which are emotionally significant. Short films are created from the interviews, which are then shown, to the nurses and the other members of the staff. The short film is essential in that it shows the healthcare professionals how the staff conceives the service rendered to them. The short film is then first separately shown to the patients and the healthcare professionals to get their feedback. Thereafter the film is shown to the patients and the nurses at the same time for them to brainstorm about the whole experience. Co design groups are then constituted and run over for the next half year to work on improving the services. The EBCD culminates with a celebration by both the patients and nurses to celebrate the improvement in the services. Thereafter the healthcare professionals jointly work together to come up with strategies on how they can improve the services. Nurses can implement the EBCD in alcohol treatment, diabetic treatment and care for cancer patients. The EBCD can be adapted in different techniques by different health practitioners. The most common adaptation is the accelerated EBCD in which the patient short films are omitted.

Hello, my name is Campaign

The nurses can provide individualized patient care to their patients by adopting the Hello my name is campaign. Kate Granger pioneered the campaign. Kate granger was a medical consultant from Yorkshire who was suffering from cancer. She had experienced how it felt to be a patient and a doctor. According to her, most of the doctors did not introduce themselves, which made her feel low about herself (Kmietowicz, 2015). In fact, she mentions that she felt that she was just but another dead body and not a human being. She aimed to correct this through the Hello my name is campaign. Over 400 000-health professionals in the United Kingdom have adopted the campaign. In 2014, the Scotland government set aside 40000 Pounds for the campaign.

In order to implement Individualised patient care in their respective hospitals, the nurses can implement the Hello My name is campaign in their hospitals. They can go beyond the ideas of Kate by telling the patient more than just their names. Through this, it is easier to create a rapport with the patient. By introducing themselves to the patients, the nurses embrace a core principle of personalised care that is treating patients with respect and dignity. Besides, the nurses can also follow in the footsteps of Kate by creating awareness about the campaign through their social media accounts. Currently most people have an access to social media and thus the nurses can take a step forward in providing individualised patient care by informing their social media circles what constitutes individualised patient care.

House of Care model

The House of Care model is a personalised care model, which has been shown to work in various countries. The model shows what constitutes efficient healthcare planning. The House care personalised care model is a coordination of four key components in the healthcare system. In the model the patients are involved in their treatment and play an active role in coming up with the treatment plan. On the other hand, the health care professionals are committed and actively involved in treating the patient. Again, in the model systems are put in place, which allow for seamless sharing of resources between the patients and the healthcare professionals .The model involves a whole system approach in the commissioning of the health care services.

Nurses can lobby for the implementation of a house of care model in their respective areas of residence. In addition, they can implement the model in their respective areas of practice. They can guide the members of the local communities, which they serve to build structures, which are designed to cater for the needs of the people. In the structures, the members of the community will be provided with personalized care and treatment. The nurses can also equally use the house of care model to emphasize on the complexities of the individualized personal care. Consequently, they can be able to show the community members that all of them need to be involved to ensure that the individualised personal care works. The nurses can also use the model as a checklist by showing the relevant authorities what is required for individualised personal care to be operational.

Personal and Family Centred Care

Personal and family centred care is a quality improvement process that can be used by the Nurses for the provision of Individualised patient care. It is a combination of the care processes and staff interactions (Krist et al, 2014, pp 418-426). In the model, the nurses work together with the patient to shadow the patient, developing shared vision of service improvement and creating the desired health care set up. The approach is widely used with patients of primary care in the United Kingdom. Specific care processes and staff interactions are used when dealing with such patients.

The personal and Family centred care approach by nurses is a personalised approach for the very fact that it recognizes the autonomy of the patients and jointly works with the patients to improve the quality of the services.

Schwartz rounds

Nurses can also conduct Schwartz rounds to facilitate the development of individualized Patient care in an organisation culture. The Schwartz rounds are based on Staff’s reflection and sharing of personal insights. In the model nurses and other health care professionals, conduct regular interviews that are designed to come up with measures of improvising the non-clinical aspects concerning care (Hughes, Duff and Puntis, 2018, pp 11-12). Nurses have conducted the Schwartz round in the children care settings. The Schwartz rounds have been shown to have numerous benefits since they recognize the autonomy of patients and treating patients with respect and dignity. Because of these rounds, the health care professionals become more empathetic and confident in handling sensitive issues regarding patients.

Shared Decision Making

Nurses can provide individualized patient care by making joint decisions with the patients. In this model, the nurses work together with the patients in coming up with the appropriate treatment plans. The patients are usually encouraged to come up with questions concerning their treatment by the nurses. The nurses also provide decision support materials to the patients that are designed to help the patient make a choice regarding the individualized patient care.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have shown the various ways in which nurses can go about providing individualized patient care to the patients. It is essential to note that in all the cases there is cooperation between the healthcare professionals and the patients; which is essential in that it ensures the nurses are aware of the patient’s needs. The collaborative efforts ensure that each party is aware of what is expected of them. Consequently, the model goes beyond the traditional patient-nurse relationship to a more warm relationship. Individualized patient care is the future of nursing practice that ensures quality is upheld in the nursing care. For the model to be wholly implemented, every component ought to recognize the complexity of the model and work n tandem in ensuring individualized patient care is provided.

References

Hughes, J., Duff, A.J. and Puntis, J.W., 2018. Using Schwartz Center Rounds to promote compassionate care in a children’s hospital. Archives of disease in childhood, 103(1), pp.11-12.

Kmietowicz, Z., 2015. More than 400 000 NHS staff sign up to” Hello, my name is” campaign. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 350.

Krist, A.H., Woolf, S.H., Bello, G.A., Sabo, R.T., Longo, D.R., Kashiri, P., Etz, R.S., Loomis, J., Rothemich, S.F., Peele, J.E. and Cohn, J., 2014. Engaging primary care patients to use a patient-centered personal health record. The Annals of Family Medicine, 12(5), pp.418-42

Larkin, M., Boden, Z.V. and Newton, E., 2015. On the brink of genuinely collaborative care: experience-based co-design in mental health. Qualitative health research, 25(11), pp.1463-1476.

Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2004. The NMC code of professional conduct: standards for conduct, performance and ethics. Nursing & Midwifery Council.

TSEKLEVES, E. and COOPER, R., 2017. Introduction and chapter summary. In Design for Health (pp. 25-34). Routledge.