Nursing Medication Education Essay - 1650 Words

Nursing Medication: Education (Essay Sample) Content: Nursing Medication: EducationNursing education on drug therapy is encouraged because nurses are close to patients and their families. Nurses should have adequate knowledge on drug therapy in order to help patients with their medication adherence and improve patient outcomes. Nursing education on therapy should equip nurses with adequate knowledge on pharmaceutics of drugs, pathology and nursing practice among others. Similarly, patient education about medication is an important aspect of patient care. It helps to achieve patient outcomes by improving patients adherence to medical prescriptions. Reiss (1996) highlights that the purpose of nurse education about medication and therapies is to promote consistency in approach to assessing, educating and evaluating patients abilities and knowledge with medications. Nursing education on medication and drug therapy enables nurses to make the right assessments and instruction on medication management. It offers nurses a platf orm to control what they tell their patients about therapy and management of medication. Reiss (1996) reiterates that patient adherence to medication enhances patient outcomes. Nurses should have the right skills to teach patients on medication adherence and address patients fears concerning therapy and medications. Patient medication teaching should include components aimed at improving self administration of medication among patients. According to Shelfer (1989), patient education on medication should focus on empowering patients with visual recognition of the drug, medication dosage and time for each medication. Patient education on medication should help the patient to understand all side effects of the prescribed medication and address the patients fears associated with medication. Shelfer (1989) urges that when physicians or nurses are administering medications, all prescriptions should have the expected period for which the medication should be taken. Nurses should highlight this period to patients and help them understand the consequences of failure to adhere to prescription. Nurses should educate patients to understand that noncompliance to prescription can lead to therapeutic failure (Shelfer, 1989). They should utilize valuable education techniques to enhance patient compliance to medication and therapy because lack of compliance increases the severity of illness, patients dependency and medication side effects. Research has shown that involving patients in administration of their own medication increases their safety and enables the nurse to evaluate how the patient understands his medication (Shelfer, 1989). Nurses should ensure that patients are comfortable with the idea of nurses administering medication to patients rather than forcing them to do so. This can only be achieved by utilizing effective communication between nurses and their patients. According to Brincat (2012), medication adherence is the degree to which patients take their own me dication according to agreed recommendations by healthcare providers. Patients have the right to choose to comply with medication recommendations given by healthcare providers. Studies have shown that between thirty and fifty percent of medications prescribed for patients with long-term conditions are not taken as recommended (Brincat, 2012). Non adherence to medication is usually unintentional or intentional. Causes of non-intentional adherence include patients poor recall, patients inability to understand instructions or forgetting to take the prescribed medication (Brincat, 2012). There are knock-on costs that result from increased healthcare demands when patients fail to comply with medication. Research has shown that non-adherence to medication causes annual losses of $100 billion in U.S each year (Brincat, 2012). It is important for nurses to utilize effective education strategies to improve patient outcomes by enhancing adherence to prescribed medication.The American Colle ge of Preventive Medicine (2011) emphasizes on the fact that patient education on medication should be conveyed in a simple manner that patients understand. Nurses should explain to patients how they should administer medications to themselves and create a shame-free environment where patients can freely express their concerns. They should encourage patients to openly ask questions and voice their concerns during education on medication. Creating an atmosphere that encourages successful interaction between the patient and the nurse is important because it helps the nurse to clarify information, explore patients questions, and explore patients beliefs and concerns about medication. It also increases patient satisfaction with them medication (Brincat, 2012). Educating patients on medication should focus on enhancing the patients understanding about the importance of taking medication and how it improves their treatment outcomes. Effective communication between the nurse and the patien t has a direct impact on positive patient care outcomes such as increased patient satisfaction, increased ability for patient to recall information, improved health status and adherence to medication prescriptions (American College of Preventive Medicine, 2011). This is mainly because discussions between patients and their providers help patients to understand their illnesses, benefits of adhering to treatments and the weight of the risks that their illnesses pose. According to American College of Preventive Medicine (2011), poor adherence to prescriptions leads to decrease in treatment benefits and may obscure assessment of therapeutic effectiveness. Furthermore, non-adherence accounts for 30 to 50 percent of treatment failures and leads to poor treatment outcomes. Nurse education on therapy should focus on how to effectively communicate with patients in order to eliminate patients misunderstanding on medication prescriptions. It should also focus on enhancing nurses understanding of different cultures and beliefs of their patients to help them avoid assumption... Nursing Medication Education Essay - 1650 Words Nursing Medication: Education (Essay Sample) Content: Nursing Medication: EducationNursing education on drug therapy is encouraged because nurses are close to patients and their families. Nurses should have adequate knowledge on drug therapy in order to help patients with their medication adherence and improve patient outcomes. Nursing education on therapy should equip nurses with adequate knowledge on pharmaceutics of drugs, pathology and nursing practice among others. Similarly, patient education about medication is an important aspect of patient care. It helps to achieve patient outcomes by improving patients adherence to medical prescriptions. Reiss (1996) highlights that the purpose of nurse education about medication and therapies is to promote consistency in approach to assessing, educating and evaluating patients abilities and knowledge with medications. Nursing education on medication and drug therapy enables nurses to make the right assessments and instruction on medication management. It offers nurses a platf orm to control what they tell their patients about therapy and management of medication. Reiss (1996) reiterates that patient adherence to medication enhances patient outcomes. Nurses should have the right skills to teach patients on medication adherence and address patients fears concerning therapy and medications. Patient medication teaching should include components aimed at improving self administration of medication among patients. According to Shelfer (1989), patient education on medication should focus on empowering patients with visual recognition of the drug, medication dosage and time for each medication. Patient education on medication should help the patient to understand all side effects of the prescribed medication and address the patients fears associated with medication. Shelfer (1989) urges that when physicians or nurses are administering medications, all prescriptions should have the expected period for which the medication should be taken. Nurses should highlight this period to patients and help them understand the consequences of failure to adhere to prescription. Nurses should educate patients to understand that noncompliance to prescription can lead to therapeutic failure (Shelfer, 1989). They should utilize valuable education techniques to enhance patient compliance to medication and therapy because lack of compliance increases the severity of illness, patients dependency and medication side effects. Research has shown that involving patients in administration of their own medication increases their safety and enables the nurse to evaluate how the patient understands his medication (Shelfer, 1989). Nurses should ensure that patients are comfortable with the idea of nurses administering medication to patients rather than forcing them to do so. This can only be achieved by utilizing effective communication between nurses and their patients. According to Brincat (2012), medication adherence is the degree to which patients take their own me dication according to agreed recommendations by healthcare providers. Patients have the right to choose to comply with medication recommendations given by healthcare providers. Studies have shown that between thirty and fifty percent of medications prescribed for patients with long-term conditions are not taken as recommended (Brincat, 2012). Non adherence to medication is usually unintentional or intentional. Causes of non-intentional adherence include patients poor recall, patients inability to understand instructions or forgetting to take the prescribed medication (Brincat, 2012). There are knock-on costs that result from increased healthcare demands when patients fail to comply with medication. Research has shown that non-adherence to medication causes annual losses of $100 billion in U.S each year (Brincat, 2012). It is important for nurses to utilize effective education strategies to improve patient outcomes by enhancing adherence to prescribed medication.The American Colle ge of Preventive Medicine (2011) emphasizes on the fact that patient education on medication should be conveyed in a simple manner that patients understand. Nurses should explain to patients how they should administer medications to themselves and create a shame-free environment where patients can freely express their concerns. They should encourage patients to openly ask questions and voice their concerns during education on medication. Creating an atmosphere that encourages successful interaction between the patient and the nurse is important because it helps the nurse to clarify information, explore patients questions, and explore patients beliefs and concerns about medication. It also increases patient satisfaction with them medication (Brincat, 2012). Educating patients on medication should focus on enhancing the patients understanding about the importance of taking medication and how it improves their treatment outcomes. Effective communication between the nurse and the patien t has a direct impact on positive patient care outcomes such as increased patient satisfaction, increased ability for patient to recall information, improved health status and adherence to medication prescriptions (American College of Preventive Medicine, 2011). This is mainly because discussions between patients and their providers help patients to understand their illnesses, benefits of adhering to treatments and the weight of the risks that their illnesses pose. According to American College of Preventive Medicine (2011), poor adherence to prescriptions leads to decrease in treatment benefits and may obscure assessment of therapeutic effectiveness. Furthermore, non-adherence accounts for 30 to 50 percent of treatment failures and leads to poor treatment outcomes. Nurse education on therapy should focus on how to effectively communicate with patients in order to eliminate patients misunderstanding on medication prescriptions. It should also focus on enhancing nurses understanding of different cultures and beliefs of their patients to help them avoid assumption...

Rebirth and Renewal in “The Horse-dealer’s Daughter” - Literature Essay Samples

, but of their soul; this is counter-intuitive to the human spirit. D.H. Lawrence presents, in his short story â€Å"The Horse-dealer’s Daughter,† two primary examples of persons who have been living in a death-in-life state and then experience a symbolic and transformative rebirth and renewal. Initially it is through Mabel Pervin’s impassive behaviors that the audience can feel her detachment and distance from anything but the monotony of life. As her brothers speak to her, her verbal responses are far and few between (Lawrence, 2497-2498). She is in a mindless stupor enacting semi-automatic behavior: â€Å"Mindless and persistent, she endured from day to day. Why should she think? Why should she answer anybody?† (2501). There the nature of Mabel’s death-in-life state is revealed, but what is the cause? The audience learns there are two catalysts for Mabel’s death-in-life state one being the death of her mother when she was fourteen years old (2501). The speaker shares that Mable â€Å"lived in the memory of her (dead) mother†. Mabel’s state is ironically inspired by the fact of death itself. Money used to be the only thing, after her mother’s death, that Mabel could invest emotion in and gain esteem from, but her father’s death has brought poverty and there is no money left (2500). â€Å"Now, for Mabel the end had come . . . and there was no way out,† this â€Å"end† mimics the ending of existence itself for Mabel, and there being no way out suggests that literal death is the only option: â€Å". . . she seemed in a sort of ecstasy to be coming nearer to her fulfillment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified† (2501). While Mabel is at her mother’s grave, the speaker describes that Mabel believes â€Å"the life she followed here in the world was far less real than the world of death she inherited from her mother†. She feels closer to her dead mother than she does to any living person. The actuality of death becomes appealing to Mabel, as eventually shown when she attempts to kill herself. Unlike Mabel Pervin, Jack Ferguson can owe his death-in-life state to the monotony of human ritual workplace routine, but similarly to Mabel, Jack is also living his life vicariously through an indirect source. The reader is first introduced to the idea that Jack is living a mundane life when he makes eye contact with Mabel while she is at the churchyard: â€Å"He had been feeling weak and done before. Now the life came back into him, he felt delivered from his own fretted, daily self† (2502). Here, it is confessed that Jack does not feel as if he is living, in fact he continuously wishes to escape the lull of human routine: â€Å"Nothing but work, drudgery. . . It wore him out, but at the same time he had a craving for it. It was stimulant to him to be in the homes of the working people . . . the contact with the rough, strongly-feeling people was a stimulant applied direct to his nerves†. Jack is not experiencing for himself the very raw emotion of life he witnesses in his patients’ homes. His life, because of his human ritual which is his vocation, is a dissociation from emotionally invested aspects of life. In correlation to Mabel and Jack’s death-in-life states Lawrence begins to use language that assists this theme: â€Å"It was grey, deadened . . . the dusk of the dead afternoon . . . the dead water . . . clasped dead cold . . . The dead cold pond . . .† (2502-2503). Parallel to Mabel and Jack’s predicaments nature is in its own death-in-life state as well, which is viewed as imperative in order for spring to bloom thereafter, implying that Mabel and Jack will experience some sort of transformation as nature herself experiences during transitions seasons. Just as spring follows winter, a rebirth and renewal in love follow Mabel and Jack after many years of living life in mindless and unstimulating motions. Mabel is physically revived to consciousness because of Jack’s inherent sense of duty to help those he can, after she has a near-death experience. Mabel surfaces and reawakens after nearly facing death, she is overcome with newfound love, having been void herself of any kind of emotion previously. Jack’s rescuing Mabel is dangerous on her end because essentially she is born again, she is starting a new with the risks of giving too much of herself to something to the point where she has nothing left; she essentially is beginning a process that could end her exactly as her previous predicament attempted to, this is reflected in her final reflection to Jack’s marriage proposal which is one of unexpected aberrance. Jack faces dangers of his own by rescuing Mabel to a point where he now finds himself invested in a si tuation that deviates entirely from the rigidness of his human ritual. Jack struggles against his will to retreat from the very raw emotion his subconscious desires intensely, he is confronted with the stimulating emotion he has been witness to for so long; he cannot break away from Mabel because this is what he has always wanted: â€Å"It was horrible. He revolted from it violently. And yet—and yet—he had not the power to break away† (2505). He feels an initial resistance to loving Mabel; his human ritual has such a spell over him that even a human sentiment as strong as love is urged to be suppressed by his actual will. His subconscious wants to feel, wants Mabel more than his will believes it his duty to restrain himself, and yet the struggle between himself and his will is a testament to the detriment strict human rituals afflict upon the natural inclinations of humans, which D.H. Lawrence believes should be revered. Again, the reader can find Lawrence’s strategic use of language, immediately deviating from dark to light after Jack’s revival of Mabel, using words like â€Å"live† and â€Å"life† as opposed to the previous example of â€Å"dead† and â€Å"deadening†: â€Å"He could feel her live beneath his hands . . . his life came back to him . . . It was as if she had the life of his body in her hands . . .† (2503-2504). The reader can tend to this distinction between Mabel and Jack’s death-in-life states and their renewal. The dark and light language contrasts just as starkly as Lawrence themes of isolation and love. Mabel’s near-death experience and Jack’s rescue is symbolic because Mabel emotionally rescues Jack, just as much as Jack physically rescues Mabel. They were both suffering from isolation prescribed by the concerns of mundane and superficial human rituals: Mabel’s was that of money and Jack’s was th at of an overwhelming work life. Mabel and Jack’s isolated worlds have come together in newly found love, a realization that the rawness of life is what preserves the desire to live. Through â€Å"The Horse-dealer’s Daughter† Lawrence’s argument is that everyday requirements and expectations, which society creates, can consume the human mind and create great distance between the depth of the human soul and the superficialities the mind feels it must tend to. This argument holds to the end even as Jack declares he wants to marry Mabel and her reaction is left open-ended to interpretation, but no doubt reflects Lawrence’s opinion of human rituals such as marriage: just like any other human ritual it is far too easy for one to give up themselves entirely too it, if they are not careful. Works Cited Lawrence, D. H. The Horse-dealers Daughter. The Twentieth Century and After. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. Vol. F. New York: Norton, 2012. 2496-507. Print. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.