Descriptions of Grief and Loss, Essay Example

This course has helped me acquire a wide variety of skills that will be applicable to my career as a health care professional. After completing the checklist of competency topics as a part of this lesson, I recognized that I feel comfortable in performing each topic at all times. As a consequence, a major strength that I have developed as a consequence of my studies is the ability to communicate, through both spoken and written word. This is particularly important in health care, because errors related to miscommunication have direct impacts on the well-being and quality of life of our patients. Therefore, it is essential to transmit messages in an effective and concise manner, in order to uphold expected standards of nursing. Furthermore, having excellent communication facilitates critical thinking in problem solving, which is also a necessary component of the profession.

After completing this course, I feel more confident taking care of members of the elderly population. A major difference that it noticeable between this patient population and younger individuals is that the health of many geriatric patients is impacted by their age both biologically and psychologically. It is essential to ensure that these individuals are mentally healthy, which will allow them to cope with both their own aging process in addition to the inevitable deaths of their friends and family members. I believe that a deep understanding of how to counsel elders in coping with death in addition to demonstrating whether they are experiencing integrity and despair is an important factor in allowing these patients to achieve optimal health. By understanding the events that occurred previously in the lives of these individuals, it is easier to determine how they are likely to feel about events that they are currently experiencing.

It is of foremost importance to understand the mental health conditions of geriatric patients, because this mental state often ties into their ability to become physically well. For example, a senior who is experiencing despair may want to die, and feel that it would be advantageous to not attend doctor appointments regularly and to take medications. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the health care professional to understand where these patients are coming from and to develop reasonable solutions to these problems.

I believe that the second most important skill I acquired in this class is knowledge of the likelihood of falls and injuries among seniors and how to deal with this knowledge. When working with patients in a health care organization, it is essential to ensure that these patients rise slowly, and that the hospital staff is taking the utmost care to allow them to have their time in getting from place to place. In an inpatient setting, this includes labelling the patient’s door to warn all workers of the patient’s tendency to fall. This way, it will be easier for the staff to be aware of the patient’s particular needs.

Before taking this course, I was aware of the nutrition and hydration needs of seniors, but I had failed to consider that in the modern day, it is difficult for them to acquire the nutrition they need. It is often easier for seniors to eat at fast food restaurants or to order meals because they do not have to prepare them for themselves. This is unfortunate, because this prevents them from getting many of the vitamins and minerals they need. I believe that a reasonable solution to this is to provide them with information about food delivery services, such as Fresh Direct, that will provide them with nutritionally well-rounded meals. Since good nutrition can prevent many disorders, it is essential that seniors stress this as an importance in their lives.