Using The Therapeutic Touch when Caring

Caring is described as a way of providing care. Care can be provided both physically and emotionally. Nurses’ treat patients medically while at the same time connecting on an emotional level. Therapeutic touch becomes very important when giving care to the patient. A nurse must show a patient they care in order for the patient to open up. Nurses are the backbone to creating that comfortable and trusting environment for the patient. Nurses should begin by getting to know their patient, their lifestyle, employment history, family history, medical history, eating habits, and exercise habits. Using the therapeutic touch and developing that therapeutic relationship with a patient can only benefit the nurse and make the nurses job just a little less stressful and more rewarding.

Burnout in Nursing

I recently did a group project on a article written by Patricia Beech a retired RN called “the nurse is not for burning”. Patricia does a great job identifying certain aspects of a nurse’s life that will further burn him or her out and ways to prevent burnout. She identifies six major things causing burnout; everyone wants you, family and friends, sole carer, friendships, say no, and good health. As a nurse it is important that we become aware of the extra stressor not only in our work life but also in our personal life and find ways to prevent burnout. Many nurses put so much time into pleasing everyone else and taking care of everyone else that they forget the most important person themselves.

Check out this video on nursing burnout out: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6_D29DnH0Q0

Technology in Nursing

In my opinion technology in the health care system is a large benefit. Technology gives health care providers new systems and tools to make their profession less overwhelming. It allows nurses to finish more tasks in a short period of time. At times nurses can become stressed due to large workloads and lack of time in a day making them become cold and unresponsive to patients needs. Technology gives nurses more time for one on one patient care. More bed side care will create better therapeutic relationships this can lead to better diagnosis. Technology is improving medical asepsis and tools and equipment used in the delivery of care. Technology is and will continue revolutionizing making it easier to deliver care and communicate with patients.

Why I chose to take Nursing

My senior year in high school I was very anxious and overwhelmed with the thought of choosing an area of study and choice of career. There were multiple schools with very astonishing academic history, which left me with a choice that petrified me. Health science was a field that I was very interested in at the time, along with the thought that I would love to teach others. As time passed I made the formal decision that I would take a year off. This year would be to ensure that the career choice I made was best suited for me. The year I returned I had the opportunity of taking both a cooperative placement in a teaching field and at the Brockville General Hospital. Within days of being in the hospital I knew that it was where I wanted to be and nursing was the correct career choice for me. I felt compelled to the career. Nurses worked with patients to achieve health and wellness, it seemed like such an extraordinary and rewarding process that I really wanted to become a part of.

Hi my name is Shannon. I am a first year nursing student. I was born in Quebec and now live in Brockville Ontario. For this year I live on campus in residence. I am fluent in both English and French. I chose nursing as a career because I felt it was a challenging career with many opportunities. I also felt that nursing would be a very rewarding and exciting job because every day is different. This is my first time creating a blog. I think blogs are a great way to get messages out to people who are interested in a certain subject whom you may not know. It gives you the opportunity to share your personal thoughts and feeling about a specific topic with others.