Family can influence a major part of your life, health, wealth etc and as my patient is a child I will discuss her family’s background and her family’s lifestyle. Housing, Friends and education will also be the minor proportion of my client’s life that I will talk about in this essay. Sky has just recently started secondary school
I will research a few of the resources that are available for parents and the patient on Gastro Enteritis such as leaflets and websites, I am already aware that in the local vicinity there are support groups and doctors available for home visiting. I will also relate the policies at my placement setting to the care of this patient and the patient’s beliefs and values. I will also research the statistics that relate to Gastro Enteritis in the patients area.
I will use a suder name for the patient which will be ‘Sky’ and will not disclose any personal information or any information that is to be kept confidential, as stated in the NMC code of conduct (section 5.1)‘As a registered nurse, midwife, or specialist community public health nurse you must protect confidential information’.
I understand the legal issues related to patient confidentiality so therefore I have replaced all the patients’ details etc with artificial details; I have read the policies at my placement area and understand them so I will therefore also explain the regulations that are included in the policies and relate them to the patients care plans and care.
I have gained the patients consent before writing this essay but will discuss the different forms of consent throughout this piece of work and also discuss the importance of consent relating it to legal documents that are within the placement but also that are local. Sky is a twelve year old, Asian female. She lives with her mother who is a single parent in a two bedroom house with two other Tennants who are a couple, Sky’s mother works full time as a shop assistant and left school at the age of sixteen. They are working class and the family has no previous history of Gastro enteritis. Sky and her family are from the Muslim religion, and they live in an industrial area near a lot of factories. Sky and her family are from a working class background and her dad is also a factory worker nearby, and mom is a housewife and is not permitted to work in the United Kingdom, and also her husband will not allow this, so therfore she spends a lot of time with her family.
The NMC states that ‘As a registered nurse, or midwife or specialist community public health nurse, you must obtain consent before you give any treatment or care’ also that ‘As a registered nurse or specialist community public health nurse you must respect the patient or client as an individual’ therefore it is important that we provide the right standards of care for each patient as an individual regardless of their race, culture or religion. Research shows that gastro enteritis is a very common problem especially in countries such as Pakistan; my client was born In Pakistan and migrated to England at the age of eleven. Research also shows that Gastro enteritis outbreaks have increased since 2002 and 2003 and this was found after monitoring a few hospitals in the U.K, Research also shows that ‘A total of 2,154 patients (2.21 cases/1,000-hospital-days) and 1,360 healthcare staff (0.47 cases/1,000-hospital-days) were affected in 227 unit outbreaks (1.33 outbreaks/unit-year)’.
Muslims believe that anything that promotes healthy eating etc is of an advantage to them so therefore are emphasized for their nutritious quality. However they also have certain beliefs towards medication and some may completely reject medicine. My client’s feeds are supported by a PEG tube (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) which means that extra care should be taken toward hand washing and sterilising the utensils used during the feed as this is going directly in to her stomach so there is more risk of an immediate infection. Sky’s father believes is the problem and have caused her to suffer from gastro enteritis, he is finding it hard to trust the nurses due to this and any other medical staff, and however mom is fully supportive.
Sky is also disabled due to the parents being biological sister and brother and parents are not always around her so therefore nursing staff have to take care of the patients hygienic needs, but again dad refuses to let male nurses touch his daughter and also refuses to touch her himself, so due to this dad has no physical contact with his child. This is because they believe that a female should be respected and that no part of her body should be exposed to any male, so they would always want a female patient examined in the presence of another female.
Sky has six other siblings, three of which their parents have sent away to Pakistan to live with a far distance family member as they are also disabled, and the other three are still under the care of parents. Sky’s parents believe that it is her fault that she is in such a state as they believe as Muslims; they consider an illness as atonement for their sins. They receive illness and death with patience and prayers. However, they are strongly encouraged to seek treatment and care but dad refuses to support this belief and is against the methods health care professionals are using in order to treat Sky. There are a lot of laws that support my client, such as The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004) which supports the patient’s needs and makes the carer aware of their right to a Carers Assessment. It also ensures that work, and leisure is considered when a carer is assessed, it also ensures that the patients’ rights are equal to all other patients and/or clients, regardless of their mental/physical/ and emotional state etc.
Due to my patient being disabled they are also covered by the disabilities act, (a disabled person is someone with a physical or mental impairment/problem that has a considerable/significant and long-term adverse affect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities). The disabilities act establishes the rights and entitlements of people with disabilities. The human rights act(1998) not only supports the needs of my client but also every individual that lives in the United Kingdom, it supports almost every need of people and it is also related to the (DDA) Disability discrimination act, and it intends to reduce discrimination against disabled people.
My client and her parents are entitled to a variety of allowances and benefits such as Income support, disability benefits, Care allowances, Incapacity Benefit and her parents are entitled to extra help with household chores and the care of Sky. In the workplace there are quite a few policies, and many of them relate to Sky’s care, I will discuss a relevant policy that not only applies to Sky but also applies to other patients and is important to my placement area, such as the infection prevention and control policy which supports the hygiene and cleanliness of the hospital, it also ensures that the Trust has appropriate and sustainable infection prevention and control arrangements in order and in place. One of the main subjects discussed are hand hygiene and it is widely acknowledged in my placement area and believed to reduce the spread of disease, therefore there are bottles of alcohol-gel situated outside each patient’s room, also a sink in patient’s room and a diagram that demonstrates the correct ways of hand washing. The policy encourages each member of staff and also visiters to wash their hands or use alcho-gel in order to keep everything infection and germ free. Nurses should also be wearing white disposable aprons when in contact with clinical practice or a patient and also gloves. When bathing my client gloves arent worn as this may offend the patient, the client is bed bathed as she is not able to mobilize herself due to being disabled. The muslim religion encourages hygiene and cleanliness, so therefore no matter what the age of the patient, their rooms should be cleaned everyday and so should they, Sky is bed bathed everyday and also treated with whatever medicines she may need and due to having excema she is massaged with the prescribed medicines, she also has her bed sheets changed everyday and her bed cleaned everyday as she easily defecates herself, although she wears a nappy, and due to her suffering from gastroenteritis she is suffering from diahorrea and sickness. Sky is on a PEG feed and therfore is more prone to vomiting than a lot of other patients. Sky’s parents visit regularly so take a great part in encouraging cleanliness etc.
