A client/family centered Nursing care study on Sickle Cell Anaemia

Abstract

Many people believed that „Nursing‟ started with Florence Nightingale, however nursing itself dates back to the beginning of motherhood when nurses were traditionally females. The history of nursing has its root from the care of infants and children, so all mothers were nurses. The word nursing derives its meaning form the latin word “nutricus” which means nourishing. According to Henderson (1960), nursing is defined as theunique function of the nurse, to assist the individual either sick or well in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery or to a peaceful death that he or she would have performed unaided if he or she has the necessary strength, will or knowledge. The history of nursing first started to become more defined with Christianity when Christians cared for the sick, fed the hungry and buried the dead. Hence, it was said that the history of nursing is tied to the church. Florence nightingale came in the scene in 1860, when it became more obvious that love and nurturing alone were not enough to cure diseases. She fulfilled her dream concerning nursing by establishing the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. It was the first formal, fully organized training program for nurses. In this 21st century, many nursing schools were established to help build on the previous skills and experiences that were acquired through long years of housekeeping, assisting in child bearing and care of sick relatives. Nursing practice was based on intuitions, observations and experiences and was focused towards diseases and illness in the olden days. However, today, there is increasing recognition of people‟s need for health care. This has placed nursing at a level where much emphasis is placed on research and the use of scientific data at the bedside. The patient family care study has to do with rendering nursing care to a patient and his/her family. It is made up of the interaction between the patient/family and health team with a specified time frame until the termination of the patient care. The study is based on the nursing process which has the assessment, analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation to be its components which follows a systematic method and it works consistently. The study forms part of the academic requirement on obtaining the Registered General Nursing Certificate awarded by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana. Patients name is not mentioned in the study for confidentiality‟s sake, it is rather the initials that are used. The study is programmed to aid the student nurse to practically apply the nursing process in the care of the patient and apply the knowledge acquired in medicine, surgery, pharmacology, basic nursing, anatomy and all other field of health in the care of the patient. It also helps to enlighten and broadens the knowledge of the student nurse in terms of a particular disease condition and its management, the confidence level too is boosted in order for the student nurse to discharge his/her duties. Finally, a cordial relationship is established between the nurse and patient /family as well as other members of the health team.