A patient/family care study on acute gastroenteritis

Abstract

Nursing was “untaught” and instinctive. It was performed out of compassion for others, out of the wish to help others. Nursing was a function that belonged to women. It was viewed as a natural nurturing job for women. Nursing emerged as a profession in the mid-19th century. Historian’s credit Florence Nightingale, a well-educated woman from Britain, as the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale challenged social norms – and her wealthy parents – by becoming a nurse. At the time, the public objected to the idea of women nursing strangers. But Nightingale saw nursing as an extraordinary opportunity for females. She believed they could use their education and scientific knowledge to improve patient care while gaining personal independence. In 1854, during the Crimean War, the British government requested Nightingale’s aid at a military hospital in Turkey. Within weeks of her small team arriving, the mortality rate of British soldiers fell dramatically. Nightingale’s accomplishments impressed the public and ultimately helped convince the Western world of the dignity and value of educated nurses. One prominent change in the evolution of the nursing profession is formalized education. The first training programs opened at hospitals in the late-19th century. Student nurses received clinical instruction in exchange for providing care to patients. During this period of training, nurses helped hospitals make tremendous improvements in safety and quality, and humanized medical care. By the second half of the 20th century, patient needs became more complex and hospitals required skilled nurses to manage them. The hospital-based education model thus declined in favor of training programs at colleges and universities. The patient/family care study is a report of nursing care rendered to a patient and family by a final year student nurse in which a patient is selected from the ward, nursed from the day of admission till discharge and possible follow – up visits are made to maintain optimum level of health of the patient. The patient/family care study forms part of the assessment of every final year student. It is a prerequisite for every candidate in order to partially fulfill the award of license in Registered General Nursing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana. It affords the student the opportunity to develop his/her skills for future use. The patient and family care study enables the student nurse to do more research, interact and co–ordinate with other members of the health team for the promotion of comprehensive and quality health care to individuals and the community as a whole. The study also provides opportunity for the student nurse to use scientific methodology and holistic approach to nursing care. It helps the student nurse transform his/her theoretical knowledge acquired into practice so that the necessary skills and knowledge could be obtained for professional work. The care study builds up confidence in the student nurse and helps him/her to take up full responsibilities in caring for a patient and his/her family. Finally, it gives the student nurse some level of competence in rendering accurate nursing care using the nursing process approach. This care study was done to acquire more knowledge about gastroenteritis and its outcome on patient and family. Due to patient and relative confidentiality and anonymity, patient andrelative’s names will be replaced by abbreviations. Therefore, patient in this study would be referred as Miss E.A.A, the mother and the father as Mrs F.M and Opanyin A.K respectively.