Application Of Strengths-Based Nursing Principles: The Essay On Emma Gee.

Background Information on the Healthcare System Evolution

Discuss about the Application Of Strengths-Based Nursing Principles.

The nature of the healthcare system currently is gradually evolving. The new innovative system is technically founded on a vision embedded on primary care as well as community-based home care as well health promotion with hospitals maintaining its position as a core pillar of the healthcare system. However, what is primarily different is the fact that the healthcare system is no longer the stipulated primary service. The revolutionized transformation makes it necessary for a new approach to practice. The approach is referred to as Strengths-Based Nursing Care (SBN) which is technically about capitalizing, mobilizing as well as developing an individual’s strengths to facilitate healing and promote health. For RNs to practice SBNC, it is vital to have strong nursing leadership skills that relatively creates a conducive condition to enable them to achieve this. In summary, Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership balances as well as acts in synergy with the SBNC. The paper will hence examine in an in-depth analysis the application of Strengths-based nursing principles with a specific interest in the case of Emma Gee. Simply put, the paper will develop a comprehensive discussion that examines how strengths-based nursing, as well as healthcare, can be implemented for Emma at any point of her journey or through her whole journey to effectively help her in the healing process. The paper will also put into consideration aspects such as critical transformation points in Emma Gee’s journey and also present a based care plan for the critical transition point. Also, there will be a section that will present and demonstrate a holistic approach to the treatment process of Emma. 

SBN can be considered as a vital approach to provision of care (Gottlieb and Gottlieb 2017). In SBN, there are eight core values that guide the nursing action and hence as a result promotes self-efficacy, empowerment, and hope. In the case of Emma Gee, the nurses needed to focus on her inner and outer strengths. Subsequently, this simply entails what the patient and her family indulge in to best help them deal with the situation and in minimizing the related deficits (Koithan 2014). It is important also to point out that across all the levels of care provision, SBN reaffirms the nursing goals embedded on promoting health, alleviating suffering through creating conducive environments, facilitating healing and activities that bolster patients’ capability for health and the patients’ innate mechanism of healing. In the case of Emma, it is true to argue that SBN matches her medical care, enacts the provision of a language that communicates the contributions of the nurses to the patient and family health healing. SBN was also a very relevant factor since it ought to empower the patient as well as her family to gain better charge and control over her health and healing process (LoBiondo-Wood and Haber 2017). One of the fundamental roles of SBN is that it presents a new equilibrium to deficit-based care, which is ironically a substantial attribute that lacked in the case study of Emma Gee. In this regard, SBN would have ensured that there is the focus on understanding the related problems in a broader as well as holistic context which lay focus on the inner and outer strengths. In this case, one of the strengths that Emma Gee recounts that could effectively help the nurses is the concept of her childhood which she agrees held a huge portion of her disability-free life.

Strengths-Based Nursing Care (SBN)

Technically, this marked some of the best memories of her life, a time when she could freely run from one place to the next. She also remembers her neighborhood as one exciting little world with good memories. Her favorite family was the Mullins family. Most important, she agrees that her family made the most impact in her life. Being from a family of six, her parents and four kids, their lives were filled with long-lasting positive memories. They also had strong attachments with their extended family and hence gives the impression that Emma’s family was one of her strongest foundations. With this substantial information, strengths-based nursing could be implemented in Emma’s nursing care to address healthcare needs raised. A strength-based approach, in this case, will be relevant because it presents a genuine basis for addressing the principal mandate of mental health services and advocates for the people taking charge of their personal lives in substantial as well as meaningful ways (LoBiondo-Wood, Haber, Berry and Yost 2013). It is therefore important for her medical team and her family to be part of a process that will analyze the causes of the problem, settle on goals that aim at fixing this problem, making effective plans to achieve the goals, implementing the set plan and finally evaluating the effectiveness of the plan. The primary focus of those involved in this case should be: working in collaborative ways on agreed upon goals, empowering the patient to take charge of their care process, drawing upon personal resources of hope and motivation and focusing on trusting and workable relationships (Townsend 2014). In relation, the strength approach used in this case is a special case method of working with as well as resolving problems faced by Emma Gee. The approach first acknowledges the problems and difficulties. On the contrary, it works to identify the positive attributes of the person’s strengths and also resources that are the vital components used to address the associated problems.

Unconscious patients are delicate and hence should be nursed in different clinical settings. In relation, it is vital to access, plan and to implement nursing care plans for this venerable group of patients. In relation, this section of the paper will comprehensively examine one transition point of Emma’s journey which is specifically the immediate post-surgical care while Emma was unconscious. The plan will be in the form of a strength-based nursing care plan for Emma which includes a family focus as well as collaboration with the other healthcare professionals involved in her treatment process. Unconscious patients have no control over themselves or the environment around them. Technically, this makes them highly venerable and dependent on the nurses and their support systems, which can be in the form of their families. The nursing process of such patients can cause anxiety for the nurse who has to take care of the patient. It is hence important to have a good foundation of a knowledge base of initiating assessment, the planning as well as the implementation of quality care. A strengths-based nursing care plan can be highly advantageous, and also the skills that are generated in the process can be a source of confidence in the care of the patient. Normally, the roots of the unconsciousness influences the time one takes in the coma as well as the prognosis (Potter, Perry, Stockert and Hall 2014). Like in her case, Emma’s unconsciousness was credited to the series of medication for her illness after a series of misdiagnosis. It is, however, important to point out the immediate as well as the ongoing needs of the patient who is unconscious are technically similar irrespective of the origin or the cause of the unconsciousness.

Application of Strengths-Based Nursing Principles for Emma Gee

Any unconscious patient requires skilled emergency management. It is important to point out that as the patient becomes unconscious, the patient loses the capacity or the ability to maintain a safe environment. The nurse, in this case, has a primary obligation to on the lookout for any signs of deterioration in the condition of the patient. About consciousness, the nurse should play a central role in the process of assessment of the central nervous system using what is referred to as the GCS. It also aids in monitoring the vital signs of the patient, pupillary reaction as well as the movements of the limbs (Smith 2017). The mentioned skills are important in the management plan for nurses since it provides for information that allows for the needed interventions where necessary. The ABCD which is airway, breathing, circulation and disability approach to resuscitation is also very essential and should be adopted as well (Munro et al. 2016). Other signs to be on the lookout for include harsh breathing or at times noisy snoring which may be an indication that the air around is being interfered with. The nurse also ought to closely work with the medical team so as to ensure that appropriate pathways of operative and efficient management are functional (Mirkovic et al. 2016). The underlying cause technically dictates the medical management which include: fluid to support cardiovascular function as well as to correct the metabolic derangement and the administration of oxygen or oxygen to maintain tissue perfusion. Also, the human body should be subjected to continuous physical activities and movement, and hence it is necessary to acknowledge that there will be physiological changes that are likely to occur in the unconscious patient (Moyle, Parker and Bramble 2014). This situation is exacerbated by the length of mobility and the quality of care. The nurse should hence effectively implement a framework of care with the primary aim of preventing further complications. An unconscious patient will automatically place great demand on the resources, like time as well as staff. The completion of risk assessment may aid in highlighting the potential compromise to provide a conducive environment for the patient.  

Emma’s experience is an extensive elaboration of the difference between the actual healthcare experiences that should be issued to related cases and the kind of services that our medical facilities issue out. From an analysis of the concept of the Strengths-based nursing care, this section will analyze Emma’s experiences regarding health care provision and an analysis of what she got. Research about the case study has pointed out that different individuals have underlying strengths within themselves that has potential impacts on their recovery. In the case of Emma Gee, one of her strongest support system and source of strengths is her family reflected through her sentiments in the beginning chapters of her book. Simply put, personal factors have the potential to aid in the recovery process. Like in the case study, it is evident that recovery from the related psychological disorders was highly linked to the greater character strengths of the personality. Strengths have been associated with prediction of positive outcomes as well. Regarding the community as a whole, studies have necessitated the need to focus on the strengths of an individual rather than deficits. Subsequently, this is because strengths assessments are linked with good behavioral functioning (Francis & Chong 2014). Relatively, the field of mental health has been impacted by the medical model in which the primary focus is embedded on solving related problems as well as controlling the related symptoms. However, the strengths-based approach lays its main focus on the positive attribute of the consumer (DiCenso, Guyatt and Ciliska 2014). The documentation and the utilization of the strengths of the consumer put the patient on a credible map to recovery. It is also vital for the nursing process to place particular emphasis on an individual-centered approach which in return endorse strengths-based approach. Creation of effective partnership among the patient, clinicians, and other related stakeholders may impact or overcome the potential challenges that are linked with the strengths-based approach. Her extraordinary accounts of her journey across an entire decade as she struggled with reestablishing herself with courage, hope, and determination in the process of recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke, to reinvent herself and to keep on going. The memoir is technically opened up by lyrical accounts of her fantastic childhood, her days at the university oversees travel confidence growing regarding personal and professional achievements as well as adventures in spades. However, this changed out of the blue, with no significant warning, at this time her very life was at the brink of life and death. Anxiety, confusion and frightening thoughts struck her down. Her body suffered at the expenses of the problems she was now encountering. Soon enough, she was subjected to brain surgery in attempts to search for a diagnosis. She suffered a devastating stroke. In relation, the paper presents some of the strategies that effective nursing techniques could have done different, hypothetically, if Emma Gee’s experience was to be relived. One of the aspects that stands out is the illustration of the inner strength of Emma. Reinventing Emma is a comprehensive book that is a must-read for all stakeholders in the health professional field. Subsequently, this is because the experiences of Emma and her description of the society’s misconceptions about disability speaks volume of how little help that we offer people going through the same experiences as she goes a long way. The experiences are also exceptional because Emma decided to find meaning as well as purpose from her condition. It is quite evident that Emma found herself in two choices: do whatever possible to change what she could change or spend her entire life mourning the fact that her dreams had been shattered.

Strengths-Based Nursing Care Plan for Emma Gee

Reinventing Emma also points out much additional information about stroke survivors. Relatively, the book also issues includes strategies that other stroke survivors or their therapists can employ to improve their quality of life. Despite the fact that we live in a society that values ability as well as status, it is important for medical providers as well as other support systems such as family members to help in the process through which the patient overcomes the challenges (DeNisco and Barker 2013). Like in Emma’s case, she reinvents her life and teaches the world that individuals should be accepted by the society for who they are and for what they can offer to the society. The primary ideology being driven here is that human development cannot be accurately determined by science nor the intensity of the spirit measured, neither can the potentiality of an individual be predicted. Walking in the shoes of both a patient and a therapist helped Emma in her anticipated process of making a difference in the lives of so many other people like her or individuals who have gone through the same experiences (Tse et al. 2016). A holistic approach takes into consideration all the crucial elements of a patient’s life. Everybody’s story is different. But the difference is embedded on the will and the determination of the person in question. The motivation that influences this support system is however impacted by the availability of strong support systems like families and other health professionals (Boltz, Capezuti, Fulmer and Zwicker 2016). Many health professionals don’t understand what it feels like to be a patient and how the little things they do plays a central role in the recovery path of someone else. 

In summary, SBN can help achieve patient and family empowerment, health promotion and partnership in Australia through some ways. Strengths-based nursing and healthcare is an approach that guides the process of health delivery for the persons involved as well as their families. The approach is technically at the first, line regarding the concept of international healthcare reforms and nursing developments. One of the primary aims of the approach is to optimize functioning as well as wellbeing, promote healthcare and also create the condition for healing across one’s lifespan (Gottlieb 2014). Subsequently, the approach works with the aid of the person and the family resources and strengths in collaboration with the individual, the healthcare team, and the family. There exist three major principles of strengths-based nursing and healthcare that touches on its advantages:

• Empowerment
• Collaborative partnership
• Health promotion and healing
• Person/family-centered care

Unconscious Patients and Nursing Care Process

The concept of partnership between services are essential to the success of working in health-promoting ways and this importance is acknowledged by practitioners across all levels of institutions (Beckett et al., 2013). Also, it is important to point out that successful partnership strengthens the capability of services as well as projects to broaden the reach by all stakeholders. Some of the primary benefits of partnerships include:

• More efficient resourcing
• More comprehensive service delivery
• Social and community development that aims at strengthening community involvement and action
• System development due to changed relations that exist between organizations
• Policy development at organizational as well as community levels.

In summary, a partnership between individuals also plays a central role in the provision of effective service delivery. The partnership between health professionals, health service organizations, patients, families as well as consumers portray significant benefits in the process of clinical care as well as the related outcomes.  

References

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Boltz, M., Capezuti, E., Fulmer, T.T. and Zwicker, D. eds., 2016. Evidence-based geriatric nursing protocols for best practice. Springer Publishing Company.

DeNisco, S. and Barker, A.M. eds., 2013. Advanced practice nursing: Evolving roles for the transformation of the profession. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

DiCenso, A., Guyatt, G. and Ciliska, D., 2014. Evidence-Based Nursing-E-Book: A Guide to Clinical Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Francis, A. and Chong, M.D., 2014. Application of Strengths-Based Principles in Addressing Mental Health Issues. Social Work Practice in Mental Health: Cross-Cultural Perspectives,1, p.90.

Gottlieb, L.N. and Gottlieb, B., 2017. Strengths-Based Nursing: A Process for Implementing a Philosophy Into Practice. Journal of Family Nursing, 23(3), pp.319-340.

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Mirkovic, J., Kristjansdottir, O.B., Stenberg, U., Krogseth, T., Stange, K.C. and Ruland, C.M., 2016. Patient Insights Into the Design of Technology to Support a Strengths-Based Approach to Health Care. JMIR research protocols, 5(3).

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Munro, M., Gallant, M., MacKinnon, M., Dell, G., Herbert, R., MacNutt, G., McCarthy, M.J., Murnaghan, D. and Robertson, K., 2016. The Prince Edward Island conceptual model for nursing: a nursing perspective of primary health care. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 32(1).

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