NURS 6052 DISCUSSION: PATIENT PREFERENCES AND DECISION MAKING
Sample Answer 4 for NURS 6052 DISCUSSION: PATIENT PREFERENCES AND DECISION MAKING
Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2019) expressed that healthcare professionals make major findings regarding a patient’s health and create an individualized care plan based on an array of clinical knowledge among the healthcare team. This does not come naturally to patients considering not all patients are healthcare workers with any previous education in healthcare. Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2019) explain the patient’s choice regarding what treatment they will accept versus what treatment they will refuse; education overall medication is extremely important and answering all questions a patient has regarding their health. This would allow for patients to fully understand the why behind taking certain medications, and as Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2019) state, “knowledge they produce to influence clinical decision making” (pg. 110); regarding the patient’s decisions. Abhyankar et al. (2020) created a study on the benefits of patient decision aids and the positive benefits of providing patient decision aids but have observed that the lack of implementing patient decision aids in all healthcare facilities causes a massive gap in their study. Abhyankar et al. (2020) convey that healthcare providers might lack the ability to provide patient decision aids; therefore, the lack of patient decision aids provided to patients while hospitalized.
An example of when a patient was involved in their care after having no previous healthcare knowledge about how COVID-19 affects the lungs and what being diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary embolisms truly meant. Before being admitted, all the patients truly knew as it was challenging to breathe and was short of breath with any little movement. Once on the unit, every nurse explains why a certain medication is being given, especially blood thinners, to a COVID-positive patient. Attari et al. (2021) verify an increase in pulmonary embolisms among COVID-19 patients and explain how an increased patient D-dimer trend should notify the healthcare team to get imaging completed for the patient. As I explain the reasoning to why I am injecting a blood thinner (Lovenox) into her abdomen that was only scheduled once a day (2100); the patient then questions why she is only getting one injection when she has two blood clots in both her lungs and expressed “I should be getting more blood thinners.” This was previously my question to the day shift nurse who had given me a report and was denied by the hospitalist to increase the patient’s dose of Lovenox. Fast forward to the next night, I arrived and got report that the patient was placed on a heparin drip due to the patient’s condition worsening and finding out the patient herself requested a higher dose of a blood thinner when the hospitalist rounded during the day. Through brief education and answering all patients’ questions regarding their care and treatment, patients can have suggestions that help save their own lives.
References
Abhyankar, Boland, Brodney, Bravo, Brenner, Coulter, Dahl Steffensen, Giguère, Hoffman, Körner, Langford, Légaré, Matlock, Moumjid, S., Munro, Stirling, & Van Der Weijden. (2020). What works in implementing patient decision aids in routine clinical settings? A rapid realist review and update from the International Patient Decision Aid Standards Collaboration. Medical Decision Making, 41(7), 907–937. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989×20978208
