Category: Nurse Skills
Articles involving nursing skills and techniques.
Tips for new hospice nurses doing an admission
If you are a new nurse to hospice, one of the tasks you probably dread is doing an admission especially if you have scheduled visits the same day as the admission.
I would like to share with you some tips that when applied may help lower your stress level, and help you remain on time even in cases where you have three to four visits including recertification to do the same day.
Early detection of COVID-19 in the elderly
These are my experiences as a registered nurse caring for geriatric patients in a long-term & rehab care setting where I was the house supervisor responsible for up to 151 residents along with managing the second shift healthcare staff.
By now, you’ve probably had your temperature checked ad nauseam as you visit different locations. Yet, is checking the temperature of your elderly loved ones a good way to know if they may have COVID-19? Are you aware that according to Vital Signs in Older Patients: Age-Related Changes, “older patients are less able to mount a fever response.” Most of my geriatric patients did not have a fever when they contracted COVID-19, and most remained afebrile (without fever) through their stay in the COVID unit.
What’s a more reliable sign of potential COVID-19 infection in the elderly?
INFJ and being a hospice nurse
As an INFJ, I’m almost constantly introspective. Today, I was helping with an emergency where one of our wonderful on-call nurses was in a car accident. During my visit with a patient I admitted yesterday who is transitioning towards actively dying, I was in bewilderment in my mind about how comfortable and peacefully patient I am when I’m around the terminally ill and their family.