What precautions do you take with a patient in poor health?

"Any time I see a new patient, I take my time to get to know them both personally and what their health history looks like. Oftentimes, this can lead me to understand just how poor their health conditions are, and I am able to customize my care to them. Emotionally, I'm sensitive to the situation they are going through, and physically, depending on their illness or disease, I do my best to protect them in their fragile state by washing my hands, wearing proper PPE, etc."

"During my schooling as a nurse, we were required to take a communications class. Here, I learned excellent question and answer techniques to get to know a patients health history better. As I enter the workforce as a new nurse, I know that I will be able to put these skills to use with each and every new patient that I encounter to help me give them the best care possible."

"Getting to know each patient and their history through what I call a fact-finding process is very important in how I care for each patient individually. Recently, we had a gentleman come into our Emergency Room with what appeared to be chest pain. With him visiting family in our area, we didn't have immediate access to his medical records. While in the room, I was asking him about his health history and we learned that he was a severe diabetic. Knowing this, we were able to customize his care and avoid procedures that could potentially be harmful to him."

"Working in an adult medicine outpatient clinic, I help patients who are perfectly healthy and patients who have multiple comorbidities. While I strive to give great care to all my patients, I am extra cautious around our patients who have multiple conditions and spend extra time with them to be sure their questions are answered, they understand their medications, and that they understand their medical conditions. It is important to me that these patients are aware of their conditions and how they can self-manage them because helping keep these patients as healthy as possible is a priority."

"I always ensure I am wearing the appropriate PPE when providing care to my patients. I am particularly cautious when a person is in poor health and make sure I assess if more than simply the standard precautions are necessary. I feel communication is key for these patients and I sit with them to talk about their health concerns and to see if I am able to determine any potential underlying factors. I recently had a patient who came in malnourished and with significant body odor. It was through sitting with the patient and having a conversation that I was able to learn that he did not have the resources available to eat regularly and he was physically limited on being able to bathe himself well. After learning this, I was able to relay the information to the doctor and help develop a plan of care that included therapy services to gain strength, case management, as well as social work to make sure all his other health needs were being met and he had a safe transition back home when it was time for discharge."

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