Patients Caregivers And Doctors

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

This book studies the way chronic and long-term illnesses are represented in media, and the issues and structures associated with them. It also examines the way in which patients define themselves, the relationships they form with their carers and the experiences of these carers themselves. The way in which the figure of the caregiver can be portrayed as a necessary support for the patient is also discussed. Testimonies from digital platforms, fictional universes, examples from everyday life and from public and private organizations provide insight into the relationships between patients, caregivers and carers.

Research conducted over the past two decades has shown that poor patient understanding of medication instructions is an important contributor to the more than 1 million medication errors and adverse drug events that lead to office and emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and even death. Patients who have limited literacy skills, who have multiple comorbidities, and who are elderly face the greatest risk, and limited literacy skills are significantly associated with inadequate understanding and use of prescription instructions and precautions. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality notes that only 12 percent of U.S. adults have proficient health literacy that allows them to interpret a prescription label correctly. Given the importance of health literacy to the proper use of medications, and the apparent lack of progress in improving medication adherence, the Roundtable on Health Literacy formed an ad hoc committee to plan and conduct a 1-day public workshop that featured invited presentations and discussion of the role and challenges regarding clarity of communication on medication. Participants focused on using health literacy principles to address clarity of materials, decision aids, and other supportive tools and technologies regarding risks, benefits, alternatives, and health plan coverage. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Health professionals need to learn the communication skills that will create collaborative and mutually satisfying relationships with patients. The failure of doctors to relate effectively to patients results in noncompliance, malpractice suits, longer stays in hospitals and other negative outcomes. Interpersonal skills can be easily learned by studying the techniques described by Gordon and Edwards. Using cases, interviews, dialogues, and vignettes, the authors provide effective models or blueprints for health professionals to follow. Gordon is a psychologist who has pioneered internationally recognized effectiveness training programs widely used by teachers, parents, salesmen, managers, and other professionals. He has published six books that have sold over five million copies in 17 languages. In this work, he has enlisted the expertise of Edwards, a highly respected medical doctor and educator, to provide the necessary insider's view of the health profession. Together they make a convincing case for doctors to develop closer and more collaborative relationships with patients.

The rapid growth of home health care has raised many unsolved issues and will have consequences that are far too broad for any one group to analyze in their entirety. Yet a major influence on the safety, quality, and effectiveness of home health care will be the set of issues encompassed by the field of human factors research-the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. To address these challenges, the National Research Council began a multidisciplinary study to examine a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues resulting from the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for a thorough integration of human factors research with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices. On October 1 and 2, 2009, a group of human factors and other experts met to consider a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues associated with the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. This book is a summary of that workshop, representing the culmination of the first phase of the study.

This anthology is a compendium of scholarly articles from some renowned doctors about medical ailments, personal and learning experiences, life lessons from M.B.B.S students, caregivers’ experiences in dealing with the maladies their dear ones have been afflicted with, patients talking about their own battles with destiny and stories and poems of hope, renewal and revival by a number of prolific literary writers and poets. On our part, let us believe that the doctor has chosen this profession for the main purpose of alleviating the sufferings of mankind. Nevertheless, he too is a human being with normal desires and aims to lead a comfortable life like all his school mates in other professions. On the other hand, a patient never comes to a doctor out of choice.; he never comes in to chat and say, "how are you". He comes there with great expectations. These are most often achieved, no doubting that. Patients too have doctors as part of the family. If we can empathize with them for their work style, bedtime hours, and strange feeding habits; why not with the doctors struggling with our health. treat them too like our own children. And make them never regret their choice of this profession. This might not be a substitute to medical consultation, but certainly sends out a message of hope and empathy that though we are all fighting our own battles, help is always at hand and certainly no one ever fights alone.

A stroke is a devasting occurence in the life of a family. After damage is assessed, the patient, family emembers, caregivers, doctors and friends collaborate on rehabilitation. It is important to understand what kind of stroke the patient suffered and what kinds of physical, neural and nutritional therapies can help to restore normal functioning. This entry in North Atlantic's Family Health Series is a guide to the causes and consequences of a stroke. It outlines a systematic plan to help restore normal living developed by healthcare professionals active in Australia stroke support groups. They are joinded by a Feldenkrais practitioner and a naturopathic physician who describe bodywork and nutritional approaches to complement conventional medicine. After a Stroke will help you understand limitations, effects and recovery prognosis of different kinds of strokes; locate movement therapies and body work to stimulate and re-educate the brain and neural-limb coordination; organize a "health team" blending the best of current orthodox medicine with the bext of traditional, natural therapies; and chart daily patient progress with worksheets, charts and tables.