More Funding For Patients at Home

Nowadays patients are staying less and less in the hospitals. They are discharged from hospitals with IV bags and machines. Patients can even receive chemotherapy and dialysis right in the comfort of their living rooms. Other health care services like Rehab, PT, OT, Speech Therapy and dietary assessment can be done at the patients’ homes. Even patients with the worst post-op infected wounds are now discharged early from the hospitals. Assessment and treatment of their wounds are possible because of the nurses that come to their homes. This present healthcare situation is saving the government a lot of money as the cost of hospitalization is decreasing due to shorter patients' stay in the hospital. It is only right therefore that the government should increase the funding for home care in order to serve better the increasing number of patients who choose to receive services right at their homes.

Providing nursing anytime...anywhere

Community nurses are expected to visit patients anytime and anywhere. When I say anytime, I mean they are expected to see patients regardless of the weather, the season, or the time of day/night. When IV pumps need to be restarted, community nurses are paged to see the patient even if there is a snow storm or a heavy rain. Good driving in the dark is a must for community nurses because oftentimes they are called to see a patient even if it is in the middle of the night. Community nurses cannot choose whom to see. For them, a patient who lives in a wealthy neighbourhood is the same as that patient who lives in a dilapidated bungalow in a dangerous neighbourhood. Community nursing is not an easy job...but it does get easier after drinking that hot chocolate drink which Mrs Smith (my patient who requires wound dressing) specially prepares for me.

Technology in Community Nursing

Technology has really made a big difference in the way community nurses communicate with each other. Because community nurses do not have a “nursing station” where they can meet and exchange reports and information regarding patients’ care plan and care treatment, community nurses rely heavily on technology. Community nurses utilize the Internet to email reports to colleagues, fax machines to receive caseload reports and referrals, and cell phones to provide and receive information when the matter is urgent. Without the use of these technologies, community nurses would feel isolated in the community. Technology helps community nurses to work as a team.

Public Health

Community Nursing is the way to go!!!!

photo from http://www.elearnonline.net/

I have been a community/visiting nurse for almost three years now and I can finally say that I will probably be in this nursing profession until my retirement. The best thing about community nursing is that I see my patients in a very unique setting – their own home. I find my patients more relaxed, less demanding and easier to deal with. My theory is because they are in the comfort of their own homes where familiar objects, scents and sounds are present. They are not lying on strange unfamiliar beds where they hear strange noises coming from other patients, the busy staff and the med carts that are constantly being pushed by the nurses. I definitely enjoy doing my community work and I highly recommend this to other nurses looking for a job. Community nursing is definitely the way to go!!!!!!

Laughter is the best medicine

10 Reasons to become a nurse

1.Pays better than fast food, though the hours aren't as good.
2. Fashionable shoes & sexy white uniforms.
3. Needles: It's better to give than to receive.
4. Reassure your patients that all bleeding stops eventually.
5. Expose yourself to rare, exotic, & exciting new diseases.
6. Interesting aromas.
7. Courteous & infallible doctors who always leave clear orders in perfectly legible handwriting.
8. Do enough charting to navigate around the world.
9. Celebrate the holidays with all your friends, at work.
10. Take comfort that most of your patients survive no matter what you do to them.

(from www.jokesaboutnurses.com)

My new post

About Me

Full-time community nurse in York Region.... full-time nursing student ..and a first time blogger. When I heard that one of the assignments is to create my own blog and to post it in the world wide web, I wasn’t very happy. Even though I have a good background of using computers, I wasn’t really interested in posting my thoughts so that others can read them. After visiting various blogs, especially those created by nurses like me, I became very interested. I actually enjoyed reading those blogs about their day-to-day experiences in their own nursing work place. They made me realize that I am not the only nurse out there who is under so much stress. Blogging actually is a very good tool to find out what other nurses are going through in their lives.