Healthcare Should Be Public or Private?
Men's Transformative Role in Nursing Leadership and Healthcare Delivery Systems: Breaking the Gender Barriers
Enhancing Engagement in Nursing Education: The Impact of Gamification on eLearning Modules
A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy on Motor Function among Stroke Patients in Selected Hospitals in Erode
Effectiveness of Guided Imagery on Stress among High Risk Pregnant Mothers
A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Structured Teaching Program on Knowledge Regarding Breast Complications and their Management among Primi Post Natal Mothers in a Selected Hospital in Bangalore
Honey and Cancer: A Sustainable Parallel Relationship Especially for Developing Nations
Nursing Perspective on Pain Management
Nightingale’s Theory and its Application to Pediatric Nursing Care
Academic Strategies that Facilitate Learning in Millennial Nursing Students
Transformational Leadership: A Strategy towards Staff Motivation
Awareness of Good And Bad Touch Among Children
Suicide Among Youth: A Preventable Public Health Concern
The Impact of Culture on Faculty Retention in Nursing Education
Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Nursing Student Success
Psychological and Cognitive Determinants of the Health Literacy on Soon-To-Be-Aged and Older Adults: a Systematic Review
It Takes a Village to Assure Nurse Professionalism
Lessons Learned: Employing Focus Groups as a Research Methodology
Globally, 2020 was celebrated as the Year of Nursing. The nursing profession is going through transformational changes in Pakistan, considering the diverse needs arising from the profession and the stakeholders. Nurse leaders are the key partners of the profession, and they must be aware of their vision statements and the ways to communicate with their stakeholders. Additionally, they should also be prepared to deal with the political, social, cultural and environmental challenges, which directly affects the profession through numerous routes while planning and executing their vision statements. This paper aims to discuss the vision development of the nursing profession in Pakistan. It further discusses the possible challenges one might foresee while spreading the vision and the means to disseminate the vision. Additionally, it analyzes the entire process of vision formulation from the perspective of a nursing leader by using Stephen Covey's book ''Seven Habits of Highly Effective People''.
Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition involving challenges in social interaction and communication along with repetitive or restricted behaviors. Unlike in the past, Autistic disorder and Asperger's syndrome are now collectively recognized under ASD by DSM-5 criteria. According to studies, prevalence of ASD is increasing worldwide, and likewise in Pakistan. Genetics and hereditary are important factors to consider when discussing the causes of ASD, particularly due to the fragile X chromosome. The symptoms exhibited include extensive and intense focus on certain numbers and facts, inability to distinguish unimportant information, echolalia, palilalia, unusual response etc. It is important to understand that people with Austism disorder and Asperger's syndrome do not experience similar symptoms. Mind blindness theory, Neurophysiological theory, Bayesian theory and Empathising-systemising (E-S) theory can explain the etiology and symptoms of ASD. The diagnosis of ASD can be done at the age of two by observing the changes in social, play and communication behavior, however, as an individual ages, ASD can be confused with mental disorders leading to challenges in its diagnosis. In Pakistan, health care professionals use DSM-IV criteria for diagnosing this condition. The treatment for ASD are symptomatic interventions which play a significant role in dealing and handling individuals. For this, medication and therapies can be used. Behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy are applied worldwide, however, in Pakistan, psychopharmacological approach is used with minimal focus on therapies. Impact of ASD is not limited to individuals, but also on their families. In Pakistan, due to less budget allocation to health care sector, families face great burden both financially and mentally. Also, due to family therapies and awareness being less common, parents find it challenging to deal with their children and approach faith healers consequently. On the other hand, the competency of health care professionals is also doubtful due to substandard curriculum, less continuing education programs and limited awareness of psychotropic medications. In addition to this, as Pakistan is a developing country with limited resources especially in rural areas, the diagnosis and treatment for ASD remains insufficient. Thus, the Government's contribution plays a vital role in improving the health care services and making it accessible for the population.
The use of the latest electronic technology and the internet to facilitate learning is online learning. Online learning is a platform where the learner interacts with the contents, instructor and other learners to obtain knowledge and information. The effectiveness of online learning is measured through assessing students' knowledge, skills, satisfaction, confidence, and their experiences in the learning process. In the developing world, online education is facing some problems and challenges like accessibility to the internet and connectivity issues, lack of expert teachers, lack of proper institutional learning management system and software, low readiness towards online learning, lack of interest in online classes, lack of proper monitoring and evaluation software at the national level, and lack of support from government institutions, which have made online education ineffective in the country. The author suggests some recommendations and way forward to resolve these issues.
Medical errors are an unavoidable and a bitter reality in a healthcare organization. Despite a well-developed error analysis system and vigorous efforts of the hospital leadership, unit management and healthcare professionals (HCP), medical errors still exist in the clinical setting with different intensities on the patient outcome. Some of the errors are reported timely by the HCP whereas few of the clinical errors remain concealed. The most challenging situation in the form of an ethical dilemma arises when the error needs to be disclosed to the patient and the family. Keeping in view the ethical principles of patient's autonomy, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence and veracity, healthcare providers are accountable for timely reporting of the errors along with a competent disclosure to the family. The commentary article will discuss the case scenario and analyze the notion of disclosing medical errors to the patient and family in the light of the theory of virtue ethics. The inbuilt personality traits of HCP enable them to uphold the integrity of moral principles and perform righteous action with virtuous intentions. The article will also discuss some of the essential characteristics of a virtuous person that nurtures with experience, wisdom, maturity and moral judgment. Concealing medical error for the benefit of protection from repercussions will end up in compromising patient safety in an organization. Hence, there is a need to formulate certain strategies on an individual, organizational and governmental level to determine a practical approach for dealing with this ethical dilemma, preserving the essence of virtue ethics in patient care.
A pandemic is an epidemic issue that spreads all over the world. COVID-19 started in December 2019 at Wuhan city in China. The common features of this virus are cold, flu, fever and sore throat with more severe lung involvement in a few samples for which different scientists are struggling to find a treatment. However, directly and indirectly, COVID has increased social stigma and challenges for the affected population, and health professionals, that has impact on their psychological health. The prevention of social stigma and negative psychological issue is very important at the individual and community level. Nurses are the ones who play an important role in preventing the social stigma by helping to overcome challenges.
Clinical practice is always a major part of nursing career. Along with the best possible care and treatment, it is also important to consider the patient holistically. Several ethical grounds need to be catered when a patient is admitted for terminal illnesses. This paper presents a commentary on the rights of patients and its correlation with family too.
Nursing is both an art and science. It is a profession that deals with human beings' health concerns. Though as a science it deals with collaborative care with other team members in diagnosing and treating ailments, as an art it deals with the skills required for caring of all age groups in promoting, preventing and preserving human health. As a social science, it deals with human beings' feelings and experiences concerning their health. It is an amalgamation of sociology and psychology in caring for human feelings and emotional experiences related to their health. To understand the unique experiences of human beings, quantitative measurements become a weak choice. Here we need a rich qualitative approach, and nothing less than a case study would suffice this need. A case study can be defined as an intensive study about a person, a group of people or unit, which is aimed to generalize over several units (Gustafsson, 2017). An intrinsic case study is one in which the researcher has an inherent interest in an entity or event. The need to understand it arises out of its distinct yet ordinary features rather than a need to understand how it relates to the other entities or a problem more broadly. The aim is to learn about the particular case itself (Stake, 1995).
The concept of privacy is not new, it is a longstanding phenomenon and used in various fields, but it is a highly imperative notion in medical and nursing discipline. Patient privacy is one of the key rights of the patient at hospital care setting. Patient privacy can be jeopardized while caring for the sick because sometimes the boundaries of privacy are not clear between health care personnel and patient, which might lead to feeling of insecurity among patients. In this case, the study of concept of patient privacy has been navigated which is a dire necessity to be intervened in today's digital era at any health care setup. Self-determination of a patient varies with diverse cultural backgrounds which should be considered by the medical professionals at hospital settings. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors and highlight possibilities to prevent breach of patient privacy at health care setup in the light of ethical principles and liberal individualism theory. In certain ethical dilemmas where patient is capable but unwilling to disclose information to his family, the health care team is accountable to recognize patient's preference. In contrast, by foreseeing harm to others, divulging privacy is sometimes obligatory. This paper reveals the case study that is encountered and the position taken, supported by the ethical principles, the arguments, counter arguments and the justification for examining and maintaining patient's privacy. Lastly, the final position has been stated and recommendations to implement the privacy in digital era have been highlighted in detail.
