Independent Component Blog
Blog
19: Independent Component 2
Independent Component
Label: Independent Component
Due Date: Friday 4/27 by 8AM
Content:
LITERAL:
(a) Statement saying:
“I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which
represents 30 hours of work.”
Article:
Chen, Pauline W. ʺThe
Choices Patients Make.ʺ The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Oct. 2008.
Web. 05 Nov. 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/health/10chen.html?pagewanted=printArticle:
Wick, Jeannette Y.
ʺAdherence Issues in Elderly Patients.ʺ Adherence Issues in Elderly Patients.
N.p., 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2011/January2011/RxFocus-0111
Article:
Karalis, Nicholas. ʺDay
in the Life: Adherence.ʺ Day in the Life: Adherence. N.p., 22 Mar. 2011. Web.
11 Feb. 2015.(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours). Post it next to your mentorship log.
Independent Component 2
INTERPRETIVE
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work. Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.
After volunteering at
the Activity Center in Glendora Grand Nursing Home, I learned the value of
patient care. The Activity Center is a place where patients can enjoy
themselves, to have fun while their stay in Glendora Grand Nursing Home. The
Activity Center offers many events and small activities that patients may do
within their free time. The way the Activity Center works is that it is a place
where a patients can get away from their caregivers (nurses) and get out of
their rooms once in awhile to maybe stretch and check what the center has to
offer. Yet what makes the work difficult within the Activity Center is the
free-for-all atmosphere for patients who comes in and participates. Whatever
patients needed for the Activity Center, the members have to do their best to
provide what’s best for them.
Our job at the Activity
Center is to make sure patients are enjoying themselves with the events we have
offer to them. Pharmacists provides as much services for the patients that may
assist them with their medication like consultation, handouts (with specific
directions and information about the medication), or organization medication
boxes (to keep track). In the Activity Center, we provide activities patients
may enjoy for themselves during their stay in the nursing home such as nail
polish services, permission to use the Wii, painting or color utensils,
building blocks and more. We even provide savoring snacks for the patients.
Patients are free to ask for whatever they need in the program and we will do
our best to provide them of what they need.
My work is as similar
as the other employees, to monitor patients and setup for activity event. Every
morning there is always a new activity, whether it be drawing, dancing,
exercising, or a movie, patients are always excited to come in. Every afternoon
is always the same routine of Bingo. Seniors in Glendora Grand Nursing Home
loves Bingo that one time they rioted when the Activity Center canceled the
event and replaced it with painting. Usually I come to the nursing home every
weekends at 10am or 11am - 4pm or 5pm or Fridays at 1pm-5pm.
Every Friday is Bingo, my routine is:
1:30pm: Set up for Bingo
2pm-4pm: Bingo Game
● Within this event, I assist a few Seniors who need help physically to play the game (AKA: Stamping the cards and repeating the numbers)
● 2:50pm: Snack Serving, I set up the snacks and pass them around, providing Seniors a healthy eating before the next game at 3pm.
After Bingo, dinner time is already set by 5pm, so at the meantime, everyone is setting up for dinner within a hour. During this time, I set up hot beverages for the Seniors: hot chocolate and coffee. I stand at my post and wait for the Seniors to come up and asked for their request which is a difficult position than it sounds. There is no line or patience these Seniors have. Most of the Seniors come at once, telling me they want hot chocolate and one wants coffee at the same time. Throughout this process, I am multitasking everywhere with the cream, sugar, hot water, etc. But at the end, I succeed my task by 5:30pm and call it a day.
APPLIED
How did the component
help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it
helped.
My Independent
Component taught me the value of patient care and the difficulties to face when
trying to communicate with patients. For these few months working at Glendora
Grand Nursing Home, I got a taste of interacting with noncompliant patients and
it tasted very bitter. All retail pharmacists have interacted with that one
patient who is frustration to communicate with and difficult to consult about
the use and effects of their medication. There are even patients who deny to
have consultation with their pharmacist and at the end, they come back to the
pharmacy to complain about the side effect they gotten from their medication.
In the Activity Center,
we cannot give “everything” to what the patient has requested because there are
a few restricted requests we cannot fulfill for them due to their specific
medical conditions such as patients asking for hot chocolate, sugary treats,
cream with their coffee, paints, Wii, or even crayons due to patients with
uncontrollable arms. It is difficult to not fulfill patient’s request due to
restrictions we must follow from nurses, doctors, and other healthcare
providers’ recommendations. Such as there are times when patient’s demand for
chocolate, like they really demand for it.
It was on a Friday
afternoon, Bingo event was going on and it was time to take a small break and
serve snacks to the patients in the center. As I was passing out cookies and
oranges, an elderly man called out to me and asked me if I could get him hot
chocolate. Since I am a volunteer, I needed official permission to give
patients these treats. When I asked my advisor, she told me that I shouldn’t
give any sweets to that man because he has a diabetes condition. I told the man
that I wasn't allowed to give him hot chocolate and instead suggested to him if
he wants juice. The man kept asking me why I couldn't get him the beverage
he wanted, so I told him the truth that he has a diabetes condition and he
shouldn't eat anything sweet. Then he kept telling me he was allowed to have
sweets because apparently the doctor said he could. I didn't know what to do,
but obviously I didn't believe the man. All I could have done is deny his
request, which I did and apologize that I couldn't fulfill his request. Then
the man started to yell at me, telling me I was a lazy employee and he was
going to get the hot chocolate himself, which he did.
I found that event unexpected, but my supervisor told me
that the fault will be on the man who got the hot chocolate because some
patients do have the authority to do what they request. Some patients have permission
to eat all the sugary treats even though they have a huge condition of
diabetes. My supervisor told me that these types of patients have full fault at
the end of their line.
This is just as similar as a pharmacists as they have
consultation with patients and their benefits with their medication.
Pharmacists cannot force to make their patients change their life style, but
they can do their be to give the right advice and suggestions for patients to
improve their healthy habits. If the patient still doesn't listen, then it will
be the patient's full fault if he or she suffers noncompliant health problems
with the decision he or she has chosen.
My component helped me understand the value of patient care
and the use of other employees. If I didn't asked my supervisor's permission to
serve hot chocolate to the man then I could have gotten in trouble and cause a major problem with the
man's diabetes. But instead, I didn't and the man causes himself to have
problems with his diabetes with the beverage. As the health care provider, you
sometimes cannot fulfill patient's request all the way. The importance of
delivering patient care is doing the best you can to provide the patient with
special need they request they may have. Trying to find another suggestion or
solution to still benefit for the patient's need.
With the use of other employees, it can really help prevent
human error to occur, such we set up for Bingo and clean it up. Usually at the
Activity Center, there is about two people working, but adding a third person
along, AKA me, can make set up and clean up end quickly. As we set up for
Bingo, we are able to set up the game such as passing out materials and
collecting the papers, only takes about a few seconds to finish. In the
pharmacy, technicians were used for of the minor tasks of the pharmacists, then
the pharmacist would have more important work to focus on while technicians
cover up their minor works. Pharmacists can have more time to deliver the
proper consultation to patients and to make sure their patient understand the
purpose of their medication.
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