TUS: Midlands Nursing and Health Blog: March 2022

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

This Nurse of the Week Will Never Say Your Companion Animal is “Only a ____”

This Nurse of the Week clearly understands the value of companion animals in healing.

Jennifer Smith is an RN at the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Rome, New York. She works in the Center’s adult day health care program, where adults in need of supervision can enjoy socializing while receiving medical care while living at home instead of being isolated in a facility.

While Smith enjoys all of her patients, she formed a special bond with 60-year-old John Burley. When her patient shared photos of Boomer, his amazing dog (of course he was amazing!), Smith, who has a 13-year-old dog of her own, was an attentive audience. Burley and Boomer had lived together for most of Boomer’s 12 years, and when Burley had to move from Arkansas to Rome, New York, leaving the rest of his family behind, his furry housemate became his go-to for warmth, joy, and emotional support. Man, dog, and nurse all jogged along together for a while, and all was well.

Then, one day, dog and man were parted.

Burley came down with pneumonia and was hospitalized for that and other lung problems. As he lived alone and had no one nearby to look after Boomer, the city stepped in. With Boomer’s person unavailable for an indefinite time, the good boy – a good, 12-year-old boy-dog – was sent to a shelter. Burley, isolated in the hospital and sick with worry as well as pneumonia, turned to another vital source of support, his nurse. And his nurse came through for him.

Natural Heavy Metal Detox With Chlorella and Spirulina

From aluminum in deodorant to mercury in dental fillings, metal toxicity comes at us from every angle these Chlorella Spirulina Tablet Mix Photodays. The presence of these heavy metals (and others such as arsenic, cadmium and lead) has increased as industrialization and its waste products spread.

We can work to avoid these substances as much as possible, but some exposure is still bound to occur.

Since even small amounts of heavy metals in the body can cause negative side effects like fatigue, headaches, digestive problems and skin conditions, it’s important to use natural methods to cleanse your body of these toxins.

WHY SPIRULINA AND CHLORELLA ARE EFFECTIVE FOR HEAVY METAL DETOX

The answer to natural heavy metal detoxification is as simple as a single-celled organism. Spirulina and chlorella are two separate micro-algae organisms which have existed on earth since the dawn of time.

Both were revered as powerful superfoods in many traditional societies, and today are more relevant than ever for achieving overall health and well-being.

5 Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing exercises just might save your sanity. Check out your breathing the next time you feel angry, stressed or anxious. Chances are when negative emotions run high, your breaths become short and shallow.

This is your body’s natural response to stress, but paying more attention to your breathing patterns can help you “cushion” that stress response and help you process stressful emotions more quickly.

Let’s talk about some important deep breathing benefits, as well as some tips on how to do deep breathing exercises and develop a daily routine.

I would bet that many of us rarely more than a couple deep breaths during an entire day, even when we’re not feeling stressed (and when is that?). And if you’re not taking deep breaths, you could be missing out on one of the simplest ways to drastically improve your health.

10 Key Nursing Trends in 2022

1. COVID-19 takes a toll

Nurses are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed as wave after wave of COVID-19 patients have flowed onto their units. Many have become burned out and ready to leave their nursing jobs in 2022.

“Nurses have literally given their lives to take care of patients, and it has a profound effect,” said Bonnie Fuller, PhD, MSN, RN, CNE, CTN-A, a professor at the Purdue University Global School of Nursing based in West Lafayette, Indiana. “The pandemic has highlighted the critical role nurses play. We are the backbone of the healthcare profession.”

Many healthcare professionals consider recent COVID-19 surges avoidable, with no end in sight, due to people refusing vaccinations and mask wearing, according to an Association of American Medical Colleges article.

2. Focus on behavioral health

Elaine Smith, EdD, MS, MBA, dean of the College of Nursing and Public Health at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, expects in the coming year to see a tremendous focus on behavioral and mental health concerns.

Nurses, other healthcare workers and people, in general, have experienced depression and anxiety. Long-term effects in children are not known, Smith added.

“Psychiatric nurse practitioners will be incredibly valuable moving forward in the care of people post-pandemic,” Smith said.

3. More nurses traveling

A Call for a More Balanced Approach to Family Presence During a Public Health Emergency

What would you want for your family?

Nine years ago, AJN published a Viewpoint article asserting the essential role of family caregivers. The article featured an elderly woman recuperating in a hospital, her daughter at her bedside planning for discharge with the care team. The authors argued that family engagement creates the foundation for safer care, better patient outcomes, and greater efficiency for nurses.

The same patient’s experience would likely have been very different during the Covid pandemic, especially during the intermittent surges over the past two years. The patient would be alone in the hospital, her daughter’s assurances communicated through a digital tablet. Overstretched nurses would provide updates to the family over the phone. Discharge education would occur through a car window moments before the patient’s daughter drove her home, feeling unprepared for what came next.

COVID-19’s highly transmissible properties have complicated the family engagement equation. Over the past two years, hospitals and nursing homes have enacted, eased up on, and then reinstated visitation bans, at times leaving questions as to whether restrictions implemented to reduce disease spread may be more detrimental than beneficial.