Hnn348 Rural And Remote Area Assessment Answers

1. What is triage, wound suturing and ear assessments?

2. How these skills can be attained even with limited cases of continuing professional

Introduction

Every Australian Health Practitioner has the sole right and obligation to ensure that they update their knowledge and skills as far as they respect and maintain the mandate professional development hours (Francis, 2012). With the practitioner living in towns or in referral hospitals that teach and practice the nursing course, updating their knowledge and skills, being easier, for those who live and practice their professional skills at rural areas, upgrading the skills and expertise is a challenge.

The rural nurses operate in areas that have patients who have limited access to proper healthcare. They work in areas that typically have critical care nursing, delivery as well as attending to patients that have wounds or are injured. The nurses in these rural locations face a lot of challenges as they execute their duty. Among other problems facing the nurse workers in the countryside include the lack of equipment’s as well as specialists in specified fields, also some nurses do not have necessary skills which require one to major generally in the primary care. Most of the nurses are trained either as mid wifely nurses or aftercare nurses. If such workers are posted to the rural areas, they will face a lot of issues.

1. In the countryside, the patients are more likely to be treated to a full range of acute presentations that include the illness, trauma, surgery or a particular disease. So as to cope with this, the nurse workers in these regions have to concentrate and improve their skills on triage, Ear assessments as well as wound suturing. Triage is the process one uses so to be able to determine the urgency of each and very patient’s severity of each and every condition according to the number of resources that are available for the treatment. Mostly this is evident in the clinics and dispensaries that are in the rural areas (Francis, 2012). 

Wound suturing is the nursing intervention that the health workers use to approximate the edges of a wound by using a sterile suture material and also use of a needle. In general case, one would use the closure or repairing of a wound by a nurse in the rural areas. Ear assessment on the other circumstances is a strict examination of the patient's ears using an Otoscope a handheld equipment with light and also a magnifying lens (Hegney, 2012).

Significance for a rural nurse to have these three skills.

All the above-demonstrated skills are essential in the practicing of nursing and aftercare services in the countryside. According to reports by the world health organization, triage wound suturing are the key activities that every nurse in the country does at an average twice a day throughout the year with cases escalating during planting season. It is hence paramount and substantial for every nurse to have these skills. It is significant for the nurse to have the skill of triage, so as to be able to attend to all of the required patients comes daily (Hegney, 2012). Taking, for instance, a case where the patients come to the clinic which is obviously understaffed and under equipped with different cases then it is paramount for the nurse to use this skill.

If three patients come, one reporting of being bitten by a snake, the second one claiming of having cut themselves with a Panga on the legs while digging and the last patient reports cases of stomach aches, then the nurse has to use this skill. It is the nurse bearing in mind that not all clinics, nearly all do not have very spacious emergency rooms, to ensure that he or she arranges the patients in the sequence of their urgency. The nurse is more likely to first attend to the patient who has been bitten by the snake so as to reduce the poison or the aftermath of the poison in the body. Then she will proceed to administer an injection to lessen the pain of the patient who has been cut by a Panga. Then she will continue to recommend some laboratory test for the third patient. Meanwhile waiting for the results, she will dress the suture. By this, the nurse will have attended to all of the patients in consequence of their urgency and reduce cases of death (Buykx, Humphreys, Wakerman & Pashen, 2010).

The skill of wound suturing is also the critical ability. As it is common, most of the persons in the rural areas are people who depend solely on agriculture or forced labor to source out something for their future. With this then it is more likely to witness several cases of wounds that might result from their daily activities such as farming or as a result of injuries that might have developed from previous infections (Conger, & Plager, 2012). Hence if a nurse working in the rural areas has this skill of would suturing, then it is more likely that the nurse will attend to the patients well.

Ear assessment and examination is also another substantive power that one requires so as to be to blend smoothly and efficiently to the rural nursing. Research carried out among 200 patients who were either deaf or blind, showed that deafness and blindness are both interrelated, and it is more likely to a case of a patient who is deaf to develop complications of the vision. The ear assessment skill is one of the other substantive ability; a rural health worker should have. Since most of the patients work in their firms or in places that, health safety is not a big issue, then it is more likely that the patients may develop, cases of deafness (Conger, & Plager, 2012). So before the deafness escalates to full and total deafness, it is imperative for the nurse to carry out a basement on the patients to discern the disease at its early stage. Hence, this is a clear indication that, ear assessment is a critical issue and skill for rural nurses.  

2. The rural nurses and health workers are the workers who work round the clock with passion and dedication so as to safeguard the backbone of the country and state. According to statistics carried out early 2012, it showed that the rural Nurses are the only nurses who never go on leave (Hegney, 2012). Technically they are given the permission to go home, but they remain at the centers to solve the problem of understaffing. Hence with this, they even have limited time to access schools to increase their education and personal development. So as to attain relevant skills such as the ones listed above. However, other ways present themselves for the nurse and their colleagues PR actioners to achieve the developmental skills.

The nurses may acquire such skills by learning them from other personnel who are experts in the field. For instance, if it is a newly posted nurse who has just completed his or her college training, she can learn from the other nurses who are in the same clinic. According to philosophers, we were born with empty brains, and we learn through experiences. Hence if the new nurse wills to learn the skills, then she will learn of then so much (Wood, 2010).

The nurses may also acquire the same skills by attending seminars and conferences that are organized by the government or non-governmental organization. After the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World health organization held workshops and lectures that dressed and was aimed at educating the nurses and other practitioners on the way to prevent escalation cases of Ebola (Mills, Birks, & Hegney, 2010). If such similar conferences and seminar are conducted on the nurse to empower them with the skills then, their life would be simple.

The nurses could also learn about these very vital skills, by learning them from universities or colleges that offer online learning. Almost all the universities across the globe have opened their doors to learners who are in most workers to be able to learn from the comfort of their homes. From here the nurses will get to learn of these skills which they will use the knowledge to impact new skills to the other nurses. This will not affect the schedule as well as the emergency calls that come in for referrals to leading hospitals since one can go back and start from where he or she left.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that the rural nurses face a share of their very own challenges especially in the dealing of the patient who has acute cases. From the part one, it is also evident that there are some of the very vital skills that the rural nurses should learn and which they use entirely in their life in the rural clinics. The probe to this has also led to the learning of the significance of the skills and how one can acquire the skills, bearing in mind that they have a share of their challenges (Mills, Birks, & Hegney, 2010). 

References

Buykx, P., Humphreys, J., Wakerman, J., & Pashen, D. (2010). Systematic review of effective retention incentives for health workers in rural and remote areas: Towards evidence?based policy. Australian Journal of Rural Health,18(3), 102-109.

Conger, M. M., & Plager, K. A. (2012). Advanced nursing practice in rural areas: Connectedness versus disconnectedness. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 8(1), 24-38.

Francis, K. (2012). Health and health practice in rural Australia: where are we, where to from here?. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care,5(1), 28-36.

Hegney, D. (2012). Rural and remote area nursing: An Australian perspective.Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 3(1), 5-7.

Horton, G., Hanna, L., & Kelly, B. (2010). Drought, drying and climate change: emerging health issues for ageing Australians in rural areas.Australasian journal on ageing, 29(1), 2-7.

Mills, J., Birks, M., & Hegney, D. (2010). The status of rural nursing in Australia: 12 years on. Collegian, 17(1), 30-37.

Pulcini, J., Jelic, M., Gul, R., & Loke, A. Y. (2010). An international survey on advanced practice nursing education, practice, and regulation. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 42(1), 31-39.

Opie, T., Dollard, M., Lenthall, S., Wakerman, J., Dunn, S., Knight, S., & MacLeod, M. (2010). Levels of occupational stress in the remote area nursing workforce. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 18(6), 235-241.

Opie, T., Lenthall, S., Dollard, M., Wakerman, J., MacLeod, M., Knight, S., ... & Rickard, G. (2010). Trends in workplace violence in the remote area nursing workforce. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 27(4), 18.

Wood, P. J. (2010). Historical imagination and issues in rural and remote area nursing. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 27(4), 54.