Ease the Way - Gebauer Patient Comfort Blog (29)

Training Your Staff: Comfort Solutions for Geriatric Patients

By: Bethany Nock | On: April 26, 2016

Keeping senior patients comfortable can be challenging, particularly if patients have multiple issues. It is important to both patients and their families that they are kept as comfortable as possible. And, it should be important to your hospital, too, since patient comfort plays a major role in patient satisfaction and HCAHPS scores.

Instituting a comprehensive training program supporting comfort solutions for geriatric patients can help your staff provide an even higher level of care. Whether you use formal training sessions or lunch-and-learns, ongoing training should be a priority. Here are a few tips to get you started:

3 Strategies to Improve Pediatric Patient Experiences

By: Julianne Filion | On: April 20, 2016

Running a private practice is doubly hard when you’re a pediatrician. From crying, anxious children to nervous adults, not only do you have to keep your patients happy, but you also have to make sure parents are satisfied, too.

The best pediatricians have found ways to improve pediatric patient experiences using easy-to-implement tactics. Here are a few strategies you can use to support both your patients and their families.

Steps for Transitioning Pediatric Patients to Adult Healthcare

By: Julianne Filion | On: April 14, 2016

The transition from pediatric to adult care can be confusing for patients, parents and families. It means new doctors, new routines and possibly new treatment plans. Furthermore, the transfer of legal responsibility to the patient (upon reaching adult age) can be emotionally and logistically troubling for parents or caregivers. This doesn’t even take into account the numerous life changes these young adult patients are already facing outside their medical care.

Transitioning pediatric patients shouldn’t be taken lightly, as many unforeseeable challenges could deter patients from receiving the care and support they require and deserve. But sadly, more than 50 percent of parents polled by the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs claimed no one even spoke to them about the upcoming need for their child to switch to adult care.

How to Communicate with Pediatric Patients Before Surgery

By: Julianne Filion | On: April 12, 2016

Hospitals have a way of making children feel vulnerable and afraid, especially when their visit involves surgery. Any time a child requires surgery, parents understandably get emotional. Fear, worry, stress, anxiety—these are all powerful reactions to pediatric medical procedures that healthcare professionals must handle with compassion.

Instinctively, healthcare professionals focus on physical health first. But mental health is scientifically proven to have a significant impact on physical wellbeing, which means it must also be a medical priority. Pediatric patients are particularly difficult to care for in this realm because sometimes they struggle to express how they’re feeling or advocate for what they want or need.

That’s where exceptional communication becomes a critical part of care. In most cases, it is the uncertainty about a surgical procedure that amplifies a pediatric patient’s emotions (and consequently, their parents’). With the right approach and communication skills, healthcare professionals can help younger patients feel less vulnerable and more included in their own treatment plan. Follow these tips on how to communicate with pediatric patients before surgery to make their hospital stay less traumatic.

Maintaining Nursing Inventory Supply: A Nurse Leader’s Guide

By: Bethany Nock | On: March 31, 2016

You know that frustrating feeling when you are looking for a gauze pad, but you can’t find it? And it turns out you can’t find it because it is listed under New Gauze or the manufacturer of the product on your inventory list? (We can almost see you nodding your head right now.) All you want to do is take care of your patient, but inventory management is making it difficult.

Maintaining supplies may be an essential part of your job as a nurse leader, but we understand it can be hard to keep up with inventory management (or influence it when you don’t control it) when you have so many other responsibilities.

Developing a strong relationship with the materials management department, taking advantage of the capabilities of digital inventory control and using a few old-fashioned tips can help you stay on top of this portion of your job, even on the craziest of days.

Here are a few tips to help nursing inventory supply and to ensure your staff is never without the supplies it needs.