Care and Continuity Matter

If you aren’t convinced yet that having a strong caregiver in the life of your elder loved one is important, a recent study helps to assuage those feelings of uncertainty. An article that was recently published out of Boston College found that satisfaction with patient pain management was closely linked to nurse staffing.

 

The Connell School of Nursing found that the times when patients were most satisfied on how pain was being managed was when the hospitals were fully staffed by nurses. Having a physician that could prescribe medications on the premises 24 hours a day was also found to be helpful as this provided a continuity of care for the patients.

 

At first look, this doesn’t make a lot of sense, though.  How could just having nurses on staff help with pain?

 

The quality of care that your loved one receives is important, as is the continuity.

 

There are a couple of things going on behind the scenes that we should be aware of to find an answer here. One, nurses provide an extra level of supervision that doctors cannot. This is a skilled supervision as nurses are more adept at discovering medical and emotional needs than technicians are. When more nurses are on staff, not only is there more supervision, but there’s also a higher level of intuitiveness into the patients’ needs. This helps those needs–in this case pain management–to be addressed more efficiently.

 

Translating this into senior care, having the appropriate in-home care for a loved one can ensure that your loved one’s needs are met with a high level of efficiency. One person might not seem like as big of a deal as a whole hospital’s worth of patients, but when that one person is someone that you love and care about, the story changes. You want your mom or dad to have the best care possible, and providing them with a trained caregiver that can help them to have their needs and wants fulfilled throughout the day while you are at work is a big step in the right direction. Not only will this make sure that they are safe and cared for within their home, it also provides the entire with peace of mind.

 

One other aspect of this study is also worth looking at. The study stressed that from a medication level, continuity of care was important for patient satisfaction. We might not be able to prescribe medications, but we can help our family to have consistency when it comes to their care. This is why only making small adjustments in care is always recommended. For example, taking a healthy individual who needs assistance with just a few things throughout the day and placing them in a nursing home would be a huge and often needless change. But, keeping that person in their current living situation and making adjustments to help them live a higher quality of life places a lot less stress on them. It’s also a lot less difficult for families to do this. There will be exception to when this “small change” rule, of course, but providing this consistency of care for your loved ones can go a long way in their overall happiness.

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