Solution Defense
The healthcare issue discussed in my paper is pressure ulcers, a type of wound that tends to occur in intensive care settings and is expensive to treat and simple to avoid. The solution to the issue that I proposed involves developing a protocol for timely assistance and prevention of pressure ulcers in patients. The approach involves effectively managing the wounds while taking the ethical and cultural considerations surrounding the patient into account. This essay describes my views on the most and least useful sources and perspectives of those used for the work.
Strongest Insights
I began my research with several concrete ideas, but most of the concepts I intended to investigate were unclear. The work by Kruger, Pires, Ngann, Sterling, and Rubayi (2013) was instrumental in establishing my understanding of the history of the issue and the contemporary approaches to treating pressure ulcers. However, its section of the future trends of the management approach was only concerned with technical details. The paper by Welsh (2014) and its approach to the ethical side of the issue allowed me to consider other aspects of the problem, as care involves both physical and mental treatment. After reviewing other possibilities on the investigation, I determined culturally suitable approaches to be another noteworthy topic.
Most Important Perspective
I believe the ethical approach to be critical to my solution. Advances in technology and methodology are usually incremental, with older methods being replaced with new, strictly superior ones. Cultural values should be respected and followed, but they are shared across groups of people, and patients can be separated into these groups, making care more straightforward and manageable. However, the ethical approach to each patient should be unique and considered in detail. Nurses who work in intensive care should be prepared to administer palliative care and have a clear understanding of their and the patient’s ethical positions, which is necessary to determine appropriate and permissible actions. Furthermore, ethics are vital for a nurse in any environment, being both universal and personal.
Least Important Perspective
My investigation into the matter of possible technical improvements did not produce significant results that can immediately be applied to care. The future possibilities described by Kruger et al. (2013) include cytokine growth factors and cell-based therapies, which are currently in the development stage, and the theory for which is outside a nurse’s scope of expertise. Researchers in various scientific fields develop technological advances, and nurses have the role of implementing and testing them.
The practical nature of the profession allows nurses to lead moral progress and introduce new approaches through evidence-based practice, but they cannot stand at the front of technical development. This inclination makes technological improvements the least important, though still vital, part of nursing quality improvement initiatives such as the one proposed in the paper.
Conclusion
I investigated the matter of pressure ulcers and proposed a solution that involved a protocol for the management and prevention of wounds that incorporated ethical and cultural sensitivity. The most insightful works I utilized in the writing of the paper were a description of the history and contemporary approaches to pressure ulcer treatment as well as an overview of the situation from an ethical position. The most significant perspective in the solution was the ethical approach, and the least important was the technological side, although it cannot be disregarded. Overall, I learned a significant amount of information on the topic in my investigation and came to consider my solution effective.
References
Kruger, E., Pires, M., Ngann, Y., Sterling, M., & Rubayi, S. (2013). Comprehensive management of pressure ulcers in spinal cord injury: Current concepts and future trends. The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 36(6), 572-585. Web.
Welsh, L. (2014). Ethical issues and accountability in pressure ulcer prevention. Nursing Standard, 29(8), 56–63. Web.