Nursing interventions, which are reflected in the patient care plan, are a list of the actions that a nurse will take to solve the problems of a particular patient. In the event that the problem is potential, then such an intervention can be aimed at preventing its transition to real.
A patient care plan may contain not one, but several activities that can be aimed at solving a single problem. This principle allows both the sister and the patient to realize that several actions have been taken to help achieve the desired result.
Basic principles
Nursing interventions are based on certain principles:
- Compliance with science.
- Concreteness and clarity. This is necessary so that any sister can perform certain actions.
- The reality of performance within a certain period of time, as well as within the framework of a sister's qualifications.
- Focus on eliminating a specific problem, as well as achieving the goal that was set.
The ways in which nursing interventions are performed, in fact, like the entire planning stage, depend on the model that has been chosen.
Purpose of intervention
The goal of the nursing process is the desire to do everything that is necessary to fulfill the designated plan for patient care in accordance with the general task.
Setting goals for the intervention is necessary for two main reasons:
- The direction in which the actions of the nurse will be carried out must be determined.
- These goals are subsequently used to determine the effectiveness of interventions.
The main task of nursing intervention is to involve the patient in this process. After all, this is how the patient's motivation for success occurs, which leads to his speedy recovery. The sister convinces him that it is possible to achieve goals when working together, and together they determine the path along which they will go.
Individual goals should be recorded in the intervention plan depending on the diagnosis or dominant need. They will subsequently be considered as the result of nursing care.
Types of goals
Depending on the timing of performance, distinguish between short-term and long- term goals . The first include those that can be achieved in one to two weeks, and the second - those that can be achieved after the patient is discharged from the hospital.
All the goals of nursing care necessarily include three components:
- performance representing a specific action;
- a criterion that reflects the time of achievement;
- a condition that shows with whom or what you can achieve the goal.
For example, the patient will be able to sit on the bed with pillows on the fifth day.
Goal Requirements
There are also several requirements that are set when setting goals for sister intervention:
- They must be real and achievable.
- For each goal, a specific time period must be set during which it will be achieved.
- The patient should be involved in setting each goal. As already mentioned, with nursing intervention, the patient’s motivation for success is extremely important.
Patient Assistance Systems
There are only three systems that distinguish between patients:
1. Fully compensating. Such assistance is most often needed by several types of patients, in particular:
- those who cannot independently carry out any kind of action due to being in an unconscious state;
- those who are conscious, but they cannot make movements due to illness or at the insistence of the attending physician.
- those who cannot make independent decisions because of their illness.
2. Partially compensating. In this case, the tasks of the sister should be distributed depending on the degree of limited movement of the patient, as well as on how much the patient is ready to perceive and perform certain actions.
3. Supportive or advisory. This is the case if the patient is able to independently look after himself, as well as learn the actions that must be performed with the help of a sister (as an example, outpatient care).
Nursing Intervention Plan
After the main goals of nursing care have been formulated according to the main diagnosis of the patient, the volume of necessary interventions should be planned. The plan in this case can be called a complete list of the necessary actions of the sister, which she must perform in order to achieve goals. The list should be in writing. This is the basis for planning nursing interventions.
Main classification
There are three main types of intervention: dependent, interdependent, as well as independent actions.
Dependent nursing intervention is such an action that the nurse performs in accordance with the doctor's prescriptions, as well as under his strict supervision. She has no right to depart from his recommendations.
Independent nursing intervention can be called those actions of the sister, which she can perform independently, within the framework of her competence. Such interventions include observing how the patient adapts to the disease, or assisting in the implementation of personal hygiene measures for the patient.
Interdependent nursing intervention can be called those actions that are interconnected with the work of other medical workers and aimed at helping the patient. Such actions include the manipulations that are carried out in preparing the patient for a laboratory test or participating in a consultation with a doctor, for example, a nutritionist.
Nursing Intervention Methods
The sister’s help should be planned taking into account violations in the patient’s needs, and the goal is to satisfy them. The methods include:
- Providing the patient with pre-medical care.
- Assistance in fulfilling appointments made by a doctor.
- Psychological support and assistance.
- Assistance in performing technical manipulations.
- Help in creating conditions that will be comfortable for the patient and will contribute to the satisfaction of his basic needs.
- Training and counseling of the patient, as well as members of his family, if required.
Actions for pain
Nursing interventions for pain are aimed at eliminating the causes of its appearance, as well as at alleviating the patient's suffering. Sometimes the discomfort is irreparable. This happens with chronic ailments. In such cases, the intervention will be drug therapy and work with the patient to overcome the pain. In this case, heat or cold is used, the pathological area is rubbed or stroked. How to determine what pain bothers a person?
Indicators that indicate what kind of pain the patient has not yet been developed. But there are special devices that allow you to evaluate discomfort in strength and character. You can find out what intensity of pain the patient has if you carefully observe various indirect phenomena:
- whether high blood pressure;
- pupils are dilated;
- rapid breathing;
- the face turns red or pale;
- muscle twitching;
- whether lips bite.
Examples of Nursing Interventions
1. All appointments must be performed, all changes in the patient's condition should be reported to the doctor. This is an example of dependent intervention.
2. Monitoring the patient, providing first aid, personal hygiene of the patient, prevention of nosocomial infections, leisure activities, patient advice and training. This is an independent intervention.
3. Collaboration with care, assistance and support workers. Advising a patient on issues of interest to him. This is an example of interdependent intervention.
We examined such a concept as nursing intervention, its types and methods.