Reference no: EM132373407 , Length: word count:2000

Assignment -

A portfolio is a compilation of materials that exemplifies amongst other things your skills, qualifications, education, training and experiences. It provides insight into your personality and work ethic.

Nurses are increasingly using professional portfolios as a way to maintain evidence of their learning and reflection, and to demonstrate that they have met their professional requirements.

All nurses are required to undertake continuing professional development activities to maintain, update and improve their knowledge and practice, and they can use their portfolio to document these activities. Creating and maintaining a portfolio can also enable nurses to identify their strengths and learning needs, and to develop a learning plan to address these needs.

This assessment introduces you to the use of ePortfolios. Your portfolio will comprise of content from your four (4) modules for this specialty unit. Each module has a focus and therefore each exert in your portfolio will 'mirror' a module.

Activities for your e-portfolio module assessment:

Module 1 - Patient Safety

In this module activity you are looking at patient safety and a case of mistaken identity. Based on what you have explored in Module 1 and the role of the Nurse in this specialty environment, discuss the case study below and outline areas of concern, what is considered best practice and processes that are put it place to decrease this error within the hospital setting.

You must include one artifact related to the module topic and upload into your portfolio to demonstrate your broad research and understanding. This artifact can comprise of an article, published study or 'tool' used for patient safety.

Two patients with the same first name (John Adams and John Smith) were sharing a hospital room. An orderly arrived to pick up John Adams for his scheduled x-ray, but when the orderly asked simply for 'John', John Smith replied as John Adams was out of the room at the time. Therefore the wrong John accompanied the orderly to radiology where the radiographer also identified the patient by first name only. (source: HQSCNZ 2014b)

Module 2 - Environmental Aspects

In this module you looked broadly at environmental aspects of this specialty area. You have covered concepts from floor plan design to sterile storage; all of which has to do with patient safety. The ability to track instruments and trace patients is integral to patient safety and risk management. This module response is asking you to explore and discuss 'Tracking and Traceability' in relation to patient safety and risk management; why is this process important, what methods can be used and what are the impacts to the patient if this important process is not followed adequately?

You must include one artifact related to the module topic and upload into your portfolio to demonstrate your broad research and understanding. This artifact can comprise of an article, published study or 'tool' used in the area of tracking and tracing.

Module 3 - Surgical Risks

Surgical patients are vulnerable and at risk of many potential problems, many of our patients have co-morbidities or bring with them 'risk' prior to any surgical intervention. Consider that patient's further increase their risk by entering the perioperative environment, undergoing anaesthetic, their condition or reason for surgery; add to that trauma due to the surgical procedure and you can see why the perioperative environment is a high risk environment for any patient. This module response is looking at 'Risk'. You are required to select a risk factor and discuss how this risk factor can impact the patient in the surgical setting; and how as a perioperative nurse we plan for or mitigate risk in our 'plan of care' for our patients. Your chosen risk could be an environmental, health, education or a social risk and you must provide rationale as to 'why' this is a considered risk.

You must include one artifact related to the module topic and upload into your portfolio to demonstrate your broad research and understanding. This artifact can comprise of an article, published study or 'tool' used in the area of risk, risk assessment or risk management, in relation to the specific risk you have chosen to explore.

Module 4 - Intra and Post-Operative Patient Safety

It is important that those working in the perioperative setting have an understanding of the different types of anaesthetic in order to provide support to the team and safety to the patient. In your module response you are asked to research and discuss the use of anaesthetic's in the intra-operative period using the categories below and relate this to your immediate patient care in the post-operative phase, include any care considerations related to anesthetics for the patient when discharged from PACU; provide rationale as to the patient care required.

You must include one artifact related to the module topic and upload into your portfolio to demonstrate your broad research and understanding. This artifact can comprise of an article, published study or 'tool' used for patient safety in relation to patient care an anaesthesia.

Explore the main categories of anaesthesia:

• General Anaesthesia
• Local infiltration
• Regional (spinal & epidural)

These listed below are considered adjuncts to general anaesthesia; what are adjuncts and why are these used?

• Muscle relaxants
• Analgesics

Note - There are 4 modules, need answered in 500 word each.