Reference no: EM133648233

Assignment:

After a month in the hospital, the bed was needed and so Social Services arranged for Rebecca to move to a nursing home. After ten days of being at the nursing home, Rebecca improved beyond recognition. She was eating and drinking well,regained mobility, and she was being cared for by wonderful staff who treated her with dignity and respect. Although her dearest wish was to return to her own home, Rebecca was lucid enough to realize that this was not possible because she needed a high degree of care and pain management. Rebecca seemed very happy with her treatment at the nursing home. She was encouraged to join in with the variety of entertainment offerings at the nursing home and, on several occasions, Donna arrived to find her mother singing and laughing with the other residents.

Rebecca passed away peacefully in her sleep in the nursing home after three months of being there. Donna knew that she and her family had done their best for her mother towards the end of her life. Donna was grateful to the nursing home staff for their care, support, and kindness to her mother in the three months that she was there as a resident. The staff had kept Donna and the family informed every step of the way including things like who had visited, any changes in medication, what she was eating and drinking, whether she had managed to get up that day and how active she was, when staff was arranging a bath, massage, visit to the hairdresser, manicure, pedicure, etc. for Rebecca. The day following Rebecca's funeral, Donna contacted the nursing home manager and reported total communication and consultation on all levels from all of the nursing home staff and stated: "It is so important to keep the family involved and informed with the care of their loved ones."

1) How could some of the various pieces of care from the initially involved agencies to the hospital, for example, have better demonstrated interprofessional collaboration and leadership in Rebecca's care to reflect the level of care demonstrated by the nursing home.

2) How do you feel about how the nursing home handled Rebecca's care in the last months of her life? Was there any room for improvement? Was anything inappropriate?