Course Content and Class
Discussions
The occupation of nursing is inherently filled with a
variety of stressors, such as demanding patients, lack of time, and work
overload, (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2000). These nurses
are usually available to patients on a one-on-one basis within hospitals and
long-term care settings. As a result, many nurses experience what is known as
‘burnout’, defined as a specific type of an occupational stress-reaction as a
result of the high demand of the job, which makes them particularly
susceptible, (Demerouti et al., 2000). With the number of nurses decreasing,
the stress and emotional demands associated with their jobs are passed on to
family members who are required to care for their own loved ones at home. This
often results in what is known as caregiver burnout, (South West LHIN, 2011). The result of caregiver burnout is often a
decreased ability to care properly for their loved one as they are no longer ‘well’
themselves. Providing care to family members can be exhausting, (Ralph, 2012),
and so the SouthWest CCAC and LHIN have started a revolution in the home health
care field. A program directed at palliative clients, the eShift Model of Care,
has been implemented to help reduce the caregiver burnout by supplying health
care professionals to help in the homes overnight, so the caregivers can
receive a proper night’s sleep and be able to care for their loved one during
the day, (South West LHIN, 2011). The program allows for what is known as an
ePSW – the ‘e’ standing for enhanced, (South West LHIN, 2011) to work with
families in the home to provide overnight care as needed. Every ePSW (enhanced
personal support worker) performs under the direction of a nurse through an application
on a mobile device, (South West LHIN, 2011).
With regards to the nurses,
instead of working one on one with clients, they are now able to manage care
for up to four locations at a time, (South West LHIN, 2011). This allows for a
broader range of care without the stress of job demand on nurses – a service
delivery model.
Videos/Learning Tools
eShift
Video:
A World without Nurses:
The eShift Model of Care:
Nursing
Implications
The idea of the eShift model raised several
questions in class – as people are curious what exactly this ‘stranger’ would
be doing in their home when immediate care is not required? Some students also questioned
the safety of the client’s information, while others considered what
implications may be involved in the event that a mistake is made by the ePSW? The answer to the latter is that the nurses are not responsible for mistakes made by the PSW as nurses are not their governing body!
The thing that I take away from this new program is that
it allows for clients at their end of life to die peacefully within their own
home. Often times, these clients are stable in terms of what care they can
receive and can be cared for just as well at home. As I am someone who’s always
pictured myself working in a hospital setting, having a program like this would
help to significantly decrease that type of care within the hospital allowing
for more patients with more immediate issues to be cared for. This would save
resources both in the form of hospital expenses but also in the way of nurses
whose population, as mentioned earlier, is steadily declining.
When addressing the issues of the responsibilities of the
PSWs it is reasonable to believe that during the times that the ePSW is not
attending to the client, he/she may be providing other care within the home,
such as cleaning, or laundry. This would help to relieve some of the daytime
stress on the caregiver as well.
Readings and Additional References
Demerouti,
E., Bakker, A., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. (2000). A model of burnout
and life satisfaction amongst nurses. Journal
of Advanced Nursing, 454–464.
Issa,
A. M. (2007). Personalized medicine and the practice of medicine in the 21st
century. McGill Journal of Medicine, 53-57.
Retrieved from: http://www.med.mcgill.ca/mjm/
Lawson
Health Research Institute. (2012). Announcing the mental health engagement
networks (MHEN). Mental Health Engagement
Network. Retrieved from: http://www.lhsc.on.ca/About_Us/LHSC/Publications/Features/MHEN.htm
Ralph,
A. (2012). Informal caregivers’ experience of caring for a palliative family
member. Western University, 1-117.
South-West Local
Health Integration Network. (2011). EShift
Helps Patients and the SouthWest CCAC. Retrieved from: http://www.southwestlhin.on.ca/newsletter.aspx?id=60
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