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Biomedical subjects

B B Turkoski

Publications and source records attributed to B B Turkoski.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Ethics in the absence of truth.

Nurses are passionate about patients' rights; especially the right of all patients to full disclosure, autonomy, and decision making. When these patient rights have been violated by an absence of truth, by deception, or by lies, nurses become unwilling actors in a part they find neither wise nor ethical. This discomfort can negatively impact patient care and contributes to job dissatisfaction. This article examines real-life situations where the principle of veracity has been abused. Suggestions for resolving ethical concerns can help readers to approach similar situations in a new light.

Decision Making↗
PubMed2000

Home care and hospice ethics: using the code for nurses as a guide.

In today's rapidly changing healthcare environment, home care and hospice nurses face complex ethical dilemmas. Many result from situations with two opposing, but equally reasonable, solutions. Understanding how and why ethical dilemmas arise helps nurses recognize the potential for an ethical dilemma and formulate justifiable solutions. This article, the first of a new ethics column in Home Healthcare Nurse, sets the foundation for the nurse's understanding of these dilemmas by applying the American Nurses Association's Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements to real case studies.

Confidentiality↗
PubMed1999

Relieving intermittent claudication: a nursing approach.

Peripheral arterial disease affects at least 10% of adults older than 70 years. Risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, history of smoking, and genetics increase the incidence of the disease. Intermittent claudication, experienced as calf pain or cramping, is the primary symptom in patients with lower-extremity peripheral arterial disease. Patients with claudication are unable to walk even moderate distances. As a result, they often lead lives that are profoundly restricted. Medical therapeutic options available for patients with intermittent claudication are limited to a small number of medications and walking exercise rehabilitation. Walking exercise training can significantly increase ability and decrease calf discomfort for many patients. Nurses can have a major impact on improving the quality of life of patients with claudication, not only by seeking referrals to established institutional walking exercise programs, but also by helping patients in the community develop a personalized walking program. In this article, a nursing plan of care including short-term and long-term goals is addressed. A case study will illustrate the effectiveness and improved quality of life that an individualized program of walking exercise had for one community-based client.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

Professionalism as ideology: a socio-historical analysis of the discourse of professionalism in nursing.

For most of this century, extensive and heated discourse has surrounded defining, conceptualizing, and implementing nursing professionalism. These discussions, for the most part, have approached professionalism as a set of universal, unchanging, objectively-measured criteria. This study explores professionalism as an ideology; an image that a social group gives of itself to itself, as a community with a history and identity. Analyses of eight decades of the American Journal of Nursing identify ways that the language of professionalism gives meaning to changing and competing social structures through rationalization and legitimation. The study further identifies how change has often been illusionary, illuminating how the language of professionalism has served to legitimate, and conceal reality. Identifying and understanding how political, social, and economic domination and asymmetry are rationalized and legitimated through language and ideology will allow nursing to demystify constraints and coercion in the delivery of health care.

Altruism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medication timing for the elderly: the impact of biorhythms on effectiveness.

The concept of chronopharmacology has significant implications for drug delivery systems. Age and illness put the elderly at greater risk for adverse drug effects, and nurses caring for the elderly have a challenging opportunity to measurably improve the quality of their care by applying chronotherapeutic concepts. Pharmacologic chronotherapy is a developing science that holds much hope for increasing the effectiveness of drug therapy and for reducing the incidence of toxic drug reactions. Nurses who are aware of the principles on which chronotherapy is based are in a unique position to improve the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for all clients. However, appropriate timing of medications is especially important among elderly clients whose physiological processes are altered or changed by age and chronic illness. In this article, the basis of chronotherapy is discussed, and several therapeutic applications are identified.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Glaucoma and glaucoma medications.

Unrecognized and untreated glaucoma (ocular hypertension) results in loss of visual field and blindness for millions of people. While no cure exists for glaucoma, early detection and maintaining recommended treatment regimens can be major factors in reducing irreparable damage--damage that has a devastating effect on the quality of life of glaucoma sufferers. Nurses who understand and teach about the importance of glaucoma testing and treatment can be significant agents in the fight against glaucoma related blindness.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Timed release analgesics: Part 1. Narcotics.

The problem of relieving patients' pain is a major challenge for health care professionals. New formulations of time-released pain medications offer exciting possibilities. However, there are cautions and patient education factors that are important when considering any timed-release product. This article looks at selected timed-release forms of narcotics used for pain relief. Knowledge of the differences and similarities, benefits and cautions, and patient education factors will help the reader make safer and more informed decisions about prescribing and administering timed-release narcotics.

Analgesics↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Timed release analgesics: Part 2. Nonopioids.

The problem of relieving patients' pain is a major challenge for health care professionals. New formulations of time-released pain medications offer exciting possibilities. However, there are cautions and patient education factors that are important when considering any timed-release product. This article looks at selected timed-release forms of nonopioids used for pain relief. Knowledge of the differences and similarities, benefits and cautions, and patient education factors will help the reader make safer and more informed decisions about prescribing and administering timed-release nonopioids. The first article in this two-part series (January/February 2001) examined narcotics.

Analgesics, Non-Narcotic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The pregnant orthopaedic patient and medication concerns.

It is not every day that nurses practicing in an orthopaedic setting must care for a pregnant patient. However, when they do, there are medication concerns about two patients--the pregnant patient and the fetus. The pregnant patient will need relief from pain and discomfort at the same time that the fetus will need to be protected from medications that pose potential fetal risk. In this article, the risk to the fetus from selected medications is identified, and the effect that normal physiologic changes of pregnancy may have on absorption, distribution, and elimination of medications is discussed.

Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Meeting the challenge of medication reactions in the elderly.

The number of elderly clients in most health care settings is increasing in direct proportion to the rapid aging of our general population. To plan and deliver optimum health care for elderly clients, nurses need to recognize this population's unique, special needs. One important aspect of quality care for older adults is managing their medications to assure the maximum beneficial results from medication therapy while avoiding adverse complications. Changes of aging will be examined in this article for their potential pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic impact. Incorporating this knowledge into practice will prepare professional nurses to act as change agents and advocates for increased awareness and sensitivity to actual or potential medication problems among all members of the health care team.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Common herbal remedies.

Herbal remedies are becoming increasingly popular as people seek more effective, natural, or safer methods for treating a variety of complaints. As a result, nurses in every setting may expect to see increased numbers of patients who are using herbal products. When patients assume that the nurses will be critical of their use of herbals, they may withhold such information to avoid unpleasantness. This could place patients at risk for adverse effects, drug interactions, and complications related to ineffective treatment. Nurses who are knowledgeable about herbal products and who are open to discussion about these products can provide information and advice about safe use. The discussion in this article addresses actions, possible benefits, and dangers of the most common herbal products. Guidelines for assessing and teaching clients about herbal use are included.

Humans↗