Biomedical subjects

Z R Wolf

Publications and source records attributed to Z R Wolf.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1991

Nurses' experiences giving postmortem care to patients who have donated organs: a phenomenological study.

This study examined nurses' experiences in giving postmortem care to organ donors. A descriptive, phenomenological approach was used. Operating room, organ procurement agency, and critical care nurses were interviewed; audiotaped interviews were transcribed verbatim. Text-based analysis according to Colaizzi's (1978) approach was employed. Postmortem care took place in the context of the gift of the organs by the family, the tragedy of traumatic injury and resulting brain death of a young, healthy person, and procurement surgery. Nurses were saddened by the death of a donor, and viewed postmortem care as the opportunity to achieve closure with the patient. Nurses became temporary kin with the family and the patient. They respected the body, and saw giving after-death care as providing comfort even after death. As they cared for the patient throughout the experience, nurses confronted the dilemma of maintaining the brain-dead patient on life support until donor surgery.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1990

University/community poster sessions.

Graduate nursing students created posters to illustrate their practicum projects at the end of a field course. Posters were presented at a poster session on a university campus in Philadelphia, open to preceptors, other nurse colleagues, and the university community. Students recognized the advantages of the poster session, including learning how to conduct a professional presentation in public and how to construct an attractive, literature-based poster to hold the attention of colleagues attending the session.

Audiovisual Aids↗

PubMed1990

Nurses' experiences giving post-mortem care to patients who have donated organs: a phenomenological study.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Medication errors and nursing responsibility.

Medication errors could effectively be reduced by systematically identifying, eliminating, or minimizing human and system risks. However, errors associated with random events may never be controlled by risk reduction efforts because of the unpredictability of the events preceding the error. Identifying and reducing risks is as important as acknowledging medication errors after they occur. A preliminary model including risks and types of medication errors is presented in Fig 1. Additional classification and explanation is needed in order to identify strategies to reduce medication errors. Medication administration is a nursing function that incorporates scientific knowledge, technical skill, and ritualistic practice. When nurses give medications and make medication errors, they remember their responsibility to do good and avoid harm. Nurses can better exert this responsibility by taking a more prospective, risk-reduction approach to medication errors.

Humans↗

PubMed1989

Learning the professional jargon of nursing during change of shift report.

Nurses discuss their patients in sequence during change of shift report. Guided by the patient record, this orderly progression of facts and words takes place repeatedly at specific time intervals and imposes order on the easily disordered events of patient units. The amount of information shared by reporting nurses increases when the acuity level of patients is high and when patients are recently admitted to patient units. Shift report functions as a forum for the socialization of nurses into the role of the nurse. During shift report, nurses express worries, complain, warn about possible errors, acknowledge errors, and set standards of nursing care. Using the language of nursing and telling "war stories" of their nursing experiences, nurses gently guide inexperienced nurses. Change of shift report is a nursing ritual that allows the hidden commitment of nurses to continuous coverage and responsibility for patients visible through the professional jargon of nursing.

Communication↗

PubMed1989

Uncovering the hidden work of nursing.

Much nursing work, Wolf claims, is hidden, thereby decreasing our societal status and perceived value. The author gives an insightful analysis of the sorts of nursing work that are invisible and undervalued.

Humans↗

PubMed1988