CARE GIVING

Care Giving Of the Adults with Influenza

Care Giving Of the Adults with Influenza

Introduction

Influenza or flu for short is a contagious viral disease that attacks the respiratory system. The flu virus is contracted through airborne exposure. It is also called "sweating sickness". A great influenza pandemic occurred in 1918, then named as the Spanish flu (Alfred, 2003). Influenza epidemics usually occur during the winter months and in Western Hemispherical countries like Canada and United States.

Each year, millions of peope are affected with influenza. Some of the patients turn severly ill, encountering losses in forms of decreased health and increased absenteeism from workplace and school. However, a good caregiver can greatly contribute to the prevention and control of the disease through information sharing and flu shots. Nurses can use evidence and guidelines of the CNO and RNAO to protect patients and their colleagues. Canadian citizens can avail the facility of free flu shots at school and workplace. This paper explores how a RNAO nursing best practice guideline and CNO Nursing Standards can help caregivers in controlling and treating influenza.

Ethics and Standards

For controlling the flu virus, a host of scholarly publications, literature and guidelines is available. A know1edge base in nursing standards for treatment of flu should also include codified ethics — codes, policies, and laws — as they relate to nursing practice. These include codes of ethics promulgated by professional associations in which one is a member or even a stakeholder. At the international leve1 there is The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses (international Council of Nurses, 2006). At the national level, there is the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA, 2008) Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses and the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2001) Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. At the provincial or state level, there are such documents as Practice Standards: Ethics College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009). Various professional organizations also publish helpful policy statements related to particular issues or addressed to nurses working in a specific context or area. For example, nurses actively engaged in research should be familiar with Ethical Research Guidelines for Registered Nurses (CNA 2002).

Nurses working in a variety of institutional contexts can find guidance in two statements produced collaboratively by the Canadian Healthcare Association, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association, and the Catholic health Association of Canada: Joint Statement on Resuscitative Interventions (1995); and joint Statement of Resolving and Preventing Ethics Conflicts Involving Health Providers and Persons Receiving Care (1999). In late 2005, the RNAO released a best practice guideline called 'Woman Abuse: Screening, Identification, and Initial Response." Developed by an interdisciplinary panel under the leadership of Daina Mueler, the guideline's purpose is 'to facilitate routine universal screening for the abuse of women by nurses in all practice settings" The guideline offers a large repertoire of evidenced-based strategies, and provides information about the strength of evidence (Alfred, 2003).

Nurses and Influenza Vaccination

In a study in British Columbia, 25% of health care workers were infected with influenza virus during the winter ...