Blog Entry No. 4: Home Nursing Techniques; Signs & Symptoms of Illnesses & Diseases

1.  If you are a good home nurse, what are the various home nursing techniques that you need to apply that will make the patient feel comfortable and speed up the recovery?

 -To make the patient comfortable, you need to follow the correct covering of the bed and  covering the pillow because it helps the patient to feel relax and comfortable. 
-To make the patient recover fast, as a home nurse it is our responsibility to make sure that the patients drinks his/her medicines at the right time and amount. Its also our responsibility to record everytime the temperature of the patient (if he/she has a fever) to know if his/her temperature is going down or not.  And of course to follow proper hygiene and make the room of the patient clean to help his/her illness or disease recover fast.

 2.  Why should the home nurse monitor the vital signs of the patient?
-so that the home  nurse could see if the patient is well under his/her care and to know that if he/she is doing well taking care of the patient and responsible. and to know if the patient is slowly recovering.

 3.  How do you take the body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure of the patient?
 -To take the body temperature, you have to use a thermometer to know if he/she has a fever in his/her mouth, rectum or armpit.
-To take the pulse rate of the patient, let the patients sit or lie relaxed and comfortably. then. locate the pulse and use your two fingers to know. use a watch or timer for accurate counting. Lastly, record it.
-To take the respiratory rate or blood pressure, let the patient lie or sit comfortably. then wrap the BP cuff around the patient's arm then place the bell-shaped end of the stethoscope on the inside of the elbow where the pulse can be felt.

4.  What are some practices that the home nurse must follow that will
           promote comfort to the patient?
 -the correct way of covering the bed and pillow.

 5.  How will you differentiate signs from symptoms of illnesses and
           diseases?
symptoms is if there's something wrong with your body or mind and then it's a SIGN already that you're sick or you have an illness.

6.  If you are the doctor, what will be your basis in giving the diagnosis for your patient?

If I was the doctor, my basis in giving the diagnosis for the patient is to make the patient feel that he/she could rely on me, trust me in giving the correct medicine to let him/her recover fast and to really observe the patient to avoid his/her illness be more complicated or dangerous.