scholarly journals Struggling with the last breath: breathlessness at the end of life on the AMU

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-111
Author(s):  
M Lander ◽  
◽  
Jonathan Martin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Emergency Hospital ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Frustrating Patients

Breathlessness is one of the most common symptoms experienced at the end of life, affecting all areas of a patient’s life. It is frightening and leads to high rates of emergency hospital attendances. Often, there is no easily reversible cause and patients are admitted to the acute medical unit (AMU) in order to manage their symptoms with little overall benefit – frustrating patients and clinicians alike. This review reminds the generalist of the significance of breathlessness as a symptom. It highlights the management strategies available to effect improvement and gives practical tips on how this can be achieved within the busy and time-pressured environment of the AMU.

Battling a Tangled Web: The Lived Experience of Nurses Providing End-of-Life Care on an Acute Medical Unit

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Oliveira ◽  
Frances Fothergill-Bourbonnais ◽  
Christine McPherson ◽  
Brandi Vanderspank-Wright
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Interpretive Phenomenology ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Heath Care

Meeting the heath care needs of patients at the end of life is becoming more complex. In Canada, most patients with life-limiting illness will die in hospitals, many on medical units. Yet, few studies have qualitatively investigated end-of-life care (EOLC) in this context, or from the perspectives of nurses providing EOLC. The purpose of this study was to seek to understand the lived experience of nurses on a medical unit providing EOLC to patients. Interpretive phenomenology guided the method and analysis. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 nurses from 2 hospital medical units. The underlying essence of these nurses’ experiences was that of “battling a tangled web.” Battling a tangled web represented their struggles in attempting to provide EOLC in an environment that was not always conducive to it. Seven themes were generated from the analysis: caring in complexity, caught in a tangled web, bearing witness to suffering, weaving a way to get there: struggling through the process, creating comfort for the patient, working through the dying process with the family, and finding a way through the web. The findings contribute to an understanding of the experiences of nurses in providing EOLC on a medical unit including perceived facilitators and barriers.

scholarly journals Acute medical unit clinical skills lab

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 140-140
Author(s):  
Sarb Clare ◽  
Joe Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Skills ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Skills Lab

scholarly journals Causes of discharge delays from the acute medical unit (AMU) in a tertiary level teaching hospital, Brunei Darussalam

2021 ◽  
pp. 201010582110061
Author(s):  
Dayang Nur Hilmiyah binti Awang Husaini ◽  
Justin Fook Siong Keasberry ◽  
Khadizah Haji Abdul Mumin ◽  
Hanif Abdul Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
Discharge Planning ◽  
Patient Factors ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Prolonged Length ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
Medical Issues ◽  
Hospital Factors ◽  
Prolonged Hospital

Background: Many patients admitted to the acute medical unit experience a prolonged length of stay in hospital due to discharge delays. Consequently, this may impact the patients, healthcare institution and national economy in terms of patient safety, decreased hospital capacity, lost patient workdays and financial performance. Objectives: The main aim of this observational study was to identify the causes of discharge delays among acute medical unit patients admitted in the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Hospital, Brunei. Methods: A retrospective observational study, with data of patients admitted to the acute medical unit collected from Brunei Health Information Systems between September and December 2018. Statistical analyses were performed to obtain relevant results and any statistically significant associations. Results: A total of 357 patients were admitted to the acute medical unit over the 4-month period; 218 patients (61.1%) experienced discharge delays. Of these 218 patients, 158 patients (72.5%) encountered discharge delays mainly due to intrinsic patient factors, while the discharge delays in 88 patients (40.4%) were attributed to hospital factors. The main reason for discharge delays for patient factors was slow recovery among 67 patients (30.7%), whereas for hospital factors it was the weekend limitation of services available in 23 patients (10.6%). Conclusions: There were various causes of discharge delays identified among the 218 acute medical unit patients who experienced discharge delays. Older patients with frailty, polypharmacy and complex medical issues were more likely to have a prolonged hospital stay in the acute medical unit. Stringent inclusion criteria, increasing discharge planning as well as an effective multidisciplinary approach will aid in reducing discharge delays from the acute medical unit.

Prevalence of signs of dysphagia and associated risk factors in geriatric patients admitted to an acute medical unit

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 208-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Dissing Olesen ◽  
Robert Mariusz Modlinski ◽  
Simon Hosbond Poulsen ◽  
Pernille Mølgaard Rosenvinge ◽  
Henrik Højgaard Rasmussen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Geriatric Patients ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Associated Risk Factors

scholarly journals Acute medical unit staffing mismatch

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 44-44
Author(s):  
Dominic Reynish
Keyword(s):  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit

Socialising Disease: Medical Categories and Inclusion of the Aged

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Latimer
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Medical Domain

When older peoples' troubles are categorised as social rather than medical, hospital care can be denied them. Drawing on an ethnography of older people admitted as emergencies to an acute medical unit, the article demonstrates how medical categories can provide shelter for older people. By holding their clinical identity on medical rather than social grounds, physicians who specialise in gerontology in the acute medical domain can help prevent the over-socialising of an older person's health troubles. As well as helping the older person to draw certain resources to themselves, such as treatment and care, this inclusion in positive medical categories can provide shelter for the older person, to keep at bay their effacement as ‘social problems'. These findings suggest that contemporary sociological critique of biomedicine may underestimate how medical categorising, as the obligatory passage through which to access important resources and life chances, can constitute a process of social inclusion.

scholarly journals 31 * DEMENTIA CQUIN COMPLIANCE IN THE ACUTE MEDICAL UNIT: COMPLETED AUDIT CYCLE IN A LONDON TEACHING HOSPITAL

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. i7-i7
Author(s):  
R. Keynejad ◽  
A. Hawksley ◽  
J. Harrison ◽  
A. Skinner ◽  
E. Asgari
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Hospital ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Audit Cycle

scholarly journals Effects of influx of holidaymakers on an acute medical unit in Cornwall.

BMJ ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 4 (5991) ◽  
pp. 276-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
S D Horsley ◽  
P J Smail ◽  
A K Thould
Keyword(s):  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit
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