Research Articles (DNS)

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/3445

Browse

Browsing Research Articles (DNS) by Subject "Clinical"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Beyond routine care for children with heart diseases from the vulnerable context: A clinical practice perspective
    (2014) Amakali, Kristofina; Small, Louis F.
    The statistics of children with heart diseases are notable in Namibia many of whom are from the rural area. While waiting for surgical corrections or when the child is a case for palliative care, these children have to be cared for at home, a task that can be doubtful for a rural caregiver. A qualitative, exploratory, phenomenological and contextual study was conducted to describe the experiences of rural caregivers regarding provision of home care for children with heart disease. The children’s experiences of living with the disease at home were also assessed because the burden of the diseases intensifies the demands for care. The findings revealed that both the caregivers and the children experience challenged emotions, disruptive social functioning, lacking of support from the family, lack of support from societal organisations as well as experiences of low vitality among the children. These experiences together, signify the overall poor coping by the caregivers and the children. Therefore, caring for a child with a heart disease at home requires a plan of individualized care which considers the context and the socio-economic status of the caregivers as the determinants for coping with providing care at home. Based on the findings, key recommendations were made among others to the clinical practice setting as an entry point to the care provided to these children. This paper provides a detailed description of the proposed health care intervention in the clinical setting to facilitate effective home care to children with heart diseases from the rural context.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Clinical care for the patient with heart failure: A nursing care perspective
    (2015) Amakali, Kristofina
    Providing clinical nursing care to a patient with a heart disease requires the application of the knowledge of disease process which informs the nursing intervention. This paper presents a discussion on some priority aspects of clinical care for the patient with heart failure from the perspective of nursing care as summarized in the figure below. A brief summative overview of the disease process and the central concept in heart failure as fundamental to the conceptualization of clinical care needs for a patient with heart failure was presented. Application of the framework of the nursing process in providing clinical nursing care for a patient with a heart disease and the application of ethical principles were discussed. Thus, competent and therefore safe clinical care for a patient with heart failure requires comprehensive nursing care which embraces both the scientific approach and ethics of care