Patient Care Essay

Kristal Souders
Doreen Morgan
HTH 105
1 Msy 2015
Caring for Patients in the Medical Field When most people hear the term patient care, a million thoughts probably run through their head; bed baths, transportation, pain management, medication distribution, and so on. Patient care is so much more than that. In class, we learned about all the aspects of caring for our patients, which goes way beyond just the physical elements. Medical care also includes abiding by HIPAA laws, knowing how to speak to those of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds, and knowing your hospital codes and safety standards. If you’ve ever been in a hospital, you have probably heard the acronym HIPAA, or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Although many people have heard the term, they are unsure what it actually is. HIPAA is the set of guidelines that include everything from how a medical professional addresses their patient when calling them back to their room, to the manner in which the condition of a patient is discussed between caretakers. HIPAA is set in place to protect the privacy of the patient. I’ve learned to always use a first name of my patient when not in privacy as opposed to their last name. Also, when reporting back to another medical professional, I’ve learned to always make sure I discuss their condition in a private room or where I cannot be overheard. HIPAA also gives every patient the right to access his or her medical records and refuse medical treatment. Although I was aware of some of the aspects of HIPAA, I never really paid attention to how they pertained to me while in a health facility. For instance, when I brought my daughter to the hospital, the first triage nurse addressed her by her first name. After being sent back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor, the next triage nurse addressed her by her last name. Normally I would have overlooked this but it made me think that now everyone else in the waiting room knew my daughters first and last name. On a different occasion, while I was attending school for nursing, during my clinical rotation, I noticed that the computers in which we documented our information were in the hallway of the facility with the screens pointed outward; so anyone would have been able to view the chart of the patient being viewed at the time. Instances like this make me think more about how I will conceal the anonymity of my patients in the future. The United States is a melting pot. Those from many different countries come to be a part of the Land of the Free. With different ethnicities comes different ways of doing things. Although I knew generally that people from different countries, especially the countries the Middle East, have different religious backgrounds, it is much more inclusive than that. There are some ethnic groups, such as Asians, East Indian, Native American, who see direct eye contact as rude or disrespectful, while Russians see direct eye contact as comfortable or respectful (Ehrlich 103-104). Knowing that not everyone I come in contact with will see everything the way I do, will make sure

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