A patient care example of this can be a patient who has CHF, one-sided weakness d/t past stroke, dementia with behaviour expressions, in-dwelling catheter, and vision impairment (this could be a patient that is deemed complex as they have multiple co-morbidities with high care needs and considerations) who suddenly displays signs of acute confusion, delirium and develops a high fever (this could be seen as the patient now being “acutely ill” with a potential UTI). Though the patient had existing co-morbidities that make the patient care complex, these are not new and could even be considered stable and managed well with the patient’s current treatment and care plan. The sudden new onset fever, and confusion/delirium is what can be seen as “acutely ill” where the acuity (as Tabler’s Medical Dictionary defines) is referring to severity and level of attention required since the reason for the fever needs to be determined quickly, the fever has to be treated, and patient has to be given much attention d/t confusion and existing co-morbidities that could put them at a very high risk for fall and injury.

One example to recall is when the facility was removing all bedrails from the beds. The team leading this work had to present the data and communicate it in different ways in order to fully engage all relevant stakeholders.
Communication and presentation of the information had to be different for residents, staff, and family members, as each of these stakeholders had a different role in the process and past usage of bedrails.
Some of the relevant stakeholders wanted to fully understand the data (number of injuries/per year), and wanted this presented in more graph, diagram format, where other stakeholders wanted the “stories” behind the data.

One example I recall is a client’s family coming into the unit and asking questions about their family members status change and why they weren’t informed right away. They were very heightened and in turn made the client became heightened. When entering the room I could feel the tension, once speaking with the patient and family, explaining that I wanted to gather as much information as possible before informing everyone of the status change. I wanted to be prepared and have as much answers as I could to be able to inform everyone. The family apologized and thanked me for being compassionate and caring in this situation and having the information needed.

I felt like the “feeling portion” comes into a large role when being a nurse as you need to feel the room and know how to respond to certain patients.