Infusion therapy training ‘may be critical’ for rheumatology nurses moving forward
ORLANDO — Although not every nurse performs infusions, understanding infusion therapy may be critical for rheumatology nurses moving forward, according to a presenter at the 2022 Rheumatology Nurses Society Conference.
“Be careful of the skin,” Dawn Berndt, DNP, RN, CRNI, director of publications and educational design at the Infusion Nurses Society, told attendees. “Be well-versed in vascular access and pain management.”
Knowledge of potential infusion reactions is critical, as is infection prevention, she added.
According to Berndt, every nurse should strive for excellence in a host of areas, including patient navigation, advocacy and education.
“There are so many roles that a nurse plays,” she said. “Today I am going to talk about those multiple roles that you play that make you a complete person who provides care.”
Those roles include patient navigator, patient advocate, patient safety manager, patient educator and infusion expert. Berndt examined the topic from the patient perspective, noting that nurses need to provide guidance at every step of the care journey.
“We are helping a patient get comfortable with the uncomfortable,” she said.
The role of navigator demands a range of skills, from advocacy and care coordination, to case monitoring and needs assessment. Education is required, along with psychosocial support.
“As a care coordinator, you are working to make a bunch of things fit,” she said.
The case monitoring component of navigation is “ongoing,” according to Berndt. So, too, is the psychosocial component.
“There is a weightiness that comes with chronicity,” she said, noting that many rheumatology patients are trapped in ongoing cycles of pain and lack of functionality. “Please make sure you are providing for them,” she added.
The role of patient safety manager is another ongoing task for any nurse.
“Our whole role is to be continually vigilant to ensure the patient’s safety,” Berndt said.
Documenting adverse events is critical to managing safety, according to Berndt. She stressed the necessity of providing all relevant information to the next provider when ending a shift or handing a patient off.
Nurses are often the link between the patient and the entirety of the health care system, which is the principal component of the role of patient advocate, according to Berndt.
She then quoted on the topic from the RNS: “Our mission at the Rheumatology Nurses Society is to advocate for patients to improve access to care and reduce the administrative burden to rheumatology nurses and advanced practice providers.”
According to Berndt, the role of educating patients starts with nurses educating themselves.
“We need to know everything about the medications we are administering,” she said.
The next component of education pertains to listening, which she described as “paramount.” The final component is to not only ask questions, but the right questions.
“Do we know the patient’s real concerns?” Berndt said.
Ultimately, Berndt stressed that every nurse has room to grow and learn in each of these roles and suggested that being an expert in all of them is “a really tall order.” However, she stated that, with persistence and education, all nurses can get there.
“We can be the nurse who instills confidence in our patients and who says, ‘I’ve got this,’” she said.
Collapse
Berndt D. Infusing Confidence in Your Patients. Presented at: Rheumatology Nurses Society annual conference; August 3-6, 2022.
Read more about