Working Together as a Team: Adolescent Transplant Recipients and Nurse Practitioners

Autor: Gail Stendahl, Stacee M. Lerret
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: Progress in Transplantation. 21:288-298
ISSN: 2164-6708
1526-9248
DOI: 10.1177/152692481102100406
Popis: Nurse practitioners are a critical part of the transplant team, enhancing the quality of patient care with their knowledge and skill with respect to disease-specific populations of patients. Adolescent transplant recipients are a vulnerable population and require specific considerations. Nurse practitioners can successfully tailor care to the adolescent developmental stages in order to promote quality of life, adherence to the medical regimen, and successful transition to adult transplant centers and to minimize risk-taking behaviors. Teamwork between the patient's family and the entire transplant team is important to optimize not only the patient's health but also to ensure quality of life after transplant. Adolescents can be especially challenging after transplant, given their complex and evolving psychosocial and cognitive development. Nurse practitioners are in a unique position to be central in adolescents' successful adaptation to their medical condition. Facilitating identification and management of medication-related side effects, awareness of emotional health and quality of life, adherence to the medical regimen, and eventual transition to adult caregivers all remain critically important steps in care that are ideally suited for advance practice leadership.
Databáze: OpenAIRE