Zahra salim jessani^1*, Yasmeen Jan Mohammad²

^1,2Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, Pakistan

*Corresponding Author: Zahra salim jessani, Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, Pakistan, Tel: +92 21 111 911 911; Fax: +92 21 111 911 911; E-mail:zahra.jessani1104@gmail.com

Citation: Zahra salim jessani, Yasmeen Jan Mohammad (2018) Holistic Care During Delivery.Int Ginecolgia obstcia2:107.

Copyright: © 2018 Zahra salim jessani, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Received: November 21, 2018; Accepted: November 27, 2018; Published: December 03, 2018.

It is well said that “Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken” [1].

On 24^th February 2014, I went to Patel hospital along with my faculty and colleagues for the reproductive health clinical rotation. After reaching there, my faculty assigned me to the labor room where I encountered a patient who was going for spontaneous vaginal delivery. As patient’s labor pain was not started yet, I decided to take an interview in order to have some knowledge about the case. The patient was 32 years old, gravida 3^rd para 2+1.She was at 36^th week of her gestation period and was going to give birth second time. During her antenatal period, she came to know that she had pregnancy induced hypertension due to which she complained for severe headaches and abnormal blood pressure. That is why doctor advised her to go for premature delivery in order to prevent child from complications. As she encountered labor pain, she was shifted to delivery room by one of the staff. Doctor and other staffs were in hurry because two other patients were in the same labor room and both of them were confronting labor pain at the same time. I was really excited to observe the process as it was my first exposure to the labor room. I was helping doctor and staff in the preparations. During the procedure, I noticed that they were not maintaining aseptic technique as it is very essential for any sort of procedure to prevent patient from infection. I was standing beside the patient and was examining the whole delivery process. I further observed that patient was saying that “please close the door, please close the curtains, No one has right to see my body without my consent” but they were not maintaining privacy. According to Falkivnge [2] No one can invade in your body without one’s consent and respecting human dignity is one of the basic principles considering patient’s rights i.e right to privacy. I was amazed to see that holistic care was not being followed. This scene was very bizarre for me as we have taught from day one in our nursing profession that we need to take care of our patient in a holistic way.

As a matter of fact, nurses are the victims of inferiority complex in our typical environment and in medical practice. So, rather discussing the matter with the doctor, I tried to approach the staff. I advised them that it is important to use aseptic technique to prevent the patient from infections. They replied me in a very rude and disrespectful manner and said that I am here only for temporary purpose and I should not interfere in their work and policies.

I reflected on the incident and felt very bad about it. I was disheartened when staff responded me in such a rude way. I was demotivated and discouraged even though I was only concerned about patient’s health. According to Cherney [3] a lack of enforced aseptic techniques can lead to a host of problems for patients. I was upset because I was unable to speak out for the patient. I was sad that I have not done anything for the patient in order to maintain aseptic practices during delivery as well as I did not maintain privacy for the patient. At student level initially, I tried to take the initiative but it made me felt worthless as there was no positive response. Everything was in front of me but unfortunately, I was helpless.

This incident happened because I did not advocate for the patient. As we are taught from the beginning of our nursing profession to advocate for the patient but I remain quite at that point in time. Patient advocacy as a practice designed at improving health care quality and access, primarily with regard to patient-centeredness and patient safety, by advancing the patient’s perception [4]. As a student nurse I did not even take initiative to maintain privacy. I did not make patient comfortable when she was shouting. We as a nurse are here to provide holistic care towards patient but I was not able to encounter patient need. According to American Health Association Nurses [5] (2003) Holistic nursing heals the whole person. Holistic nurses are agents of healing and facilitators in the process, honoring the individual’s subjective experiences and beliefs about health and values.

It was a great learning for me because it made me realize that how important is to maintain privacy. It is rightly said that one of the aim of a nurse is to put themselves in other shoes. According to Qasmi [6] Islam provide great importance in maintaining one’s chasity i.e. body parts and modesty and therefore always guard for the right to privacy. The holy Quran considers one’s privacy as one’s birth right and forms principles for its protection. Furthermore, if I had taken initiative to advocate for the patient and if i had done something good for my patient to sustain privacy I would have been internally satisfied. On other hand, if I had assisted doctor in the procedure I could have prevent another patient from infections by maintaining aseptic practices as well as at student nurse level I can also provide. I can become calmer and relax if I had taken these measures before to make patient comfortable.

Therefore, in future I will be more careful towards patient care. I will be more patient centered and will treat patient holistically. As a matter of fact that, I cannot change the policy of the particular hospital but we can accommodate and negotiate with the system to provide quality care to patient by educating their staff. I can also make an effort to plan a teaching session about the importance of privacy and aseptic practices during procedure, so that we can empower staffs to prevent patient from harm [7]. I will learn to advocate for the patient next time as well as at my level I will try my level best to maintain aseptic technique to prevent patient from harm.

1. 100 Entertaining & Inspiring Quotes for Nurses | Nursing Schools.net (2010)
2. Falkivnge R (2013) Our Seven Privacies: The Many Important Facets of Privacy | Privacy Online News.
3. Cherney K (2013) Aseptic Technique | Definition and Patient Education.
4. French EA, Gilkey MB, Earp JA (2009) Patient advocacy: putting the vocabulary of patient-centered care into action. N C Med J 70: 114-119. [crossref] 
5. Dossey B (2003) Florence Nightingale and Holistic Nursing.
6. Qasmi HR (2013) Quran: An Unparalleled Manifesto of Human Rights – Deoband.
7. Hayat MI (2007) Privacy and Islam: From the Quran to data protection in Pakistan.