The article prepared by Jackson et al. (2014) is focused on patient safety that is to be ensured in the intensive care unit (ICU). The authors mention that with the course of time more people started to be treated in the ICU, which led to an increased number of problems. Still, healthcare professionals are not willing to adopt a culture of safety even though lots of guidelines already exist. The article emphasizes that the outdated approach of critical care should be revised following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The application of Maslow’s hierarchy will help the healthcare staff to reach a better quality of care and improve patient health outcomes.
In this article, the authors referred to the previously conducted research studies to show what is the current culture of critical care, why should it be changed, and how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used for this purpose. It presents qualitative data related to the topic. The paper is organized around the literature review.
The article is written for physicians and other representatives of the healthcare staff who work with critically ill patients. It is based in the USA and the information provided in it, focuses on the ICU peculiarities within the country.
The information provided by the researchers was not difficult to understand because it consisted of quantitative data so that no complicated measurements were used. In addition to that, the authors not just provided some information received from other articles but also interpreted it. Even though some peculiarities were not totally understood, they did not affect greatly the understanding of the text.
Due to this article, I have got to know that Maslow’s hierarchy can be used when delivering healthcare services in different hospital units. I realized that it could turn into a trigger, which ensures the creation of interdisciplinary teams for care delivery. Moreover, I got to know that the main problems faced by the patients can be solved even only with the help of psychological intervention based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which proves that it can have an enormous influence on people’s lives that is currently neglected.
I can use the information from this article in my practice, as it tells how to act when delivering care to the patients. In any situation, at first, the emphasis should be made on those needs that are basic. The authors even provided a list of possible interventions that I can use.
I would definitely recommend this article to others because it is appropriate for all people who are or are going to be occupied in the delivery of healthcare services. It shows that our desire to alter the way the patients are treated is not enough. Professionals should be stimulated, encouraged, and motivated to improve patient care. Reading this article, other students may realize this so that they will follow those guidelines developed by other professionals. Moreover, some of them may get interested in the topic so that they would like to develop it and make a contribution to the field.
This article was prepared by the professionals and it is organized decently. Still, it would be better if the researchers added some accurate numerical data, which showed how the situation with the delivery of patient care altered with the course of time. In addition to that, the authors could have also conducted some personal research. For example, if they added the results of the questionnaire that describe how healthcare professionals from the ICU treat the situation, they would have more chances to reach their goal and trigger the implementation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
This article motivated me to look for information related to the subject. First of all, I got interested in the way Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used in healthcare and other spheres. Except for that, it was interesting for me to understand in what way the ICU patients are treated so that the authors chose this unit but not another one. Finally, when I read the article I also searched for the information that was unknown to me or just not easy to understand so that I could be aware of everything.
The authors of the article are highly interested in the delivery of care to the patients in the ICU. They underline the fact that the main focus should be not on the quality of life but on survival that is why they encourage other professionals to pay more attention to survival. Jackson et al. (2014) consider that care should be delivered according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to improve the delivery of healthcare and patient outcomes. The article is based on the research studies prepared by other professionals in the sphere, which ensures its authoritativeness. The authors provided a lot of explanations, but the language of the work still included some difficult for the general public concepts, which is decent as it was prepared for the professionals. All in all the work is worth reading even though it could be improved.
Reference
Jackson, J., Santoro, M., Ely, T., Boehm, L., Kiehl, A., Lindsay, A., & Ely, W. (2014). Improving patient care through the prism of psychology: Application of Maslow’s hierarchy to sedation, delirium, and early mobility in the intensive care unit. Journal of Critical Care, 29(3), 438-44.