Introduction and Background
The article specifies the traditional and novel positions that nurses occupy during the treatment of liver cirrhosis patients. The title and the content of the article suggest that this is a quantitative research study because it focuses on the definition of specific nursing interventions and their influence on patient outcomes. The abstract comprises the primary purpose of this review, which is to reveal the roles of nurses in patient care with compensated and decompensated cirrhosis in outpatient and inpatient settings. The introduction highlights the centrality of cirrhosis as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, the limited participation of nurses in the care of these patients and the need to improve their engagement in the care process. It puts forward this reality as an educational program for nurses is made better and that healthcare providers and policymakers are made to know and appreciate the positive impacts of this area. The research question that the study seeks to answer is not explicitly stated, but it can be inferred as: Can the established nurse roles in the care of patients with cirrhosis be extended and new roles established? The literature review includes current references and describes the essence of the existing research in the field of the given topic.
Methodology
The article provides a synthesis of evidence that exists about the role of nurses in the therapy of cirrhosis patients. It is an example of qualitative research, mainly referred to as a narrative review or literature review. The article does not report any sampling process in particular, as it is a review of the literature which is already available. Yet, it includes the total range of nursing services and therapeutic measures for patients with compensated and decompensated liver cirrhosis. The article gives a narrative elaboration of the available pieces of information, and not statistical measurement data. It goes into the different nursing interventions and their possible positive effects on patient outcomes, e.g. higher quality of care, fewer hospital re-readmissions and more significant survival rates.
Results
The study revealed, in the context of cirrhosis, the central role of nurses in terms of both outpatient treatment of compensated cirrhosis and inpatient care of decompensated cirrhosis. Counselling on healthy diet and lifestyle, lectures on cirrhosis and its complications, helping to find the root cause of cirrhosis, screening on gastroesophageal varices and hepatocellular carcinoma, medication counselling, and comorbidities management for cirrhosis patients in a compensated state is the role of a nurse. In the case of decompensated cirrhosis, the nursing roles should be guided by a holistic patient-centred approach, comprehensive frailty and risk of falling assessment, education on a healthy lifestyle, diet, and self-management, as well as management of the various complications that occur in the course of the disease. Alongside this, the article outlines the possible employment of advanced practice nurses or specialist nurses in patients with cirrhosis-based care, indicating studies which revealed superior care, reduced readmissions as well as extended survival.
Discussion
The shortcoming of this study is that it is a narrative review rather than a systematic review or meta-analysis. Thus, researchers should have followed the procedure of picking and analyzing all admitted evidence on the issue. Furthermore, the article should have given numeric data entirely on the varied results of the nursing interventions talked about, thus limiting the ability to conclude their effectiveness perfectly. The researchers acknowledge the nursing roles’ variability and the different educational requirements that are practiced in other countries, which may affect the validity of the results and their recommendations. Despite these restrictions, the article has several recommendations derived from the implications of synthesized evidence. The diminishing need for improved and standardized educational programs for nurses in which they learn how to take care of cirrhosis patients is being highlighted by the researchers. This is a pivotal step in preparing nurses to handle this unique population with all the knowledge and skills needed for effective care. The same article puts forward the issue of nurses being actively engaged in the care of both compensated and decompensated cirrhosis patients in hospital and non-hospital settings. While the study has its constraints, it still proposes essential recommendations on the basis of the aggregate data. Researchers focus on the immediate establishment and improvement of structured educational courses for nurses that will concentrate on the care of patients with chronic liver disease, especially cirrhosis. This is a pivotal point to ensure that nurses possess the good knowledge and skills to provide excellent care for this patient group. The article also demonstrates how nurses can attend to patients with stage A and B compensation and stage C decompensating in both outpatient and inpatient care.
The authors emphasize the significance of the involvement of advanced practice nurses, such as APNs or specialist nurses, in interprofessional teams that deal with patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Studies from different countries have demonstrated that nurses with advanced training can improve care cooperation, quality care and patient outcomes, including reduced hospital readmission and increased survival rate. It is as if they highlight the critical role of nurses with high-level skills in intense care for people with complex and acute conditions like decompensated cirrhosis. The outcomes of the given review are relevant to the nursing practice on several accounts. First, it supports the need for increased involvement of nurses who are to help the patients at the compensated stage with education, counseling, screening and self-management facilitation. Other than this, the study highlights the benefit of admitting skilled nurses to the interprofessional groups tending to patients with complications of cirrhosis. With this in mind, one can step into the issues associated with the complicated, dynamic, and unpredictable natural course of this condition.
Reference
Fabrellas, N., Künzler-Heule, P., Olofson, A., Jack, K., & Carol, M. (2023). Nursing care for patients with cirrhosis. Journal of Hepatology, 79(1), 218-225.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016882782300082X
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