Introduction
The article “Improving patient care through the prism of psychology: Application of Maslow’s hierarchy to sedation, delirium, and early mobility in the intensive care unit” is written by Jackson et al. (2014, p. 438). It discusses the way care is delivered to the patients of the intensive care unit (ICU) currently and the way it should be delivered to improve patient healthcare outcomes. The authors underline that it is necessary to pay attention to the safety of the consumers because this concept is even more important than the quality of care. They say that the most vital need of every human being is survival that is why it should be more important than the others. Professionals refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to prove their point of view. They also claim that patient safety should be improved in the ICU. Today a lot of studies are conducted on this topic, and scientists provide many recommendations (including those developed from the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) that should be used in practice but are not. With their article, Jackson et al. (2014) tried to motivate healthcare professionals to start implementing them.
This work is organized as a literature review, even though its purpose is not just to speak about the observed problem. It is based on 74 sources, the majority of which were written recently. Thus, the paper is full of authoritative qualitative data that can be easily understood by the targeted audience that includes healthcare professionals. Still, the information is presented in such a way that even students who are going to work in this sphere will understand it. Moreover, some representatives of the general public are likely to realize what the article is about because the authors explained their position in detail. Some misunderstandings may occur when dealing with specific terms. The paper is based in the USA, but his information is not emphasized in the text of the article, which can be seen as its drawback.
The article prepared by Jackson et al. (2014) is rather interesting. It states that the quality of care that is today emphasized greatly by many professionals is not that important as patient safety. Even though such an idea seems to be reasonable, it is rarely discussed in this way. Also, the fact that nurses and physicians should work according to Maslow’s hierarchy attracted my attention, as I have never thought of it. Finally, it was interesting to get to know that many patients tend to have problems after the discharge, even though they seem to be rather healthy at that time. Using this information in practice, I would be able to ensure the delivery of appropriate care to my patients. I would refer to their needs according to the hierarchy so that they would have fewer problems and would feel better. Thus, I would encourage other students to read this article. It will help them to realize how to work with patients and to what situations to pay attention. They may make use of this information when deciding how to act in the future when having patients from the ICU. They can also use those psychological interventions that the authors outlined as the most effective ones. If their knowledge in this topic is still not good enough, the students can refer to this article because it gathers the information from many related sources.
Jackson et al. (2014) worked hard when preparing this paper. Of course, the scientists made this work good enough for it to become peer-reviewed. Still, they could have improved it in several ways. First of all, professionals could have avoided the usage of those sources that were published in the previous century. Of course, they are still decent but outdated already. Then, they could have discussed not only the ideas of other researchers but also their findings. Moreover, they could have used statistical data to support their claims. Possible reasons why Maslow’s hierarchy is not currently used could also be discussed. The lack of this information motivated me to do my own search because I felt that the things I got to know are not enough for me to understand the situation totally. I also searched for some concepts that were discussed in the article, but I was not totally aware of it. What is more, the paper made me want to know how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used to solve other problems that occur in the sphere of healthcare.
Thus, it can be concluded that the article written by Jackson et al. (2014) provides explains why healthcare professionals need to pay more attention to patient safety but not to the quality of healthcare delivery services on the basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The scientists prepared an authoritative and well-grounded paper that can be of advantage for professionals who work in the ICU or are interested in the culture of safety. This work can also be useful for students even though they might need to do some search to understand the article better.
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.