“The multidisciplinary approach in healthcare is akin to a football team, which includes strikers, defenders and goalkeepers. In the healthcare team, doctor is like the striker. If he scores, it is the collaborative effort of all team members. Therefore, nurses have a very significant role to play in patient improvement,” said Leslie Edward Lewis, professor, Department of Neonatology, Kasturba Medical College (KMC).
Mr. Lewis was speaking at a seminar on “Trends in healthcare”, organised by the first year M.Sc. students of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON) here on Friday.
According to a press release issued by the Manipal University here on Saturday, Dr. Lewis spoke on how children on ventilators were taken care of and focused on multidisciplinary approach with the aim to make the child comfortable.
In his inaugural speech, M. Dayananda, Medical Superintendent and COO of Kasturba Hospital, said that as healthcare was rapidly changing and as nurses were closely associated with delivering healthcare, it was necessary for them to update their knowledge on a regular basis. He encouraged the participants to take up research on the topics being discussed in the seminar.
Tom Devasia, Professor, Department of Cardiology, KMC, spoke on the causes and various treatment modalities for early cardiovascular disorders among youth, which is of great concern these days.
Few cardiovascular disorders highlighted were: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; a genetic disease where more than 25 genes have been identified causing the condition. Coronary artery disease; a disease no longer limited to older generation.
People below 45 years, who suffer myocardial infarction (MI), come under the category of MI under young. It is predominant among men and risk factors include smoking which is the commonest cause among youth.
Depression
Blessy Prabha Valsaraj, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatric Nursing, MCON, said that depression had become a major problem among youth. A study in 2013 on 2,000 adolescents in Udupi district showed 44 per cent of adolescents suffered from depression, which was higher than the depressed among the elderly.
Imbalance in the needs may lead to depression and other causes being loss of someone close, stressful life event or crisis, presence of any illness and family history. More males than females are affected.
Depression among youngsters these days is a major issue due to study related problems, wrong choices, lack of motivation, overload, faulty study practices, habits, family issues like broken family, financial issue, etc, he said. Joseph Thomas, Professor, Department of Urology, KMC, spoke on “Ethics in clinical practice.”
