Nursing; Roles and Responsibilities as a Nurse
Nursing is an exciting and in demand profession, as a nurse you promote health, prevent disease and help patients cope with illness. The attitude of a nurse has a huge impact on quality care for patients. What is Nursing?. Who is a Nurse?. What is expected of a Nurse?. In this paper, I intend to take a close look at nursing as a profession and what is expected of a nurse, exploring roles , values and responsibilities.
Nursing is a practise of showing care and being able to show compassion, responsibility, competence, clear communication and care to help improve the healing process , prevent illness in the commnity.It is having the ability to work in collaboration with other health providers , patients and patients family in a patient centred care to enable the patient achieve optimum health status.A Nurse should be able to enact professionalism by coordinating in order to successfully deliver health care.This is done by sharing patients information with every individual ; both health providers and family members, who is involved in showing support to the patient. ”O’Malley and Cunningham define coordination as the degree to which information from various sources is recognised and incorporated at a patients care.’ (2008, p. 173 ).It involves developing a therapeutic plan involving health workers and clinicians, families and communities towards achieving a common goal. (Defibaugh, 2018)
The importance of professional nursing care is best encircled by an approach that includes artistic and scientific patterns.()Nursing is a science and an art as it is a combination of evidence based practise and practise based on caring, compassion , kindness and respect. (Potter & Perry, 2014 ) Evidence based practise validates nursing as a profession as it eliminates guesswork during the delivery of care and ensuring scientific foundation for derived decision.The art aspect of nursing is the delivery of care, attitude and behaviour towards patients and the community where as the science aspect is a compilation of knowledge including scholarly literature that informs judicious practise.A nurse advocates for patients , their families and communities.A nurse works in environments that change in order to provide the best care. As a Nurse, I am responsible for interacting with patients, helping them feel relaxed and assisting in recovery.A nurse aims towards advocating, protecting the health , safety and rights of patients.( Daly, 2005, p. 17). Patients should be given the right to know about medical options available before the decisions on their treatment plan is made . A nurse should be guided by compassion, dignity and the knowledge that every individual is unique and would be affected by different social determinants of health and should therefore practice health equity.I have gained fundamental knowledge in nursing.I have been opportuned to be a respite worker, providing care and support to special needs patients and i would confidently say it has taught me a lot on showing care and responsibility for someone who is not related to me. One of the most important things it has shown me is that as a nurse, I must be patient when working with people,making them feel understood and comfortable. I have learned that i would always face challenging and compromising situation but when handling , I have understood that mindful practises , especially the pause practise help prevent rash decisions.
Nursing, since invented by Florence Nightingale has been a developing profession as there are always changes and updates made to better meet the needs of patients and the community. It is my responsibility as a student in a professional nursing program to know and understand the reason and importance of these changes.Nursing has no limits as there is a shift from hospital based care towards community based services helping nurses explore then need for nursing and acquire the potential to meet these needs.
Nurses are bound to encounter a wide range of ethical challenges in practise because of their roles in health care delivery and relationship with patients. (Daly , 2005, p. 23). Nurses work with various kinds of people often with personal expectations and demands;trying to balance these demands and needs could be a challenge.nurses encounter situations that threaten our profession duties and obligations with our personal and individual values.In such cases , it is important to make reference to the nursing code of ethics. Ethical decision making capabilities develop over time.With exposure to circumstances that challenge us from our moral point of view, we tend to gain more knowledge on handling them in the future.
Nursing is a profession based on values, morals and service to the public.; caring and attending to human need. Nurses act as teachers towards patients , providing information that would help patients in overall recovery or learning and ensuring the patient understands and is able to acquire skills on improving health if possible. (Mason et al., 2011, p. 72). A nurse should always try to promote healthier lifestyle in patients. A nurse should take up leadership in the absence of doctors , assisting patient; A nurse should have extensive knowledge of experience regarding dealing with sensitive matters that affect patients. “ The nurse should also try to give patients more concern as compared with the doctor “. (Whitehead 2003)
Nursing is an honorable profession with fundamental values of caring and compassion, diversity in skills and creativity that are not just desirable traits but are essential for the future of the profession. As a nurse, It is my responsibility to uphold the principles and values to better quality patient care. It is my duty to know and understand my roles as health care provider, have my idea on my plan to make a difference and impact in a patient's life and stay true to it.It is my duty to make patients health and recovery my priority.It is my responsibility to meet patients where they are at and effectively work with them to ensure qualitycare.It is my duty to apply empirical , emancipatory,ethical knowledge as well as critical thinking when working with patients.
References
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P. A., Hall, A., & Peterson, V. (2014). Fundamentals of nursing. St. Louis: Mosby.
O’Malley, A. S., & Cunningham, P. J. (2008). Patient Experiences with Coordination of Care: The Benefit of Continuity and Primary Care Physician as Referral Source. Journal of General Internal Medicine,24(2), 170-177. doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0885-5
Mason, T., & Whitehead, E. (2005). Thinking nursing. Maidenhead: Open Univ. Press.
Defibaugh, S. (2018). Frontstage/Backstage :Attending to Organisational Responsibilities. In:Nurse practitioners and the performance of professional competency.Communicating in Professions and Orgnisations. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mason, D. J., Isaacs, S. L., & Colby, D. C. (2011). The nursing profession:Development , challenges , and opportunities. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Daly, J. (2005). Professional nursing: Concepts, issues, and challenges. New York: Springer.