Nursing is, by definition, “a profession or practice of providing care for the sick and infirm”. However, that is not everything. A nurse is a caregiver, a provider, a supporter, and a friend. A nurse is a mediator, working as the middleman between the family and physician. Not only do nurses physically help save the lives of their patients, but they also provide emotional support to the patient and the patient’s family. Being a nurse reaches far beyond the scope of simply administering medication and providing physical care; to me, a nurse is a life-saver.…
When we speak of where the nursing profession is heading in the future, we must take a look at our past in order to fully understand current practices. Originally, nursing was not seen as a “profession” it was a job for the undesirables (Friberg & Creasia, 2010). The undesirable were men and woman who would help the sick, poor and abandoned individual and nurse the sick back to health. It was not until the 1800’s when Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, helped to change the way things were being done in military hospital as it relates to taking care of the sick. She fought for sanitary changes in the hospitals as well as educational advancement for nursing practices (Friberg & Creasia , 2010). In the 1860’s Nightingale established the Diploma School of Nursing at St. Thomas Hospital in London (Friberg & Creasia, 2010, pg.4) to educate nurses on better practices in the nursing field.…
Nursing is an art and a skill that involves caring for people who are disadvantaged by virtue of being in poor physical, mental, social, or even spiritual health. The aim of nursing is to promote health through a variety of different interventions, but mainly involves the use of medical interventions in contrast to holistic interventions. Nursing also has a history of operating within the biomedical model, which focuses mainly on the illness and not the individual (Oberle & Bouchal, 2009). Because of the use of the biomedical model and lack of holistic care, some patients who visit hospitals are treated differently or poorly due to a failure of nurses to recognize the things that impact the patient’s health that are outside of the patient’s…
Nurses are known as patient advocates. In advocating for their patients, nurses strive for what is best in their patient’s care. Since nurses will be…
During my service in the United States Army, my insignia for the Medical Corps was “Care with Compassion.” I believe this holds true for nursing today. Nurses provide the highest quality of care achievable with compassion for the client. A nurse must be culturally sensitive, promote health, and apply knowledge of new sciences to their profession (Catalano, 2009). A nurse must have knowledge in many areas such as Psychology, Science, Ethics, Culture, Religion, Education, and Critical Thinking. Because of this knowledge, the emotional demands of nurses are much more than the physical demands (Catalano, 2009).…
* Babies and young children are vulnerable and very dependent on their parents and carers. Therefore as well as provide and children’s learning and development it is also essential that we support the physical care, keep them safe and meet their nutritional needs.…
It is interesting how the media has portrayed nurses for years. Years ago the image was of a blonde, skinny female in a sexy white outfit that waits on her male only patient hand and foot. She is there to give him a sponge bath and feed him even thou it is only his leg that is broken but hands work just fine. Now that image has changed because of shows like Nurse Jackie. This HBO show is about a nurse who struggles to juggle her hectic life as a nurse at a New York City hospital. It’s based on her everyday tussles with physician other nurses and her drug addiction. Even though the show has questionable ethical circumstances it undoubtedly shows her compassionate caring nature. “Jackie is smart, caring, respected by her peers and a vigilant advocate for her patients” (Sorrell 2009). However, due to Nurse Jackie’s questionable ethical practices many nursing organizations feel that this portrayal hurts the image of nurses and hinders them from recruitment, retention, and allocation (Nemeth 2011). In which many organization have fought to refocus the community and general public’s attention on what good nursing incorporates. An organization of nurses, named The Truth about Nursing, has given awards to shows for best and worst portrayal of nursing in order to steer Hollywood to more appropriately depict nurses. Unfortunately, chaos in the media sells and I don’t believe that will change. However I am glad to see that, even thou the negative aspect of nursing as a profession are portrayed, nurses are being viewed now as compassionate, caring, smart individuals who are strong patient advocates rather than the sexy blonde who…
Care has been described by several different standards from person to person. To the student nurse, caring must be and has been a fundamental value instilled into the hearts of many nurses. Compassion and empathy have always been placed within the same realm as the value of caring. The student nurse has and will continue to believe that a nurse must exceed the amount of care that they would expect for themselves if placed in the same type of situation as their current patient. In order for a nurse to be of great success in his or her practice, the nurse must have been and continue to be focused solely on their patients level of ease and well-being. Caring has and will continue to influence the relationship shared between the patient and nurse. The patient’s level of comfort has had a direct correlation to the amount of care that nurses have…
The practice of nursing has changed throughout the years since the beginning when Florence Nightingale defined modern nursing. As a professional nurse, we must show competent and skillful behaviors when providing care for our patients. We must practice with dignity, honor, and the desire to relieve and prevent suffering. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the concepts of teaching and learning, management, communication, and leadership will change and evolve throughout our career as professional nurses. We each can make an impact on each patient that we come into contact with throughout our career by practicing professionally and putting our patients priority’s first.…
As far back as 1932, Hollywood in its film “A farewell to Arms” depicted nursing as having no security and autonomy. The chief nurse in the film was shown as being weak, helpless and reluctant to fight for a nurse who was dismissed because a surgeon believed that she was a distraction to his ambulance driver. In other words, physicians dictate what happens in nursing. With that coward perspective, many nurses entered into the profession answering ‘yes doctor’ to all orders without any question. Nurses are then at the receiving end of Doctors’ and patients’ bullying.…
Not only transforming health care facilities round the globe, a nurse makes a difference to people’s lives. The moments of interaction may be as short as a visit to ‘Emergency’ or may be as long as helping someone to struggle with their disability and rehabilitation. The positive vibes and their unconditional love touch their…
Nursing, as a profession, makes up the biggest portion of our nation’s health care. When taking care of patients, nurses have a direct impact on the care of the patient. The closeness to patients and having a direct effect on patient outcomes, gives nurses the ability to effect the healthcare system. Nurses will come in contact with a diverse range of patients and will need to act as leaders by delivering safe patient care. Nurses need to be able to succeed in this profession. (The…
When people think about nursing they see nurses care about sick people, but this is more about nursing. Today’s a society views nurses only as part of hospital. Part of nursing standard of practice is patient education, advocacy, and coordination of care and health maintenance (Gordon, 2002). Nurses are well educated and can work in different areas of healthcare if both the economy and politics allow them to.…
Nursing profession is constantly changing with the development of new technologies that lead to a new level of responsibility. The new level of responsibility challenges nurses torespond to different and difficultsituations in the health care industry, especially in protecting the human right, dignity of patients and their safety. Nurses hold adistinctive position as patient advocates, regardless of their respective areas of practice; either in a home health, clinic, or in a hospital setting. Nursesare faced with ethical decisions, both personal and professional decisions.…
The culture this author grew up on expects the younger generation to be respectful, compassionate, responsible and be accountable for own mistakes. This author believes that every human is entitled to have the same equal treatment without prejudice. These characteristics shaped this author’s personal beliefs that as a nurse, this author has an obligation to the patients to provide them with such regard. Nurses are always impelled to give the best quality care to their patients and address all their concerns. This author feels responsible to keep patient safe, secured and comfortable at all times and keeping them informed regarding their treatments and condition along the way. Spiritual value has always been a challenging topic outside healthcare but this author learned that when a patient is in a difficult situation, beliefs could be…