The nurses voice about their welfare.
Summary
From silence to voice critically explores the need and ways through which the nurses need to let themselves be understood in terms of their profession as their work which counts a lot in saving lives and money. The book tries to bring the nurses into the realm light by invoking their silence. Having stayed with the nurses for long the authors clearly brings out the threat nurses undergo through from policy makers and administrators of too heavy workloads and replacement with poorly educated workers.
The book digs into the fuller details of the whole nursing profession jeopardy by systematic showing the relevance, suggesting the best mode, listing the possible channels and avenues of breaking this monotonous silence. It shows how the nurses can work together with the media people to educate the public on their profession for them to understand their work and therefore comprehend their relevance in the society (Bernice and Suzzane 2006, pp.6-201).
Introduction
Nursing profession has been less regarded from all quarters with even the nurses themselves taking a back seat in communicating more about their profession. This book justifies the great need for the nurses to compete for resources just like any other profession. This implies less allocation of resources to the profession for nursing education and practice purposes. It is from this notion that many health institutions have overloaded them. The paradigm interchange of focus from complex skills and caring skills that are acquired from education and experience to mere honesty, humanism, trust worthiness and compassion puts their work under threat. The nurses are required to know that the complexity of their caring skills that they offer professionally should be separated from emotions and other people’s perceptions, through their communication to the public and the administrators via the correct channels on the real information.
Since the field of nursing have more women than men, it becomes clear how vulnerable they are to wrong perceptions and misinterpretations from the different avenues of information. With the information media services also having failed in the focus about the nurses, there is need to raise their voices to increase the understanding on what they do. This will in addition assist to change the perception that is assumed by everybody, that the doctors hold the keys to life and death in a patients life. This perception often leads to less employment of the nurses therefore explaining the shortages in the different health care facilities. To add to that the taxing schedules, difficult patients and arduous work demands for complex rewards which are not always available, thereby leaving the field with less nurses to take care of the sick and the sickly.
Besides, nurses are always with the patients to administer drugs, follow doctors instructions, assist patients to eat, give them the prescribed dosages, observe them and above all encourage and comfort them leading to faster recovery. Therefore over 80% of the patient healing takes place in the hands of a nurses and thus credit should go to them.
According to Bernice and Suzzane (2006), the nurses in health institutions should arise and let their work be appreciated through proper communication and thereby educating the public while reaching to their administrators on the subject. Their plight need to be addressed with their work conditions reviewed and credit granted to them. The physicians letters and editorials should be complimentary or equally representative because the nurses are qualified and need extra care for effective medical healing processes to be complete. Personal and ethical reflection on articles and journals by nurses in various media would be recurrent. The innovation description of the clinical process, analysis of the major health issues and commendations relating to treatment and preventive practices as well as the general health care system would be analyzed in their documentaries.
The whole communication process would have more fruits not just to the nurses but also to the general public as a whole. By nurses educating their patients, and the community about their work, patients would be fully aware that the nurses are very essential to their survival. Nursing homes residents and families would search for qualified nurses to fill their nursing staff positions. They would easily seek nurse’s services fully cognizant that they are experts after successful inclusive training. Also, through the proper communication of the profession, the administrators will provide the required costs of nursing care. The treatment of nurses as cheap disposable labor force would cease through the public pleasure having understood the great role that these nurses play in relation to recovery and care of patients. To add to that, nurse’s salaries would reflect the qualification and responsibilities that they are involved in during their work (Bernice and Suzzane 2006).
A better sincere image of the nurses would replace the previous distorted ones such as self sacrificing angels, physician hand maid or lewd sex objects. Everyone would understand that just like any other profession, nursing requires educational training and proper qualifications for one to be certified as a qualified nurse therefore the need to hold it with integrity and dignity. This integrity would call for encouragement to the young men and women who show interest in the similar career of taking care of the sick people and not grilling themed on why they did not choose to become physician. This would make the nursing career more competitive thereby attracting more men as do women in the institutions for learning (Chambliss 1996, pp. 78-135).
Nurses need to talk about their knowledge on medicine and more so the logic that they participate more in the healing process. Though they tend to shy off and do not like to discuss their profession, they must move away from the ordinary female-gender stereotypes and stand to count their profession which have been regarded with contempt for so long. The public could be informed about the nurses hard work but they mainly do not comprehend that the nursing participation is very essential in the healing process of a patient and above all requires special treatment and subsequent care.
The essence of speaking out is to explain to the liberal market that that the need of health care worker have not been fully appreciated. Taking care of the sick people involves the most demanding issues in the health sector with the nurses working with the most vulnerable patients and areas in the society just like doctors. .
The main problem associated with the failure to properly outline and communicate the importance of the nursing to the society have more repercussions to the society and the whole of the nursing fraternity. The poor image associated with the profession as being inferior to other medical professions will always scare potential nurses away. This eventually will be projected to diminishing availability of the care givers in the society. Compromise in the standards of the nursing profession due to the low pay and looking down upon it will results to poor service delivery thereby threatening the survival and the overall healing process of the patients. Increase in accidental medication to different patients due to lowering standards eventually results to number of deaths increasing (Abrahamson 2001, pp. 22-84).
Action plan
Action plans being implementation strategies to achieve targets, they must be established in the nursing profession. Establishment or strengthening the available institutions must be a core item in achieving the whole plan objectives. The involvement of the nurses in the different forums of the media to explain to the people their important roles must be initiated. Outside forums for meeting people and the communities to clearly integrate and mingle with them for better understanding is very important. Then they must involve their leaders in the high profile negotiating forums for the nurses with the central government and with the different administrators responsible for hiring and maintaining them. Different meetings and forums should be established to bring the nurses together as they discuss the way forward in relation to their working conditions as well as their welfare.
Different problems related to the nursing profession will be fully appreciated if they are tacked from the legal point of of view to give them proper basis for implementation of the recommendations from the action plans as well as future deliberations from the nurses. Standard renumeration for the nurses should be described in the law. The code of conduct as well as the expected performance code of conduct should be described. Advocacy and recognition together with their consideration should be emphasized during the critical decisions making that are related to the provision and taking care of the patients.
In addition, changes of the legislation should encourage and portray the nursing industry as a profession just like any other and thereby attracting more people and ensuring a healther nation. More study to assist this very relevant information should be developed. The level of professionalism and possible punitive measures must be studied to come up with the proper acceptable and achievable targets for our nurses (Abrahamson 2001).
Conclusion
Silence to to voice therefore forms the platform for raising the different issues as well as addressing them holistically for the benefit of all. It clears the way for openness and proper interaction between the professionals in the health industry thereby promoting healthy relations than never before. The essence of speaking out and reaching the community for the appreciation of your work is in no doubt the most important of all the nurses achievement in the time. The legal recommendations and the action plans to address the underlying issues will in return ensure a smooth non confrontational approach to the whole emergent reorganization system.
References
Abrahamson, I. (2001). Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel. New York: Holocaust Library.
Bernice, B. and Suzzane, G. (2006) From Silence to voice: What nurses know and must communicate to the public. ISBN:Cornel University Press.
Chambliss, D. (1996) Beyond Caring: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of
Ethics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.