Nursing is the art and science of caring for individuals with potential or actual health problems. Nursing is the art of providing quality, compassionate care while evaluating the patients’ biopsychosocial and spiritual needs. Nursing as a science evaluates the patients’ health and response to disease. Nurses assist individuals and groups to maintain or attain optimal health. They implement care to accomplish defined goals and evaluate responses to care and treatment. This care is delivered in accordance with the standards of nursing practice.
Nursing is dynamic, evolving from changes in health care, and advances in medical science and technology. According to the International Council of Nursing, “Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled, and dying people. ” (International Council of Nurses, 2002). Virginia Henderson’s classic definition of nursing is, “I say that the nurse does for others what they would do for themselves if they had the strength, the will, and the knowledge.
But I go on to say that the nurse makes the patient independent of him or her as soon as possible. ” (Virginia Henderson’s Vision of Nursing, 2002). The public views nurses as people they can trust and confide in. Nurses are at the patients’ bedside more than any other personnel are. Patients will often tell nurses things that they will not tell anyone else. Nursing is based on four critical values: a strong commitment to the services provided to the public, belief that each person has worth and dignity, a commitment to education, and autonomy. The first value is commitment to the services provided to the public.
This value is considered essential. Nursing is a humanistic service directed to the health care needs of individuals, families, groups, and communities. In order to enhance the person’s well-being, the nurse must work with and try to understand the person’s environment. Environment includes internal and external conditions that influence the development of people. Environment includes factors such as physical, chemical, social, and cultural factors that may influence the state of health. A person’s social environment includes family, community, church, and place of work, as well as the roles of each.
The nurse must examine what kind of impact the individual’s environment has on his/her state of health. The second value is the belief that each person has worth and dignity. This is based on the Judeo-Christian philosophy that human life is sacred and each individual has a unique worth. Nurses work with people, which is the primary area of activity and influence. Nurses examine people in relationship to physiological, spiritual, sociological, and psychological needs. Humans experience different responses to birth, health, illness, and death. People have dignity, worth, and respect and have the capacity to care for others.
People include the learner, individuals, families, groups, and communities. Nurses in all practice areas and in all aspects work with all types of people. This includes people of any age, sex, culture, educational level, economic status, or religion. A person’s values are highly influenced by the culture in which they were brought up. Nurses must always respect patients’ cultural beliefs such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not believe in receiving blood. The third value is the commitment to education. Nurses should be committed to being lifelong learners.
The need for continuous education is imperative to expand competence, to meet the criteria necessary in any role of the nursing profession, and to continuously expand his/her personal body of knowledge. The professional nurse practices in the six interrelated roles of advocate, clinician, collaborator/coordinator, educator, leader, and researcher to provide optimal patient care. As an advocate, the nurse can include other disciplines that may be able to assist the patient to attain optimal health. As a clinician, the nurse provides care within his/her scope of practice and under the guidelines of the ANA Standards of Clinical Practice.
As a collaborator/coordinator, the nurse works in collaboration with co-workers to meet the needs of patients and families. As an educator, the nurse assesses needs of patients and families and teaches them with the focus on health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness. As a leader, the nurse uses critical thinking; problem-solving skills to try to encourage others to make decisions that will improve the profession. As a researcher, the nurse uses knowledge and reviews findings to correct problems. Autonomy, the fourth value, is the right of self-determination as a profession.
Nurses are ethically and legally accountable for the quality of their practice by functioning independently and interdependently in a variety of settings. The American Nurses’ Association developed the Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice that are the guidelines for nursing performance. These are the rules or definition of what it means to provide competent care. It is required by law that the registered, professional nurse carry out patient care in accordance with these rules so that they receive care similar to what other reasonably competent nurses would do in similar circumstances.
As for my job, I am the unit manager of a 45-bed ED that sees approximately 62,000 patients a year. Some of my job duties include: evaluate staff yearly, complete the time schedule to cover the unit safely, discipline employees when needed, attend monthly nurse manager meetings, hold monthly staff meetings, hold charge nurse meetings, monitor unit budget monthly and report variances, be available to staff, cover schedule when call-ins arise, do quarterly and yearly PI reports, and monitor QI monthly.
One area that I have problems with being middle management is not having the autonomy to run my unit. For example, if it were left up to me, I would let my staff wear whatever color of uniform that wanted as long as it were clean, neat, and professional. This is a big issue in my department right now since we are really trying to enforce the dress code. The staff gets angry when we have to counsel them or send them home for being out of dress code, but this is coming from my supervisor and her supervisor, both of which are above me.
They just do not seem to understand that in order to get something changed, you do not break the rules or do what you want, because that will only make the situation that much worse. Definitions of nursing vary widely depending on who is writing the definition. In the same respect, there are many nursing theories that have been developed over many, many years.
Nursing is composed of the four critical values: a strong commitment to the services provided to the public, belief that each person has worth and dignity, a commitment to education, and autonomy. Nursing practice varies depending on area of practice. Nurses are made accountable for their own practice due to the ANA Standards of Clinical Practice and the Nurse Practice Act for the state in which he/she is licensed to practice. In order to provide optimal patient care, the professional nurse must be flexible and practice the six interrelated roles.