A nurse is obliged to take care of his or her patient to the best of his or her ability, maintaining patient advocacy at all times. The nurse’s duty also entails that he or she maintains strict patient confidentiality. A nurse can take care of more than one patient, as is the case for community health nursing because the patient is the whole community or a family. In cases like this, the nurse thinks for the whole amelioration of the community and not individually.
Although it is rather difficult, because getting the whole community to agree to just one intervention seems unfeasible, the nurse has to prioritize what he or she thinks is good for the majority, and not for the minority. There will always be conflicts in situations like this. For example, if one family does not have the time to get their dog’s vaccination because of their busy schedule, the community cannot suffer if one dog goes biting another individual.
The nurse has to stand firm on her rules and on her interventions that this family has to sacrifice time to get their pets vaccinated or else the rest of the community will suffer. Albeit the nurse is obliged to serve and care for only the patient, in hospital settings the patient’s family is also a part of the healing process and for the home care as well. In lieu with this, the nurse includes the patient’s family in his or her health teachings.
However, the family sometimes does not agree with the patient’s decisions regarding their care. If there is conflict, the nurse should maintain being a patient’s advocate, putting the patient’s health above all priorities, even regardless of the family’s wishes. However, if possible, the nurse should try to reach a compromise between the family and patient while trying to maintain patient advocacy.