The Medical Profession is more a vocation than just a profession. It needs dedication and selflessness besides good qualification and experience. Therefore it cannot be taken for granted. It is a field that is constantly changing and adapting itself for much quicker and better patient outcomes as Science and Technology take us to another higher level. Besides having good knowledge and experience of things, any person working in the medical field has to have nerves of steel and a heart of gold, the values of which compliment each other.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) that is a regulatory body observes and adapts a professional and statutory framework and guidance in nursing practice. It is entrusted with the responsibility of setting and monitoring the standard for professional education, performance at work and the good conduct or character of those employed in 2 the medical service. In so doing, it helps to maintain a high standard of things because it is free from prejudice and other discriminatory factors.
In the interest of public protection, it is the duty of the NMC to see that these functions are dutifully carried out. In order to do this, the members follow the principles laid down in the first report of the Nolan Committee, on specific standards in public life, such as Honesty, Selflessness, Leadership, Integrity and other good values. They are an example to others and demonstrate values, respect and dignity towards others. In doing so, they set a high standard for others in recognizing their responsibilities and duties towards good patient care. Models of Nursing:
The Roper – Logan – Tierney Model: The primary focus of the Roper – Logan – Tierney Model in practice is about the nursing of adult patients with a variety of health care needs as well as problems in an acute and community – based scenario. This model utilizes a holistic approach and assessment of the patient which allows him to explore his own health and illness with the medical practioner, so that no doubts are left in his mind about his condition. In doing so, the patient is free to take an active part in his disease management, the lack of which would prevent him from doing so.
In relation to this model, a nurse has to use her inter – personal skills – which are those skills or techniques that are used to provide a therapeutic effect on the patient during 3 professional interaction with them. Inter – personal skills are learned early in childhood but get modified and refined as we pass through different experiences in our life. We use a variety of senses to react or respond to things or people in our environment and this in turn influences the way we look at things and the way we deal with people.
We use body language, vocal apparatus, eye contact and posture to portray our feelings, emotions and reactions to the world around us. The knowledge of inter personal skills is both fundamental as well as vital in the nursing profession. The aim in the Roper – Logan – Tierney model of nursing is to provide individualized care to the patient after a thorough assessment of the illness and after detailed explanation of the benefits or the negative aspects of the procedure that is to be taken. By doing this, the patient understands thoroughly how and why this method of care is being undertaken.
The patient acts responsibly by maintaining good personal hygiene, having a positive attitude and sharing a good rapport with the people involved in the treatment of his illness. The Roper – Logan – Tierney Model also includes empathizing with the patient and helping him to adjust to his new environment, being sensitive to the patient’s feelings and emotions as it involves intruding upon his personal privacy. Some of the other skills used in this model are good communication and clear assessment and the skill to provide an environment that is conducive to better patient outcomes. 4 The Florence Nightingale Model of Nursing:
Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910) was born of rich parents in the city of Florence. She is the role model of the nursing fraternity all over the world. Her parents did not approve when Florence showed a great interest in becoming a nurse but never – the – less, she completed her training at Kaiserwerth in Germany in the year1851 and became a superintendent of a hospital in Harley Street (Florence Nightingale, 1853) During the Crimean War, there was absolute lack of medical facilities and the wounded British soldiers were in a pitiable condition with hundreds of them dying from over crowding and unhygienic surroundings.
The war minister, Sydney Herbert (1854) put Florence in charge of a group of nurses in a military hospital in Turkey. (November, 1854). Florence worked very hard both day and night together with her other nurses and greatly improved the bad conditions in the hospital by introducing a strict code of hygiene as she staunchly believed that infection spread spontaneously in dirty and poorly ventilated places. By following these principles she reduced the mortality rate considerably. After the war Florence returned to England where she established “The Nightingale Training School” for nurses at St.
Thomas Hospital in London. (1860). The nurses who trained here using the Florence Nightingale Model were sent to hospitals all over Britain. The primary aim of the Florence Nightingale Model is to ensure sanitation and good 5 military health. Nightingale’s theories published in “Notes on nursing” (1860) have great influence and impact in planning established practices even today. Florence Nightingale’s farsighted reforms have influenced the nature of modern health care. (Florence Nightingale Museum Trust, 2003) The Hildegard Peplau Model of Nursing: Inter personal relationships. In 1947, Hildegard completed her M.
A in Psychiatric Nursing from teacher’s college, Columbia, New York and an Ed. D in curriculum development from Columbia in 1953. During World War II, she was an active member in the Army Nurse Corps and worked in a neuro-psychiatric hospital in London. It was at Chestnut Lodge – the name given to the “psycho-analytical” hospital that Hildegard Peplau began her eventful career and learned so much there through reading, lectures and seminars. The lectures of Eric Fromm greatly influenced Peplau who believed that it was possible to link psychoanalysis with sociology and political science.
“It was his influence that steered Peplau towards social science rather than natural science (Callaway, 2002) She became seriously inclined to collapse the distance between patient and therapist. Peplau was also greatly influenced by Freud and the subject of interpersonal relationship between the patient and analyst became of great interest to her. She believed that the cure for a patient’s illness lay in the dynamics of patient – therapist relationships and therefore she slowly developed her own interpersonal theory of practice.