The health of the population is one of the values for the society, therefore, preserving and strengthening it is an important task in which everyone, without exception, should take part. Changes in the conditions for the functioning of state structures and the ongoing transition to market relations put forward new approaches to organizing and methodological support for the training, retraining, and advanced training of nursing specialists. Nursing personnel, carrying out the nursing process in the provision of obstetric and gynecological care, provide medical and preventive care to women and families at various periods of their lives, carry out observation, examination, rehabilitation, provide care and necessary assistance.
For women, the decision to terminate a pregnancy may be based on various factors. Abortion is the purposeful or accidental termination of a pregnancy (Endler et al., 2019). In some countries, abortions are officially allowed, while others are limited to the level of inadmissibility of targeted assistance from medical personnel. Additionally, different religions differ in their attitude towards abortion. Therefore, women who come to the idea and decision to have an abortion may have a different life situation, as well as the conditions for terminating the pregnancy.
A nurse plays the role of an adviser, mentor, assistant in relation to a woman and her family. Nursing staff must fulfill all stages of the nursing process: conduct an initial assessment, identify the patient’s problems, plan the work, carry out planned care, draw conclusions from the care. Moreover, an integral part of the work of nursing staff is medical deontology. A nurse spends much more time with patients than the medical staff (Mainey et al., 2020). The ability to observe medical ethics, to keep medical secrets and the secrets of the patient, not to disclose them is the duty of every paramedical worker. Therefore, a sensitive and conscientious attitude towards patients plays a very important role in the performance of their work.
At the same time, the nursing staff strictly and rigorously fulfills all the requirements of this medical institution and the appointment of the attending physician. Nowadays, due to the expansion of knowledge in the field of physiology and pathophysiology of the processes associated with planning pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, modern methods of obstetric care, prevention, and treatment of complications of pregnancy and childbirth are being developed. However, even when disagreeing with the patient’s decision to have an abortion, if the patient has such a legal right, the nurse must respect this point of view.
The nursing worker, carefully observing the patient, should promptly inform the doctor about all changes in the patient’s condition. In addition, the task of the nurse may be to inform the patient about the abortion process and its possible consequences (Mainey et al., 2020). In this case, the role of the nurse is to convey the information fully and objectively, without personal prejudice. In the same way, advice should be given on the basis of the patient’s health and not the nurse’s personal attitude to the issue of abortion. At the moment of presenting such information, the soft skills of a nurse are important in order to combine the function of psychological and medical care.
In conclusion, there is always a need for high professionalism of medical workers, including the nurses. A nurse must have an understanding of medical ethics and follow it when working with patients. Medical personnel must respect the decision and rights of a woman who decides to have an abortion. In this regard, when informing the patient about the possible consequences, subordination, objective narration, and the exclusion of the personal point of view of the nurse must be observed. In the same connection, the policy of confidentiality of patient information must be respected.
References
Endler, M., Lavelanet, A., Cleeve, A., Ganatra, B., Gomperts, R., & Gemzell‐Danielsson, K. (2019). Telemedicine for medical abortion: a systematic review. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 126(9), 1094-1102. Web.
Mainey, L., O’Mullan, C., Reid‐Searl, K., Taylor, A., & Baird, K. (2020). The role of nurses and midwives in the provision of abortion care: A scoping review. Journal of clinical nursing, 29(9-10), 1513-1526. Web.