Introduction
Determining the roles and responsibilities of a nurse is not an easy task. Even though modern philosophy of nursing has helped identify the main direction, arrange of blank spots in practice make the work of a nurse very complicated. Nevertheless, this course has provided numerous insights on the nursing process, as well as on the areas, in which I must evolve as a nurse.
Philosophy of Nursing
Regardless of what innovations the incorporation of new ideas and techniques may have on nursing, the key concept thereof, which concerns providing care and support for patients, is bound to remain the same. The concept of compassion is the focus of the nursing philosophy for a good reason –it is the ability to sympathize with people that makes the idea of providing care possible.
However, apart from emotional attachment to the patient, the philosophy of nursing must incorporate the idea of leadership as the means of leading the patient to the point of recovery and seeing them through on this complex and quite difficult path. Consequently, the necessity to incorporate decision-making into the philosophy of nursing appears. In order to be able to develop an efficient intervention strategy, a nurse must be capable of making conclusions based on a set of observable symptoms (Nunnery, 2008).
Despite the fact that my nursing philosophy has a certain spiritual value to it, I have also learned to be a leader and promote healthy lifestyle along with a proper attitude towards the latter to the patients. Moreover, being a nurse presupposes respecting patients and enhancing the significance of patient-centered therapy. While often considered to provide far too much freedom to the patients, the specified approach turns out to be the key to defining an adequate intervention strategy, as it helps the patient get involved into the process and, therefore, be willing to recover.
Community Assessment Survey
Carrying out a survey for evaluating the health status of its members and designing the tools for addressing the existing health concerns has revealed the significance of raising awareness among the members of the community in question concerning the means of addressing diseases and disorders.
One could argue that, on a more general level, conducting the specified study helped learn the importance of prioritizing health issues. While, technically, the need to get the current priorities in line is essential for a nursing practitioner, it, nevertheless, can be considered a rather natural and logical conclusion to make. The importance of teaching patients to identify the key symptoms of certain disorders, as well as contact the nearby nursing services, prevent diseases, adopt health lifestyle, etc. cannot possibly be overrated (Conard & Pape, 2014).
However, it was a deep insight on the role of a nurse that played the part of the key revelation. Understanding what role a nurse plays in the specified area is another essential lesson, which is of a huge essence to a registered nurse. A closer look at the current nursing issues will reveal that a range of nurse have a very vague understanding of their responsibilities and the role that they are supposed to play in the community (Trujillo-Londirgan & Lewenson, 2013). The survey mentioned above, therefore, shed some light on both the responsibilities of a registered nurse and the means to accept it and meet the required standards.
Research Critique
Carrying out an evidence-based research is a part and parcel of becoming a full-fledged nurse and an expert in providing nursing services of the finest quality. The analysis of a scholarly paper has helped understand what makes a research good and how research results should be analyzed so that meaningful conclusions could be delivered. By making a detailed analysis of a scholarly article, I realized how a study should be conducted and how significant the choice of the method and the tools is to the research outcomes.
Community Scholarly Paper
Though studying the principles of nursing in theory allows for a rather good understanding of what nursing is supposed to be like, it is the actual study of a community that helps build the experience required for being a good nurse. An analysis of a local community carried out with the help of the Public Health Assessment Tool has shown that a stronger emphasis must be put on raising awareness among the target population, especially when the issues of poverty and obesity become the key points of concern. The research has also shown that the study of the infrastructure of the community, though seemingly unrelated to nursing, in fact, may help provide faster and more efficient nursing services. The paper also helped learn how to provide care to each member of the community individually and improve the operation of the entire community at the same time.
Two National Patient Safety Goals
Studies have shown that, despite facing similar issues in various communities, nurses keep making similar mistakes, which leads to putting patients’ lives in serious peril. Therefore, learning to prevent recurring mistakes can be considered the current goal of nurses across the state. Considering the means of implementing the goal in question, one might take modern media into account; there is no need to stress that it allows for a fast and efficient information transfer nationwide. Consequently, incorporating both traditional and modern media into the framework of nursing facilities’ information management approach, one will be capable of reducing the number of mistakes made by nurses.
The aforementioned safety concern leads to the inevitable identification of the next most important issue in the present-day nursing, which is the lack of efficient communication. Specifically, the communication between the members of the nursing staff must be mentioned (Finkelman & Kenner, 2013).
Legal Ethics Nursing
Though nursing and legal ethics may seem far on the opposite sides from each other, the former belonging to the area of healthcare, and the latter concerning the realm of law and legislation, some of the nursing issues still tap on the present-day legal system. For instance, the recent laws in the field of nursing, which are aimed at protecting the rights of patients to receive services of the finest quality, may infringe the rights of nurses to rest (Gallagher, 2011).
The aforementioned issue, however, can also be viewed from the perspective of the personal relationships between a nurse and a patient. To be more exact, the experience described in the paper begs the question whether a nurse has the right to become involved with the wellbeing of the patient, and, if they do, which level this involvement may reach. It is quite obvious that, when attaching personal emotions to the progress that the patient makes, a nurse is likely to provide a consistently good care to the latter. However, when being emotional, people are prone to making mistakes. Moreover, keeping unceasing control of the patient may result in the nurse failing to retain their strength, both physical and emotional one, in assisting the patient. According to the existing researches, an uninterrupted process of nursing may even result in the nurse developing a depression and other psychological disorders (Radzvin, 2011).
Conclusion
Although the concept of nursing has not been defined yet precisely, the curse has explained some of the tenets of the theory. More importantly, it became possible to connect theory and practice. The resulting discoveries have shown that developing compassion and balancing the level of personal involvement will help me become a better burse.
Reference List
Conard, P. L., & Pape, T. (2014). Roles and responsibilities of the nursing scholar. Pediatric Nursing, 40(2), 87-90.
Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2013). Professional nursing concepts: Apply quality improvement (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Barlett.
Gallagher, A. (2011). Moral distress and moral courage in everyday nursing practice. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(2), 1–8.
Nunnery, R. K. (2008). Advancing your career. Concepts of professional nursing (4th ed). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis.
Radzvin, L. (2011). Moral distress in certified registered nurse anesthetists: Implications for nursing practice. AANA Journal, 79(1), 39-45.
Trujillo-Londirgan, M., & Lewenson, S. B. (2013). Public health nursing: Practical population based-based care. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.