What Nursing Is
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Although I have had a close understanding of what nursing entails from a close relatives, my understanding of the nursing practice was totally different as I viewed it in a perspective of a typical patient( Johnstone & Facn, 2019). . Like others, I believed the practice was associated with patient care, vital symptoms, and having sleepless nights at the health care facilities. However, from an experience through the services I had received earlier while being attend by nurses, I could see how compassionate, empathetic, patient, and sensitive they were. Therefore, despite having some major differences on how nurses operate, still there are some main similarities on what entails nursing in today’s world. This paper will compare and contrast major what my thought about nursing was and what really entails nursing practice.
My understanding of nursing was based on traditional practices where nurses we’re believed to treat all types of patients with different medical conditions, ethnicities, beliefs, social status, and backgrounds. I believed that they were the only ones who could give necessary prescription and they only majored with healing illnesses. Their profession did not cover anything beyond physical services. However, today, nursing practice involve nurses being glued to a patient’s health care journey until they fully recover. This not only involves provision of medication and diagnosis but also emotional support which involves compassion, sensitivity, patience, and empathy. Traditionally, what I used to think of nursing as a practice, was only provision of services like diagnosis, performing surgery, consultation, and giving medication. Emotional support, I believed to be the responsibility of close relative to the patient. My understanding reflected on view of nursing as just another career field where the goal is to give physical services. However, the nursing industry can be termed as both science and art; or else a mind and a heart. At it’s heart, there lie an important respect for an intuition for needs of a patient and the human dignity. Here, the support comes from the mind which is in form of rigorous core learning. Nurses get particular expertise, passions, and strengths because of the vast range of complex skills and specialists in the nursing profession. However, there are ethos which unify nurses. When they are assessing a patient, nurses do not usually consider test results. I understand that through the critical thinking that has been exemplified in the process of nursing, the nurses apply their judgement to integrate objective data through their subjective experience of their patient’s behavioral, physical, and biological needs. This common act make every patient whether in community health center, city hospital, summer camp, or state prison receive the right care regardless of where, or who they might be.
Although there are major differences from my previous understanding of nursing, similarly, there exists some comparisons which are alike with the current nursing practice. When it comes to practicing, no matter the specialty or field they are operating from, all nurses apply the same process of nursing. The scientific method which is designed to deliver quality to the patient care is done through similar simple steps.
Diagnosis- nurses usually form a diagnosis through careful consideration of both patient behavior and physical symptoms.
Evaluation- nurses achieve the optimum results of a patient through close analyses of their effectiveness of the care plan and deep study of patients response.
Assessment – all nurses assess their patients on an in-depth lifestyle basis, physiological, social, and economically.
Implementation- through accurate implementation of the care plan, nurses guarantee consistency of care for the patient whilst meticulously documenting their progress.
Planning and Outcomes- every nurse usually set a specific goals towards patients recovery which is closely monitored
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Moreover, from my perspective, I perceive nursing as a source of employment but a noble profession which involves providing care to patients both in home setting as well as in a medical facilities. I understand nursing as one of the well paying job where those who pursued it attain a particular identity and respect in the society. Besides, the skills learned in nursing are essential in other spheres of life and can in some cases determine the difference between life and death. For instance, having a trained nurse in the family can be a life-saver during emergencies unlike in families or environments which lack such an expert.Similarly, people who are in neighborhood or close to a nurse usually get health services during health emergencies due to the nursing ethics regarding saving of lives (Butts & Rich, 2019). The United States has more than 4 million registered nurses which means in every 100 people, there is a nurse. However, through the new nursing methods which involves both physical and emotional care, the practice has been more effective than what I thought it was.
When it comes to record keeping, I used to have a different perspective on this because I never thought of any help the record could be an important tool in the nursing industry. I thought of surgical instruments, thermometer , and other medical instruments. Data keeping and using for analysis never crossed my mind but now as a nurse, I perceive my roles to include but not limited to keeping patient record. Moreover, I provide care to patients before and after they attend surgeries, monitoring and providing medications as well as nursing care needs, and lastly taking note and recording the progress of patents such as temperatures, blood pressure, etc. This might not sometimes be the case as I came to find out. However, the public and me in a few years back expects every nurse to be able to provide the necessary professional care to all types of people without any form of discrimination. This entails more than being the bedside nurse since nurses work in different environments and are expected to use their medical and nursing background in providing medical assistance to any patient. Based on my understanding, the public expectation of nurses is sometimes ideal. This is because many members of the public expect nurses to be available always for their patients and all-knowing of all symptoms.
In conclusion, as has been perspective of many about nursing practice, majority seem to have a narrow information about what entails it. The paper has discussed some of the major comparison between what I earlier understood about nursing and what is nursing as according to experience and from reading materials. According to Zaccagnini and Pechacek (2019), the practice has extended beyond the hospital environment and is becoming an increasingly sophisticated profession with advancements in technology hence the need for specialization through further education. Nurses have the responsibility of providing care to patients as well as prevention and wellness to the best of their knowledge although sometimes the expectations of the public sometimes go beyond what is realistic or possible. Nonetheless, nursing is a noble profession which provides on with the opportunity of expressing their empathy, compassion, and sensitivity to the pain and suffering of others. The nursing field has extended wide to accommodate in different people with various situations. Therefore, my understanding on nursing practice was not wrong but was narrow .
References
Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2019). Nursing ethics. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Johnstone, M. J., & Facn, P. B. R. (2019). Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier.
Zaccagnini, M., & Pechacek, J. M. (2019). The doctor of nursing practice essentials: A new model for advanced practice nursing. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
