Positive And Negative Effects Of Nursing

The profession of nursing has both positive and negative effects on the well-being of nurses, which can lead to learning opportunities for those that are new to the profession. To receive an accurate depiction of the nursing profession, an interview with a currently practicing nurse is conducted and the challenges that they face will be analyzed with the intent of exploring different strategies that can be used when coping with these issues. The nurse that was interviewed stated that she has been in the nursing field for the past seventeen years; with the past ten being in the role of a nurse practitioner (Personal Communication, October 26, 2016). The nurse has experience in a variety of settings, as well as holding several degrees and certificates

Both aspects are important qualities to address; doing all that is possible to advocate for, protect, and educate the patient will create a better patient-nurse relationship. Spending time with patients is also important, since the ability to listen to individual concerns and reasoning for decisions can improve the quality of care that is received from the nurse. Another positive aspect of nursing that the nurse describes relates to her experience in working on a labor and delivery floor, which is that she can help in bringing new life into the world. This can also loosely relate to the impacting event that she describes, because although she was not bringing new life into the world, she could help ease someone out of life, and support them through each decision that they

The nurse stated during the interview that “holding the hand of the patient just diagnosed with a terminal illness” (Appendix A) is difficult and requires a variety of techniques to face the situation. There are many ways to approach a dying patient, and one study identified four themes that help nurses in creating a “’curtain of protection’ to mitigate the grieving process and allow them to provide supportive nursing care” (Gerow et al., 2010). Of the four approached, there is one that appears to make the greatest impact on the nurse; the fact that initial patient deaths are formative. In this case, a study found that “significant death experiences early in a nurse’s career set the foundation for how the nurse began caring for future dying patients” (Gerow et al., 2010), which was further explained as the fact that those who had enough support and mentorship early on in their nursing practice were more likely to not be emotionally damaged by the event, and were able to better approach similar situations in the future. I plan on implementing this strategy in the future by surrounding myself with colleagues and mentors within my practice that I am comfortable confiding in whenever I happen to be struggling. A strong support network is key for maintaining proper emotional health, which is important for a nurse to have when working with vulnerable patients and providing competent