Introduction
Illness is an unfavorable life event that can occur in any of us. As Susan Sontag (1990) noted in her book Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place” (P 3). The patients we care for each day unfortunately carry the illness citizenship for an unknown period. No matter how hard we try to practice a healthy life style, everyone is prone to being ill at one point or another. Through my experience practicing as a student nurse, I have learned that empathy and respect are crucial elements that I must follow in
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The relationship I saw between the siblings quickly reminded me of my sister. I imagined myself being in the brother’s position and tried to understand how devastating it would feel to know that my sister’s brain damage is severe and probably permanent. In response, I treated this patient as if she was my own sister. In nursing school, we were taught to speak to our patients even when they are comatose or nonverbal because there is no way to prove that the patients have lost their hearing abilities. I showed respect by verbalizing all my procedures in front of the patient and the brother. At the nursing station, I spoke with a nurse who took care of her about one month ago. She told me her physical condition looked a lot worse than a month ago and her health probably won’t get better. Despite her progressive deterioration, the brother still believed that her sister will eventually recover because of her intact eye movements. He viewed the eye movements as signs of her fighting hard against the illness and trying to
Healthcare is viewed in an unrealistic way by most individuals. Many people view a physician as the only means to find a solution to their problem. Nurses are still seen by some as simply “the person who does what the doctor says.” This is frustrating in today’s time when nurses are required to spend years on their education to help care for their patients. In many situations nurses are the only advocate that some patients’ have.
MS nursing practice, education, and research require knowledge of ethical considerations. MS, the disease, does not discriminate and neither should nursing, the profession, in order to advance evidence-based practice and quality nursing care beyond the 21st century. Consequently, an expert nurse today will apply Mishel’s uncertainty in illness theory while considering ethics, personal bias, and multicultural elements of the individual, support person, and community (Alligood,
The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 2, ‘Illness, Health and Care’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
3. The relation between the chronically ill patient and the body is of intertwined subjectivity, of one human dignity and human strength. This is made manifest through the patient’s continued struggle for life despite awareness of dwindling quality of health and diminishing quality of life.
Responsibilities of nurses in patient education are helping patients learn health-related behaviors to achieve the goal of optimal health and independence in self-care. It is also the responsibility of the nurse to assess the patients’ learning needs, readiness to learn, and learning styles. Needs and problems of individual patient and family are very important (Wingard, 2005). Some patients need information to understand more about their health condition and how to overcome or prevent the complication of disease. The others may interest in improving quality of life with current diseases. Patients’ problems include patients’ culture, race, ethnicicy, religious orientation, socioeconomic status, age, gender, educational background, literacy level, and emotional state (Wingard, 2005). Next, nurs...
In critical and complicating medical cases, family members often find it tedious to decide as to what mode or procedure of treatment is idyllic for the recovery of their patient. In such cases, well-qualified and medically educated can play a pivotal role in deciding the kind of treatment that should be given to the patient to enhance its recovery. In a contrary situation a nurse may know that administering a particular drug may improve the patient’s condition, but may be refrained from conducting the required action due to doctor’s absence or non-permission. There are numerous cases through which ethical dilemmas in the profession of nursing can be discussed. Nurses in order to remain within the defined boundaries ...
A patient and client are one in the same in the present nursing profession. A client is first and foremost more than a name on a chart or a number in the system. They are a person with thoughts, words, deeds, and a need for care. To truly embody what a client is one needs to combine definitions. A client is a person seeking professional and protective medical care with a need for concern, understanding, and top quality of care. Health and illness are two sides of a coin. Some may view health as the absence of illness and alternatively, illness as the lack of good health. However, each goes beyond being the simple opposite of the other. Health is not just the absence of illness but the embodiment of well-being, comfort, and wellness of body, mind and spirit. Illness can be as simple as a cold, a bodily injury, and on to a disease of the mind. Both health and illness can be simply defined but to truly understand what it is to be healthy and to be ill one must look beyond the simple and see all the aspects of each.
Their skill, knowledge, and love of their occupation help them to exceed in everything they do. Moving towards a required doctorate degree will open up many doors for nurse practitioners, as they will be seen as a more professional occupation. The role of every health care member is essential for a patient, and nurse practitioners are able to play a huge role in each case by providing assistance in diagnosing and treating patients, as well as researching different ways to help them. Having a nurse practitioner to help educate the patient’s family is so important because it allows the family to feel more involved with their loved one’s care. The way nurses and nurse practitioner’s follow the code of ethics and standards of practice give them the characteristics of honesty and loyalty, and without both of them, key parts of the patient’s care would be
Nursing practice has revolutionized itself throughout the years. Today we realize the causes of current illnesses as complex and multifaceted (source). In past models, for instance the medical model, the approach was straightforward and neglected the patients active involvement in their care; the patient was viewed as the passive recipient and the doctor, an active agent that “fixed” their patients. ( source). New developed models since then, such as the biopsychosocial model, show us that care focuses on many factors. The model demonstrates understanding of how suffering, disease, and illness can be associated by many factors seen at the different levels in society and the medical sciences (source). Caring for each component is important to the healing process.
The healthcare system can be difficult for clients to navigate and they are often unsure how to access information which puts them at the mercy of others and can lead to feelings of helplessness (Erlen, 2006). Nurses can provide resources to educate patients when they becomes dependent on a health care provider and no longer feel in control of their own body which can lead to fear, hopelessness, helplessness and loss of control (Cousley et al., 2014). The change in roles individuals face can further increase their stress and feelings of powerlessness (Scanlon & Lee, 2006). According to the CNA code of ethics, nurses are responsible for protecting patients from objective risks that place them in an increased level of vulnerability (Carel, 2009). They can do this by providing the resources necessary for patients to educate themselves and be better able to cope with the health challenges they
Firstly, nurses are influenced by many interior and exterior factors, leading to professional responsibilities. With this in mind, according to the website, UWHealth, nurses act as patient advocates, representing the patient’s unique characteristics, requests and health care requirement to colleagues in a compassionate and constructive manner (2017). The public eye has both negative and positive assumptions of nurses based on nursing care history and human interactions. On the other hand, the patients are assumed to be cared by nurses; however, this idea is limited. The patients are in equilibrium as nurses, they are both needed to complete any medical setting. The beliefs of nurses and patients are also distributed equally on the line of nursing and medical care. The nursing health team as the actual nurse is also responsible for the patients and advocating for them. In the last understanding, communities in different social classes are assumed to obtain financial resources for the patients living in those communities. Proportionally, the nurse, the patient, the nursing team, and different communities work interchangeably to acquire health promotion and prevent
One aspect of life that most individuals take for granted is physical health. Most people assume that an individual cannot lose physical health or if somebody becomes sick the health care system will be able to recover one’s health with the new medical advances that are always happening around the world. However, this is not always the case some individuals have to face a chronic loss of health and deal with the implications of this on their life. The loss of health I will be talking about today is not a direct loss of personal health, but a loss of health that my father experiences and how different components of this loss affected my family and I’s life.
A nurse’s role in our society today is exceptionally significant. Nurses are somewhat idolized and looked to as our everyday “superman”. “The mission of nursing in society is to help individuals, families, and groups to determine and achieve physical, mental, and social potential, and to do so within the challenging context of the environment in which they live and work” (“The Role of a Nurse/Midwife”). Many Americans turn to nurses for delivery of primary health care services and health care education (Whelan). In our country, there is constantly someone in need of health care. There will always be a baby being born or a person dying, someone becoming ill or growing old. Some people due to their physical and/or mental state of health are completely dependent on a nurse and wouldn’t be able to get through the simple obstacles of every day, or achieve the necessary requirements of a simple day without their aid. Not only do nurses help, and assist you when you’re sick, but also act to promote good health to others. They end...
In order for nurses to practice ethically they must understand the meaning behind each professional value. The first value is human dignity. With each patient we encounter we must show them respect as individuals. It does not matter what the medical condition is, race, ethnicity, culture, religion or gender of the individual. The dignity of a person must be protected. As nurses we must respect the uniqueness of each individual we care for, as this is a fundamental right of all humans. A person with dignity feels a sense of self-worth and as nurses we must do our best to help our patients maintain that feeling of worthiness.
“Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken’, said Myrtle Aydelott (Hammarskjold, 2000). Nurses have our patients trust with their lives every day. These patients have needs that must be understood and met, whether; physical, psychological, or emotional. Nurses must provide nonjudgmental care to those in need, regardless of culture, religion, lifestyle choices, financial status, or hues of the human race. To quote Jean Watson, nursing theorist, “I am here to care for others, regardless of where they came from” (Hammarskjold, 2000). I believe that the nursing profession chose me because I have always had a calling to help those in need. Nursing