Nursing is a very challenging career with numerous of obstacles along the way and can also get hectic. At times nurses have an unbearable amount of work that doesn’t give them the opportunity to hire other nurses to decrease the workload. The first lady of nursing Virginia Avenel Henderson an influential nurse also know for her definition of nursing explains, “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge.” The process of creating a functional work environment of nurses lacks integrity, compassion and confidence due to an increase …show more content…
As a result, nurses do not have the time to interact with their patients other than what’s on the orders given by a doctor. Helen Mooney admits that “nurses and other healthcare professionals are often praised for their high levels of compassion; there is a common lament that the ‘heart has gone out’ of nursing and that today’s nurses are not as ‘caring’ as those of the past.” The lack of staffing doesn’t allow the nurses the opportunity to interact with their patients or get to know the patient in an intimate level. Nurses, at times, can have four to five patients in a twelve-hour shift. An increase in amount of patients and decrease in amount of nurses can be a shift full of stress, mixed emotions and overwhelming. As a result of the ratio between and nurses and patients, patients do not receive the proper treatment they need. For example, a grandmother who has spent numerous times in the hospital experienced “my grand-daughter receiving plastic tape from her nurse” after she didn’t review her notes on her chart in which would have informed the nurse of the patients allergy towards plastic tape. In addition, her grand-daughter also wore a red bracelet indicating her allergy, but the nurse, as a result of the lack of compassion, didn’t take the time to even consider any possible …show more content…
Patients expect the nurses to answer with confidence because their answer can either affect the patient or reassures them. When nurses are being rushed, overwhelmed or stressed their confidence levels drop. Alicia Joy thinks that, “Self confidence is bolstered by quality, contributive performance. When people are performing well, they become more confident. Better performance is obviously better for patients, families, employers, the community. It’s a win-win all around.” Confidence represents an individual who appears to know what they’re doing. Patients grow their trust on nurses who are confident because it’s an affirmation that the nurse knows what he or she is
Still, the previous advantages discussed should influence the nurse to improve in identifying patient vulnerability. This is evident by this patient where I utilized my interpersonal skills to communicate to this patient so that he/she is aware that he/she is not alone in this journey. Nurses need to utilize models and theories to guide nursing practice. For instance, McCormack’s framework focuses on patient-centered care which influences nurses to understand the patient as a whole and their values (Abley, 2012, p. 42). Being able to identify values will give nurses and myself a better comprehension about the patients resulting in worthiness and belonging expressed. As a result, informing nurses about patient’s subjective vulnerability because a trust and understanding relationship is established. This is supported in a clinical experience where a patient “felt understood and opened up for further interactions based on trust” through an honest, supportive relationship with a nurse (Gjengedal, 2013, p. 134). Nurses should provide patient-focused provision of service, and assist this patient in overcoming his/her obstacle as a way of encouragement. Furthermore, Sellman (2005) explains how encouragement may compromise human flourish (p. 7), it is dependent on the situation and it cannot be assumed all encouragement will lead to harm. This informs nurses to be aware of the consequences that prevent the
...rking in the hospitals all across the nation, and employing confident employees to those positions will make a large impact on how well people are treated in medical facilities. Every nurse should follow procedure and focus on the job at hand—healing people.
In most aspects of life the saying “less is always more” may ring true; however when it comes to providing quality care to patients, less only creates problems which can lead to a decrease in patient’s quality of life as well as nurse’s satisfaction with their jobs. The massive shortage of nurses throughout the United States has gotten attention from some of the most prestigious schools, news media and political leaders. Nurses are being burnt out from their jobs, they are being overworked and overlooked. New nurses are not being properly trained, and old nurses are on their way to retirement. All the while the rate of patient admissions is on the rise. Nurses are reporting lower satisfaction in their job positions and hospital retention rates are at an all-time low, conversely this is affecting all patients’ quality of care. As stated in the article Addressing The Nurse Shortage To Improve The Quality Of Patient Care “According to an Institute of Medicine report, Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals providing direct patient care in hospitals, and the quality of care for hospital patients is strongly linked to the performance of nursing staff”.
As a nurse we are responsible for the safety and overall health promotion of our patients. Competency in the nursing field is what ensures patient safety and decreased hospital acquired injury. Continued competence ensures that the nurse is able to perform efficiently and safely in a constantly changing environment. Nurses must continuously evaluate their level of skill and find where improvement needs to be made in order to keep up to date with the expected skill level set by their
Another factor that influences being a safe and professional nurse is having the right attitude. This will help you develop your nursing skills better if you have a positive attitude, because you may work with a team of registered nurses but you must recognize that each of you have your strengths and weaknesses. You must value each nurse for their expertise and skills, and always be willing to learn and accept feedback to help improve yourself. As a nurse, you may be great at starting IVs, while another nurse may be great at talking to patients, another nurse may be great at wound care, etc. Overall, recognizing when to ask for help is a good quality in nursing, this isn’t as a disfavor to yourself but actually a service to your patient, because
The nursing shortage most likely does not mean a great deal to people until they are in the care of a nurse. The United States is in a severe nursing shortage with no relief in sight due to many factors compounding the problem and resulting in compromised patient care and nurse burnout. Nursing shortages have been experienced in the past by the United States and have been overcome with team effort. However, the current shortage is proving to be the most complex and great strides are being made to defeat the crisis before it becomes too difficult to change. Researchers anticipate that by 2010, the United States will need almost one million more registered nurses than will be available (Cherry & Jacob, 2005, p. 30).
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
As health care providers, nurses strive to instill confidence in their patients and their loved ones. A nurse is respectful to their colleagues as well as their patients. Nurses promote patients’ independence, patients can be confident in the knowledge that a nurse will do what is best for them, respecting their privacy and dignity. This means that a nurse does not share the patient information for personal reasons nor does the nurse get involved in a patients personal relationship if it is not medically relevant (NCSBN, 2011).
Many health care professionals are wondering why shortage transpired when managed care cost initiatives, implemented throughout the country, are dramatically decreasing the length of patient stays (Upenieks, 2003). In fact, such a situation should be resulting in a nursing oversupply. As the nursing shortage ensues, the need for recruiting and retaining highly skilled nurses committed to the organization will become necessary to maintain high-quality patient care. The recent national nurse shortage has resulted in higher nurse workloads; fewer support resources, greater nursing dissatisfaction, and burnout, making it more difficult to provide optimal patient care (Upenieks, 2003). The primary role of nursing is to provide the best possible care to patients.
One of the problems that faces most health care facilities are being able to recruit and retain their nurses. Nursing shortage and turnover are a complex issue that is affecting healthcare delivery. Nurses form the majority in healthcare and mostly direct caregivers, its deficit poses a dangerous effect on the care of the sick and the disabled. Curbing the nursing shortage and turnover is important for facilities to hire and train their leaders and managers. A good leader or manager should be creative, effective, committed, initiative, motivated, and can handle stress (Huber,
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
... be trustworthy, then this diminishes the general perceptions of the trustworthiness of nurses across the board. By being trustworthy, nurses contribute to a general climate of trust and this is essential to the profession, and to the health and wellbeing of patients.
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
Nurses can reassure the patient by disclosing her/his similar experience. For instance, the nurse can explain to the patient that she passed through similar path in the past and understands the patients situation. The nurse has to be genuine when she/he self disclose, she/he does not has to make up a story. Self disclosure, if it is delivered correctly makes the patient feels understood and accepted. After receives bad news, patients feel a strong need to be heard and understanding.
Martin (2015) looks at the effect that nurse staffing has on quality care of patients. Using numerous studies, the article reviews nurse under-staffing in hospitals and how it not only impacts the care the patient receives but also the nurse’s well-being. This article supports that staffing has a direct impact on patient care and safety and