¶ … Nurses during Emergency During the tackling of disasters, teams from varied fields, experiences expertise and education come together; these group present broad spectrums of capabilities and qualification; essential for assistance in situations of public health emergency. This article looks at the regulations, ethical practice, limitations and guidelines for regulating of nursing practices in cases of public health emergencies (Couig, Johnson & Rick, 2011). The regulations in the legal authority of action by nurses are done through education, licensure, and discipline which define the scope of practice for nurses practicing during health emergencies. Limitations to preparedness in the nursing practice brought about by burnout, depression, self-esteem, personal accomplishment, and emotional exhaustion and depersonalization problems. The environment in, which nurses practice, determines their preparedness in tackling of emergencies. Promoting the emotional well-being of nurses then becomes a beneficial aspect for the carrying out of nursing practice. It is important to provide nurses with the opportunity and necessary skills, which allow them to manage the stresses that may deter their professional practice (Trossman, 2011).

Critical Thinking

Nursing regulations on preparedness

In the nursing practice, there exists a regulation, which determines the extent to which nursing practice is exercised (Trossman, 2011). These regulations, however, should not limit the practice of nurses whenever their services are required. The regulatory authorities should ensure flexibility, balance, efficiency, and fairness when setting up regulations for nursing practice. These regulations cut across boundaries as in most occasions public health requirements may extend beyond boundaries. Nursing practice is regulated by clearly defined standards for professional accountability and scope of practice. It is therefore important for the regulation of practice for nurses to stay as reasonable as possible. On instances when the regulations hinder the preparedness of nurses in the extension of their services beyond their countries of registration, it becomes very hard for the nurses to help patients (Trossman, 2011).

The nursing license is, therefore, with the responsibility of ensuring that nurses registered under it have the mandate of operating beyond their borders. That increases the preparedness that nurses may have in times of emergencies. It can be so devastating, whenever, a health issue arises and there is a lack of expertise to help in the public health appeal. This may occur when nurses meet practice obstacles preventing them from assisting in emergency cases because of licensing restrictions. This is not just devastating to the nurses, but, it is also an infringement into the health of emergency casualties.

Lack of certification of nurses affects the preparedness of nurses' dependant on national certification standards. Preparedness of nurses in handling of emergency is an aspect that requires more input than is present in the current times. Since certification of nurses is given on occasions of meeting certain levels of training, it means that facilitation of such training will give the nurses adequate confidence. Nurses with adequate training present higher levels of confidence and readiness for service provision that those nurses without any prior training.

Burnout limitations to nursing practice preparedness

The nursing profession has kept growing but the society currently witnesses a decrease in their numbers. Nursing profession vacancies keep growing with registered nurses topping the list of the fastest growing professions. However, there are huge numbers of nurses, getting out of the nursing profession bringing about a nursing shortage problem. This is a problem, whose cause is not sufficiently determined. There are allegations of nurses, either getting more responsibilities because of vast education, or there is a real shortage of nurses. There is a present limitation of student enrolment into nursing programs. Qualified applicants face rejection whenever they apply for admission into nursing programs (Eddins, jie & Huaping, 2011).

Training facilities have inadequate funds for training nurses, and the staffs available, are insufficient in accommodating the growing demand in the nursing field. This limits the efficiency of the trained nurses, and in turn, affects their preparedness for tackling of public health emergencies. The limitations of training facilities reduce on the numbers of nurses available for recruiting (Trossman, 2011). The shortage of qualified staffs in healthcare facilities, in turn, presents available nurses with excessive work making them overly exhausted. Burnout then becomes a problem faced by the nursing professionals. Nurses work longer hours than normal and face an overload of patients to care for during their nursing practice. Lack of retirement, sick leave...

Healthcare ethics should be used in every practical situation regardless of the emergency. Nurses should do well while serving their clients as they thrive to offer them the best nursing care possible. This is only practical if the nurses have adequate training and motivation for carrying out their duties (Grealish & Smale, 2011). Without that, their preparedness for involvement in emergency care giving drops. Preparedness of emotionally displaced nurses in the provision of healthcare without implicitly harming their patients during pregnancy may be low. These nurses have been hurt in on some occasion, and from different reasons. For this reason, their nonmaleficence may be compromised and preparedness in serving emergency casualties reduced. It is important to check out on nurses who have had chemical injury. This way, those nurses who may present problems when handling emergencies can be left out instead of jeopardizing the state of rescuing an emergency.
Ethical preparedness of nurses also requires that they be able to take action without supervision. Self-direction acceptance nurses (autonomy) are something that most patients, even in situations of emergency, look for during treatment. On some occasions, nurses are not prepared to listen and respect the rights of patients in emergency (Grealish & Smale, 2011). This may be resultant from various reasons. The most outstanding thing is that nurses may feel superior to their clients, and that makes them only interested in serving the patients according to their knowledge without listening to the concerns, which the client may have. Since nurses should ensure equal treatment of patients and an assurance of fairness during the process, certain situations may hamper their preparedness in handling of some situations (Couig, Johnson & Rick, 2011).

In the ethical bid to provide justice, aspects like race and tribalism may hamper nurses' preparedness. This may prevent them from taking up a nursing call wholeheartedly if they feel that those to be attended to are not of their class or race. Such feelings deter the allocation of time and resources when caring for clients. Such ethical limitations must be tackled by letting nurses realize that any effort they put in handling patients, deserve the best ethical practice they can ever extend without any prejudice (Couig, Johnson & Rick, 2011). During emergency, more time may be necessary to help patients. Nurses must be ready to spend adequate time with every patient. Cases that deter such preparedness, reduce their ethical provision of healthcare services and in turn reduce the quality of services that they provide. Nurses must be trained on means of upholding personal values for the benefit of clients. Preparedness of nurses insists on universal application without judgment or client bias in an honest, respectful and fair way.

It is important that more effort on ethical application and handling of nursing issues be emphasized during training. The code of ethics for nurses should be emphasized always so that nurses become aware of what is required of them as they carry out their daily activities. The preparedness for using nursing ethics demand that nurses should be compassionate and respectful to their patients (Grealish & Smale, 2011). If a nurse has some instances of bias in her heart, compassion and respect gets compromised and, therefore, the nurse will not be in a position of caring effectively for clients. It is also important that the nurse commits herself to serving a patient. This is also only possible in the absence of unnecessary bias. Since nursing ethics also call for patient advocacy, a nurse is only capable of advocating for a client's right if autonomy exists and makes sense to her. That is the only point at which the nurse will be able to takes responsibility and stay accountable for the call of caring for clients.

Patient Safety

Many lives can be lost on an occasion that there are no nurses to take care of their situation. The lack of preparedness of nurses then is a serious practice problem, which must be tackled to save time of action whenever an emergency arises. Regulation of the nursing profession is an assurance of competence in healthcare service provision by nurses to the public. Competence and safety in healthcare provision by nurses is defined by the scope of nursing practice within their licensure jurisdiction. There is a difference in the scope of nursing practice depending on the state of jurisdiction of certification of a nurse. Specialty nurses practice has a broad preparedness of practice from their state nursing certification (Trossman, 2011). To increase the preparedness of nurses in handling emergencies, it is important to train them in the best possible ways of…