In this paper we will review and summarize the role of nurses as well as their scope of practice, the knowledge and training needed for the nursing role. Our main aim here will be to inform the reader of our own viewpoint and how it has been influenced by studying the field of nursing. We will do this by mainly focusing at the roles and responsibilities that are performed by the nurses.
Nursing Role
Roles and responsibilities
"A nursing job demands great dedication and commitment from the learner." (Johnstone, 1999). The practitioner of this field is required to have the ability to work under great pressure as well as being able to remain calm under extreme circumstances. There are many responsibilities for any nurse and here we will look at some of them. Firstly, nurse is supposed to be the one who provides care to those who need it the most. Their main task is to provide comfort to the patient not only through physical treatment but at an emotional level as well.
In cases where the doctors are not available the nurses should take the lead in assisting the patients in whatever their requirements are, therefore a nurse should have extensive knowledge and experience regarding dealing with sensitive matters which affects the patients. "The nurse should also try to give clients more concern as compared with the doctor." (Whitehead, 2003).
Secondly, nurses should act as a teacher towards their clients. It should focus on providing information which can help the client in its overall recovery or learning and making sure the client learns technical skills if possible. The nurse should always try to promote a healthier lifestyle, translate any information to client if it has having problems with understanding it and also encourage others with their prescribed therapy.
Besides the above mentioned top priorities for any nurse there are other tasks in which it should be very good at, counseling is one of them. Here the main purpose is to help the client to cope up with and recognize any sort of social or psychological problems which are stressful. This can be done by developing a better interpersonal relationship with the client.
Counseling also allows the nurse to provide better emotional as well as psychological and intellectual support, it also helps the client to develop a better attitude and behavior. Also, one of the main aims of counseling should be to encourage the client in looking towards different behaviors so that it can develop its sense of controls in a better and more effective way.
The nurse should encourage its clients to be able to initiate in any changes they think needs to be done, nurse should also assist the client if this task is difficult for them to achieve. Here the change can be in the overall system of care which is provided to the client, the treatment procedures or any other related matter. The nurse should also try to be an advocate of its client, this means helping them to achieve whatever changes they deem necessary. Here the main point to note is that the nurse should be aware of its actions and that what it is promoting is in the best interest of the client as well as others. It should also assist in making the client do better decision making.
"In cases where the client is unfit or unable to make decisions regarding themselves then the nurse should act as a manager" (Joel, 2002), the main purpose here is to make right decisions, allocate resources properly, coordinate activities and evaluate the overall care provided. This can be done by planning all the activities in advance then giving directions, developing staff if necessary, monitoring all the operations and giving rewards to those who deserve it in a fair and justified manner so that everyone involved feels satisfied.
Here we can see that nursing can help the practitioner learn many things besides the medical terminologies, therefore it has a great scope of learning for any person and that is one of the reasons why we have chosen to write this article.
Let's focus on training of nurses, besides the above mentioned responsibilities there are other tasks which should also be a part of any nurse's training. This includes being able to become a researcher, here it should learn how to participate in any scientific investigation as well as having awareness of research processes, the aim here is to learn the overall language of research and responsibilities towards sensitive issues which involve protecting the rights of others.
Other roles for nurses include being a clinical specialist, this job is for those nursing professionals who have earned a master's degree in their respective field and have considerable clinical expertise related to their specialty. Midwife is a special training program for nurses regarding midwifery, this includes prenatal as well as postnatal care and the practitioners of this program can also deliver babies of women who deal with uncomplicated pregnancies. Nurses can also be trained to become anesthetist, here the nurses complete their courses at an anesthesia school which also trains in carrying out any sort of pre-operative status regarding the clients.
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