Nursing Professional Values - Essay Example

NURSING PROFESSIONAL VALUES Introduction The aspect of healthcare has always been a major concern of the present mainly because of its significance and its obvious values. Its primary concern is for the improvement of the present health condition of the people and the ethical concept of promoting life itself due to which, significant efforts and concerns are always given for the quality of healthcare services (Diering, 2005: 98). With this idea, society constantly monitors and evaluates the quality of healthcare services being rendered by institutions regarding its promoting, implementation and improvement. Regarding healthcare service, hospital institution is the most common and the easiest way to access healthcare service from professionally trained personnel and individuals. Because of this concept, society always turns its needs whenever certain individuals seek professional health service to hospital institutions. Thus, closely monitoring the quality of the healthcare service and the administrative process of hospital institution is indeed beneficial for the society themselves. Through this actions, improvement measures and promotion of quality can be further develop for the advantage of the people thus certain essential tools and measures are developed for improving the quality of services provided by hospital institutions. In this regard, the role of the nurses plays a great implication as to how the said process of operational success could be garnered. The Professional Values Recognized By Nurses (Based on Personal Understanding) Nursing students as training professionals in the field of hospital has to have the ability to handle ethical issues within the said industry. Undeniably though, it is essential enough to consider this particular matter when dealing with healthcare professions such as nursing (Lewis, 2005:78). True, being a nurse requires one to become highly involved in different human operations and are thus more susceptible to issues that are related to the said situations. Consequently, the said healthcare professionals are required to learn different levels of ethical concerns even during their training years yet. This particular training ensures them of the capabilities that they have to at least manifest their personal concern for their patients as well as their professional standing for the performance of their duties towards their clients (Potter, 2005: 54). Being a nurse itself requires hard work and perseverance in treating patients from different ages, genders and situations. According to the Department of Nursing Education, applicants for the nursing job must have certain characteristics that will help them give the needed medication for the patients they care for. The said characteristics particularly involve that of the five major values of professionalism that must be given full attention by nurses in performing their duties to the public. The five values include Altruism, Autonomy, Human Dignity, Integrity, and Social Justice (Barnes, 2005: 36). First to be attended in discussion is that of the value of autonomy and altruism which suggests that individuals be able to perform at a minimum level of supervision provided to them my their administrational officials. Among these characteristics is being able to functionally use the five major senses in a fast paced demand of performance (Lewis, 2005:67). Another is being able to observe a client at a certain distance, also being able to use muscular movements along with the functions of the major senses in coordination. In short, a nurse who would deal with patients in the emergency room must be able to do multi-tasking to become an asset nurse to the medical team. Human dignity and integrity is also conscientiously considered within the process as the situations are being dealt with by the nurses in their profession. This includes the basic application of the major rules of nursing in actual operations in handling the health cases of the patients who are in need of careful assistance. As an addition to these attitudes or characters, the basic understanding of a nurse on the hospital rules regarding visitation and family involvement in the medication is also a vital factor that must be considered. According to Laura Marco, "Family life is vital to a person's health"; this is why family participation must always be considered as a necessary agent in medicating any patient. In short, family participation must be continuous in order to achieve the "total care therapeutic surroundings." One of the key factors also considered in the abilities that a perfect nurse should acquire is being able to demonstrate utilization of intellectual strength. This means that a nurse must be able to dispose off good judgment even when he is faced with exceptionally complicated and serious medical cases. A nurse must be able to promptly complete all responsibilities such as attending to the care of each patient brought in the emergency room. To become an asset to the medical team, a nurse should be able to think in a mature way and tolerate "physically taxing workloads" and yet still function at the best performance possible. Stress is always a part of the nursing job ( Diering, 2005: 98). Professionalism is also an important factor to be considered in nursing. In emergency situations, it should be preempted by the nurse to receive negative and demanding commands from the patient or the relatives as well. Remaining calm and continuously focused to aiding the patient should keep the nurse remains in his professional characteristics. In this way, instead of making the situation worse, the attending nurse would even be able to help the relatives and the patient himself to remain calm in the middle of a strenuous situation. This particular value actually involves the consideration that each nurse places on their responsibility to pose social justice in their work (Lewis, 2005:88). Professionalism involves the consideration that each nurse palaces on the ethical standards that they are placing as part of their professional basis of competency at work. Yes, being a nurse has never been an easy task, and being a part of a medical team to help patients during emergency cases is much more demanding. But the strong and ideal efforts of a nurse placed in his job could help him attain the required attributes that a perfect nurse should have. His determination to continuously improve and develop his skills in becoming the perfect nurse is among the key concepts to help him attain his best in his chosen career. When the Need to Handle Ethical Measures is Necessary In the field of giving medical care to the people, it is rather important to consider how the patients are being satisfied with the type of services that they are receiving from their caregivers. Undoubtedly, through the years, caregivers such as nurses and other healthcare professionals try much to reach the goal of becoming highly involved in mastering the rightful process of servicing to their clients, the patients. What then are the necessary points that need consideration in the medical official's search for the finest service that would satisfy both the needs and demands of the people There are at least three major areas of focus that needs to be discussed when this kind of issue comes into light. The said elements of fine medical service are noted as follows: (A) Creation of fine policies that could serve as guidelines for the given service: This shall involve the different points of consideration that needs attention when one particular medical staff is giving health care assistance to a patient. Through the policies set to assist in the process, the standard procedure of servicing the clients should be observed strictly. (AHQR, 2005 Internet) (B) Creation of procedural approach for decision making in several special health cases: Special health cases usually involve emergency decisions. The process of making decisions is at times quite unpredictable, especially if the case to be treated is abrupt. Thus, a standard procedure should be set, especially when no one around is able to decide for an unconscious patient. (AHQR, 2005, Internet) (C) Involving patient and patient's relatives in coming up with the necessary decisions about treatments: The patient's relatives or close loved ones should be given the chance to help in the decision making pertaining to what particular manner of treatment would be accepted by the family as a process of health assistance applied on the patient. This is especially applicable with serious illnesses and other terminal medical cases. (AHQR, 2005 Internet) With the discussion presented, it could be observed that there are three major approaches in service that needs consideration on the part of the healthcare professionals when it comes to satisfying their clients. These three elements particularly involve fine decision making on the part of the care givers themselves and the involvement of the family within the process to give regard to their importance in the situation. Obviously, the procedure of extending the service to satisfy the client's values as the major focus of the service involves the major action on the part of the administrator's implementation of the necessary guidelines needed to assist the personnel in giving considerable type of service to their customers who are naturally the patients wanting the best satisfactory assistance and care that they need to survive the health issues that they are particularly facing. What Needs to Be Considered In the Service of Nurses Because of the said relevance and significance of the healthcare quality in the society, certain social groups and institutions have been created for the purpose of monitoring healthcare implementation and the administration of hospital institutions. Among the many created social institutions, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has been widely known for their support in the research field for the development and improvement of the healthcare services that are being rendered in the hospitals in the presents. In their aim of monitoring the healthcare quality of the said institutions, they have developed certain tools or modules designed to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness and quality of the healthcare services in hospitals thus raising concerns and information for improvements and further research on the part of the hospital's administration. On the other hand, these modules can also be used by the public in evaluating the healthcare service they have received thus they themselves can also raised points and concepts regarding the quality and the systematic process of the hospital's administration. In addition, this can also be used by the public in their process of creating their own informed decision and future consent. AHRQ's primary concern is to raise the quality of healthcare services for the society mainly the ones being rendered by the hospital institutions through evaluating their present administrative system. Thus, they have developed different that measures various aspect of healthcare quality namely prevention quality indicators, inpatient quality indicators, patient safety indicators, and pediatric quality indicators. 1. Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs) are mainly modules that can be used with hospital inpatient discharge data in identifying the quality of healthcare for "ambulatory care-sensitive conditions." This module is primarily about the conditions for early treatment preventing further hospitalization of good outpatient and intervention procedures in preventing further complications of the patient's health status. 2. Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI) are mainly modules that provide perspective on hospital quality using hospital administrative data. This module actually reflects the quality of healthcare service being rendered by the institution inside their hospitals and the domain of their facilities. In addition, this module includes inpatient mortality for certain procedures and medical conditions; utilization of procedures for which there are questions of overuse, underuse, and misuse; and volume of procedures for which there is some evidence that a higher volume of procedures is associated with lower mortality. 3. Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) primarily evaluates the health conditions and safety of the patient within the facilities of the hospital institution that includes reports for potential dangers, hospitalization complications, and adverse events following or before certain healthcare operations. This module helps system leaders and administrative division in identifying potential complications thus developing precautionary actions and developments. 4. Pediatric Quality Indicators are mainly modules for measuring the quality of service for pediatric healthcare basing from the hospital's inpatient discharge data. This module specifically evaluates possible problems and complications brought about by the exposure of the pediatric patients to the healthcare system of the institution thus creating amenable preventive measures and actions and further improvement concepts on the institution's pediatric system. Conclusion Thus, the quality of healthcare service presently rendered by the hospital institution is significantly important for the promoting of the basic principles of healthcare itself. With this concept, indeed the institution's healthcare administration should be constantly monitored to determined possible dangers and complications and thus, developing protective measures and safety programs for the development itself of the hospital's service. Administering the said healthcare evaluating modules is also considerably meticulous and complicated at some point however, the benefits these modules can raise through providing important qualitative information is generally more relevant than previous aspect. Thus, evaluating the quality of the healthcare service being rendered by the hospital's administration is indeed important as both a precautionary and preventive measures for possible complications and in developing further the present condition of the said institution for more efficient and effective healthcare service. Yes, all these major victories and success of the administrational operations of hospitals not only in America but around the world could never be garnered without nurses who care for their profession. Hence, every nurse is encouraged to recognize their role and their responsibilities within the institutions and the people to whom they offer their service to. References: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (July 2005). AHRQ Quality Indicators. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/index.htm. March 9, 2009. Scott Louis Diering. (2005). Love Your Patients! Improving Patient Satisfaction with Essential Behaviors That Enrich the Lives of Patients and Professionals. Routledge Publishing. Lewis, Sharon M. Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems, Single Volume.(2006). Brooklyn New York. Potter, A. Fundamentals of Nursing. (2006). San Francisco California. Barnes, S. Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process, and Practice, Seventh Study Guide Edition. (2005). Chicago Press. Chicago. Read More