The Skill of Nursing Transcends Scholastic Values - Literature review Example

The Skill of Nursing Transcends Scholastic Values The skill of nursing goes beyond scholastic values. This is undeniable. The nursing profession is a noble profession that is seized with the health, welfare and safety of the people in society. The duty of professional nurses is not limited to the provision of health needs of individual patients. They also bear a responsibility, which is broader in sense and application; and deals with issues like poverty based hunger, damage to the environment, and the denial of access to nursing care and health care to some individuals. Everyone in this world should be provided with easy access to good quality healthcare services. In order to achieve this goal, there must be a high level of planning and coordination between the health professionals. This collaboration must be established at the community, national and international levels (Petrozella, Sep2004, p24-24). Florence Nightingale had established ethics for nurses and the necessary nursing skills. According to her, nurses should display love, admiration and reverence towards their patients. More importantly nurses have to trust their profession and follow its ethics. Sympathy is an important component of the nursing profession that should be displayed towards patients. Thus, nursing professionals must possess these traits, in order to provide the best possible nursing care to their patients (Hunt, May2001, p179-180). The profession of nursing can be treated as a process of accompanying the patients in their journey towards recovery from disease. Sometimes, it may continue till the end of the patients’ life. Consequently, nursing promotes the quality of health and nurses are the only persons who accompany the patients till they recover or till they die. Under certain circumstances, when patients become incapacitated both physically and mentally and find it difficult if not impossible to continue on the journey to recovery, nurses come to their aid and accompany them and to the healing end of their journey. In some other situations, the patients take the lead, and nurses inject them with the power to continue on the journey to recovery. Such power is veritably fuel for the patients in their great attempt. Thus, the efforts put in by nurses are innumerable (Hakesley-Brown & Malone, 2007, p14-14). In the past, doctors used to direct nurses in their activities and other duties, and nurses acted upon the instructions given by the doctors. This process was purely mechanical and did not involve the talents or skills of nurses. Gradually this situation has changed, due in no small measure to the new entrants in the profession, who began to use their theoretical, practical and ethical knowledge. The ingestion of medicines and other medical practices are based on the science of medicine. Nursing care, on the other hand, has involved palliative care and compassion, in treating patients. Undoubtedly, both are important; however, the latter produces greater positive results. Nursing care is based on emotion, which is essential for improvement in the patients’ condition. Therefore, nursing can be termed as an art of the heart. It is the source of compassion and love, and constitutes a practical and important component of the strategy to ensure the well-being of patients (Sturgeon, 2008 Mar P. 13-26). The nursing profession is dynamic and requires its practitioners to acquire the latest skills and develop knowledge about new developments, which would enable them to provide quality patient care and advancements in their career. Professional skills may vary from one setting to another. The practice skills mainly depend on the relationships between patients, nurses and the environment. In addition to these practical measures, interaction with other colleagues would enhance their theoretical knowledge and help them to learn about the methods employed in different environments. Such discussions would improve their outlook and help them to identify and justify the employment of a particular skill in different environments and settings. Nurses have to keep in mind that understanding the manner of using skills is more important than judging skills. It is also important to identify the effectiveness of skills in various settings and to assess the development of such skills (Essex, 7/16/2008, p51). The significant feature of the modern workforce is its capacity to adapt to new circumstances and purposes. This workforce desires greater flexibility in working conditions and the work environment. In the medical field, nurses are essential, and the sophistication of medical science adds additional duties and medical procedures to their regular duties. Thus, the roles of nurses are expanding over time. As the purview of the scope of duties of nurses expands, the healthcare assistants are required to share their work, and the latter perform the traditional work of the nurses. However, healthcare assistants are supervised by nurses; which provides an opportunity to expand the operational scope of healthcare professionals (Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom). Increased pay, education and adequate training are sufficient to enable them to respond to new calls and challenges. These considerations would improve and expand their nursing skills. Moreover, the new Agenda for Change modernization process offers novel measures in this regard. It would carry out the vision of the Department of Health, in order to establish the NHS as a model employer. Negotiations are underway to achieve this goal, and if they succeed there will be a new breed of healthcare professionals’ operational roles (Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom). Nurses’ salary depends on their experience in the profession and their qualifications; and in generally it varies between £17,000 and £30,000. The scale of the pay depends on the grade attained by the nurse in education, and companies offer different pay scales. The profession is highly competitive, and some employers entice nurses with other benefits in addition to the regular pay. Some employers provide childcare, cover for health issues and other perquisites to qualified nurses (Rayne). Communication is an important tool in the nursing profession, which helps patients to heal quickly. Hence, nurses should develop their communication skills. Nurses should engage in keen conversation with patients, as this will enable them to understanding their personal experiences and allow them to develop better communication with their patients. In addition, nurses should be careful about their language, while communicating with patients. Moreover, expressions and gestures are also important; and patients are naturally attracted to nurses with good expression; which encourages patients to share their emotions and feelings with nurses (Finch, Oct2004, p251-257). Rhetoric is relevant to the nursing profession and plays a key role in their duties. Nurses are required to talk with their patients besides providing medical care; hence, they have to develop their verbal communication skills. Nurses pay a significant amount of attention to communication and provision of medical care to their patients, and spend considerable amount of time, while doing so (Bailey, 1965). Nursing education has undergone several changes in the recent past. These changes provide a wide range of opportunities to nurses to develop their professional skills, and to improve their knowledge. With this new knowledge and refined skills, nurses can efficiently carry out their professional tasks. Preregistration curricula refine the skills of new entrants in the field by providing enquiry oriented practice and developing required awareness towards research. Similarly, there is an array of opportunities for the existing qualified nurses. These programmes are aimed at professional development and continuing professional education (Swallow & Macfadyen, Jun2004, p20-23). Thus qualified existing nurses can enrich their knowledge using these thresholds and strengthen their academic skills. Similarly, literature retrieval and critique are very helpful for qualified nurses, because they guide them in further research in their profession. Many nurses are willing to utilise the education facilities, and some of them are interested in conducting healthcare projects to enhance their skills (Swallow & Macfadyen, Jun2004, p20-23). Computers have made their mark on every aspect of life and the area of medical health has been significantly affected by them. A novel branch of medical health, namely, Healthcare Informatics has emerged from this intrusion, and a new area of employment has come into being. This career choice requires the capacity to keep track and control huge quantities of information, generated by a wide array of computer programs; and to convey such data to patients and healthcare providers. As such, this career option entails a rare combination of hands – on patient care and state of the art technology (UK Healthcare Jobs). The problem of ever increasing patient records and hospital records has been addressed, to a major extent, by Information Technology. Healthcare in the UK has become a tremendously interesting area, due to the advent of new standards relating to the care of patients, processes of recovery, methods of surgery and therapeutic measures. The frequency of major advancements in medicine has increased manifold. Consequently, hospitals, recovery centres and other medical agencies have to deploy persons who are conversant with these breathtaking breakthroughs in medical science and the latest technologies that are being applied in the medical field (UK Healthcare Jobs). Healthcare and medical science are always subject to change and development. Increasing intensity of change, results in increasing possibility of nurses developing their power of adaption and coping with new challenges in their profession. Thus, change is the driving force behind the skills of nurses. Change transpires gradually and without any early warning. Such change has been very rapid in the recent past, and was sufficiently radical to warrant an alteration in the existing nursing care practices. This process of change persists, and it requires a balance between the causative factors and the controls that influence the nature of healthcare. At present, the decision – making process is controlled by economists, consumer groups and stakeholders, who determine the manner in which healthcare is to be delivered. Nurses and other professionals in the medical field have to invariably act according to their decisions (Price, 2008 Aug 6-12). As such it can be concluded that the nursing profession has gone beyond mere scholastic values. For, instance, nurses spend enormous amounts of time with their patients and patients’ families. This is not to be found in any other healthcare profession. Consequently, nurses should possess a high level knowledge about their profession and they must acquire the necessary skills. As such, nurses should be well educated in their discipline, if they are to be effective and efficient, while providing healthcare and medical treatment to their patients. In addition, nurses have to be friendly with the families of their patients. From quite some time, nurses have been indispensable in medical care in Europe. They were required to learn about new illnesses and to provide treatment to patients, and to act on their own without any help from a physician or healthcare assistant (Vickers & Gardulf). List of References Bailey, D. (1965). Essays on Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press. Essex, D. (7/16/2008, p51). Developing practice. Nursing Standard , Vol. 22 Issue 45; (AN 34149084). Finch, L. P. (Oct2004, p251-257). Understanding patients’ lived experiences: the interrelationship of rhetoric and hermeneutics. Nursing Philosophy , Vol. 5 Issue 3; DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-769X.2004.00181.x; (AN 14509306). Hakesley-Brown, R., & Malone, B. (2007, p14-14). PATIENTS AND NURSES: A POWERFUL FORCE. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing , Vol. 12 Issue 1, 1p; (AN 24349413). Hunt, G. (May2001, p179-180). Editorial Comment. Nursing Ethics , Vol. 8 Issue 3, 2p; (AN 5003798). Petrozella, C. (Sep2004, p24-24). Nursing Value: Connectedness. Florida Nurse , Vol. 52 Issue 3, 1p; (AN 14678689). Price, B. (2008 Aug 6-12). Strategies to help nurses cope with change in the healthcare setting. Nursing Standard , 22 (48): 50-6 (journal article - tables/charts) ISSN: 0029-6570 PMID: 18727356 CINAHL AN: 2009997336. Rayne, I. (n.d.). How much does a nurse make in the UK? . Retrieved September 24, 2008, from http://www.helium.com/items/431866-how-much-does-a-nurse-make-in-the-uk Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom. (n.d.). Securing our Future Health: Taking a Long-Term View. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/7/7/foi_dis_010205_wanless_Royal_Colleg_Nursing2.pdf Sturgeon, D. (2008 Mar P. 13-26). Skills for caring: valuing knowledge of applied science in nursing. British Journal of Nursing (BJN) , 17 (5): 322-5 ISSN: 0966-0461 PMID: 18414295 . Swallow, V., & Macfadyen, A. (Jun2004, p20-23). Nurses' communication skills: are they effective research tools? Paediatric Nursing , Vol. 16 Issue 5, 1 color; (AN 13394384). UK Healthcare Jobs. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2008, from HealthCareerNet: http://www.healthcareernet.co.uk/ Vickers, P., & Gardulf, A. (n.d.). EU (European Union) Consensus Conference. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from http://www.ingid.org/news-eu-consensus-conference.html Read More