Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses - Research Paper Example

If the nurse fails to observe her duty with sincerity, it would become very difficult for the doctors to perform their jobs. A professional nurse must be competent enough to meet the standards defined by clinics and hospitals and must have proper education regarding the field (Blais, 2006). A professional nurse must reflect professionalism from her attitude and behavior towards the assigned responsibilities. It is of extreme importance that the nurses are sincere to their job and duties because they have got many lives at stake (Child & Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2004).

Nursing has been stereotyped with many other characters and professions. It is a general conception that nurses are only female and if male nurses are seen in the profession, they are generally resembled to female and are considered gay. Male nurses are usually not treated with the same respect that they deserve. It is a common belief that the people who adopt nursing are dropouts from universities and are failures (S. Summers & H. Summers, 2009). It is also considered that students who are weak in their studies and are not interested in studying are sent to study nursing.

It is also considered that the nurses are working for the doctor, whereas actually they work under the doctor’s guidance and have the responsibility to update the doctor. In reality nurses are figures of sincere devotion, care, patience and strength. The strength, sincerity, feeling of care, love for the people and selflessness are some attributes that should be present in a nurse (Chitty & Black, 2011). The nurse plays a major role in curing the patient by providing the patient with psychological support and reviving the patients who have lost hope to recover.

It is one of the major roles played by a nurse, which is generally not known by the people. Oftentimes a nurse can do what doctors cannot. Doctors can only treat the patient with medicines, but the psychological support can only be given by the nurse, and that plays a major role in curing the patient. A nurse also plays a role of a teacher. She helps the patient to get to know about their health condition in detail. This role is not known by many people in general either (Guine?e, 1970). My role model in nursing is Callista Roy.

She is a complete woman and an outstanding nurse who has strived to serve the patients with all her heart and soul. Her views and concepts regarding this profession are very unique and practical. It is a general misconception that nurses have a very easy job as they just follow the doctor’s order. Nurses are responsible for doing much more than that. They have the responsibility to support the patient throughout his recovery process, remain attentive and alert during their entire working time in order to take timely actions which could otherwise lead to serious consequences.

Their sincere duty can save lives while on the other hand, any mishandling or irresponsibility can lead to death of patients concerned. They are obliged to remain aware of the patient’s conditions more than a doctor and update the doctors regularly (Blais, 2006). It is the core responsibility of a nurse to treat patients without any discrimination of cast, color or creed. A nurse must see each patient as a suffering human only and nothing other than that (Allen, 2001). A nurse