Personal Definition of Nursing - Essay Example

? Personal Definition of Nursing The following paper will define nursing and elaborate on the professional values as well as personal values required in ensuring sufficient service delivery to consumers of health care. Every personal value indicated will be accompanied by brief examples of how the values apply in the real life experiences. Furthermore, there will be a review of definition of nursing from NR444 Professional Role Development. The paper will then wrap up with detailed comparison and differentiation of belief as at the beginning of RN-BSN option and the current belief about nursing. Personal Definition of Nursing Health care forms the epicenter and mechanism of human survival and well being in the contemporary world. In that case, countries and governments have instituted professional courses that seek to educate particular students on issues regarding health care so that they can help in sustaining and ensuring the wellbeing and survival of the general populace. One and basic course that regards training on health care is nursing course. Nursing has evolved and undergone periodical revolution alongside technological advancements in medicine. Before industrialization, definition of nursing was limited to midwives. Today, nursing has become a broad field having an explicit definition as the act of applying clinical judgment in caring for people by ensuring maintenance, improvement and recovery of health. Nursing can also be defined as the act of using clinical precepts in preserving health problems of other people and ensure achievement of the best quality of life no matter the disease and disorder suffered by patient. Just like other courses and occupations, nursing has particularly defined professional values, principles and rules, and personal attributes required in order to ensure maximum service delivery to the patients. Since nursing is all about maintaining health care of community, professional values required of the practitioners involve devotion to promote: health, disease prevention, healing process, growth and development. Furthermore, professional values in the field of nursing include readiness to minimize stress and suffering of the patients, and offer advice to the patients regarding how to cope with certain diseases or disorders. This is mainly possible through stating treatment process of a particular disease and the possible consequences likely to affect the treatment process. The profession of nursing requires practitioners to ensure utmost efforts in safeguarding the safety of patients despite the critical condition of the patients. Nursing is not an easy practice considering the challenges faced by practitioners in this field. The greatest part of nursing involves interaction with people of different personalities and characters suffering from a variety of diseases, some being communicable. Cultural, political, social, religious and gender diversity encompass the greatest challenges likely to be faced by nurses. In order to survive and remain active in this field, practitioners are expected to prove certain personal values. To start with, individuals serving in the field of nursing should be tolerant. For example, it will be hard for an intolerant nurse to provide adequate health care services to a harsh, abusive patient with very negative emotions. This requires a nurse to be empathetic and slow to anger. Nurses are also supposed to be supportive so that they can keep track with the progress of the patient during recovery and offer advice and encouragements along the way. For instance, in case of a patient suffering from a chronic disease or deadly disease like HIV/AIDS, the family members or even the patient may suffer mental and psychological distress. The support of nurses in such cases will involve thorough counseling and monitoring of drug dosage. Another personal value required of a nurse is being indiscriminate. A nurse should be ready to provide health care services to patients of all types and from different backgrounds and ensuring utmost and equal attention to all patients. For example, nursing ethics will not tolerate a white nurse who discriminates against a black patient. A Muslim or Christian nurse will also be ineffective if she/he discriminate against a patient of another religion. Nursing also requires individuals with an inborn spirit and motive to help others. Since patients undergo various problems and challenges, a professional nurse has to be one very ready to help others across all aspects of life despite the situation, place or condition of the particular sufferer. Apart from just helping patients, nurses are also required to collaborate among themselves and assist each other in arriving at the right decisions about certain situations. Self care is one aspect defining personal values for professional nurses. Before a nurse can care for another person, she/ he must take care of self through body cleanliness, good personal hygiene, and proper grooming among other personal body care. The definition of nursing from the NR444 Professional Role Development point of view emphasizes activities of a licensed professional bearing the responsibilities of promoting community health by offering health education to the sick and injured, and providing preventive medicine (Augat, 2009). My belief about nursing in the beginning of RN-BSN option was that nurses hold great responsibility of caring for environment. This correlates with my today’s belief about nursing since hospital spacing and hygiene marks the basis of health recovery by patients. As in the beginning of RN-BSN, I currently believe that nursing mainly involves taking care of patients and ensuring the particular’s physical well being. Just as in the beginning of RN-BSN option, I currently believe that nursing requires individuals with high level of tolerance and social support. I also believe that practicing nurses require being indiscriminate when executing services, the case also reflects my initial belief in the beginning of RN-BSN major. At the beginning of RN-BSN just like today, I believed that nursing is not only about symptom management but also about ensuring holistic care of patients including inspection and betterment of the environment. Additionally, in the beginning of RN-BSN option I believed that nursing involves counseling and numerous advices to the patient, which defines my today’s belief on patient-nurse relation. As can be contrasted from belief in the beginning of the RN-BSN option that nursing courses are exclusive for ladies, today I believe that nursing is for everyone provided that one has the required personal values and passion. In the beginning of RN-BSN option, I thought an individual undergoing RN first and then BSN are more competent than those undergoing direct BSN option, a case I found to be equal either way. In the beginning of RN-BSN option, I thought that upon completion of the studies one would only work in group or under supervision, but today I believe that one graduate can independently attend to a patient. Another contrast is that in the beginning of RN-BSN option, I believed that nurses are restricted from diagnosing a patient unlike today when nurses are the ones carrying basic diagnosis. References Augat, R. (2009). Definition of Nursing. Retrieved January 30, 2012 from: http://www.academia-research.com/filecache/instr/d/e/631326_definition_of_nursing-to_compare._see_instructions..pdf Read More