The Changing Role of Todays Nurses - Essay Example

"The Changing Role of Today’s Nurses" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
The role of nurses is greatly changing since I graduated in 2012. In the past year, the nursing profession is dealing with more and more challenges daily. The nurses are not only the assistants now but they have major responsibilities to take care of the sick. This has become more complicated because the number of patients and the complexity of illnesses have increased greatly in the past year which requires the new graduate nurses to undertake courses and training to adopt advanced education. The hospital budgets are tight and staff members are less thus the role of a single nurse today is equal to the role of five nurses a few years back (Tiffin, 2012).

According to Pat Ebright, nursing is one of those professions which explore the implication of complex sciences as they have to address to various functions including leadership, management, healthcare, practice, education, technology and others. I agree with her theory as nursing is a complexity science because there are many roles and responsibilities allowed. Especially today as the number of patients has increased in hospitals and nursing staff is decreasing. Nursing is recognized as a profession which has many different levels and degrees. Their importance has increased but the nursing wages have not increased.

Yes, I believe the complexity in the nurses’ profession nowadays is what contributes too many nurses leaving the work. The complexity makes the roles and responsibilities of these nurses difficult and challenging. Many of them would not have imagined the practice to be so difficult thus they leave it. The wages for nurses are too low in consideration of their highly professional jobs. These nurses’ care for the sick, deal with the modern and advanced technology equipment and health care delivery. The health costs are increasing but the nurses are not receiving the desired wages.

One way to deal with the problem is to face it. Nurses, who are able to understand the complexity and the variety of duties, are prepared to handle the pressure and take the responsibilities. These nurses promise to provide improved health services and long-lasting results. If the nurses continue to perform actions in the healthcare system, the system can change and the nurses can be given the respectable position that they deserve. Other than that, by increasing the wages and the educational qualifications of the nurses, they can achieve a reputable position in the healthcare system and be satisfied with their jobs (Blais, Hayes, 2011).

There is a difference between health promotion and health education. Health education is teaching people about healthcare while health promotion is advertising and spreading awareness about health services to tell the people which services are available for them. Nurses play an important role in health promotion today like never before. This is because the knowledge and education that is given to the nurses now help them to understand, analyze and research about health services and practices. A few years back nurses would just advise the patients about the management of their illness but today these nurses are able to provide awareness to people at large giving them knowledge about their health statuses and challenges (Blais, Hayes, 2011).