Learning and Practicing in Care Environments - Essay Example

Learning and Practicing In Care Environments Written Evidence Introduction Many education fields have a multidimensional perspective on how they merge and incorporate different aspects to be viewed as single careers. Very few of them however are able to utilize multiple aspects in a combination what has been proved possible in nursing. Nursing is therefore considered one of the most respected professions of the world (Cobb, n.d., p. 2). In a study carried out in America, 84 percent of the Americans agreed that nursing is the most respected profession (Sussman, 2014, p. 10). It is not respected just because of thoroughness and toughness of the training of the clinicians but because of what the clinicians encounter in the field and the role they play in the clinical environment. Technically, health practitioners are taken through a specific learning system when compared to the other fields of education. Most importantly, they are taught varied skills on how to provide care to the patients and also how to act in the most ethical and considerate way. Such skills range from the basic human common sense to the extreme technical ones. As a healthcare practitioner, improving on the health of others and providing care for the patients is more of self-rewarding than a career since the kind of pressures health practitioners face in the field is simply unimaginable. Amazingly, they keep on pushing harder day in day out regardless of the challenges and the dangers they get exposed to. One of the greatest freedoms health practitioners have is the ability to freely think and react in a critical way. It is always crucial for the clinicians to possess adequate skills, knowledge and understanding of the medical facts so that they are able to effectively react when lives are at risk and when in situations where time is the only factor to consider. It is the obligation and honor of the health practitioners to step up and act as the advocates of the patients when even the patients themselves are not willing or are not in a position to do so. Further, it is the duty of the health practitioners to always ensure that the patients are aware of their illnesses and procedures to be undertaken and also to educate the patients on the different ways on how to promote self-care. Therefore, whether through the education system or in the field the health practitioners learn and develop varied aspects of nursing. These aspects range from care and compassion value, honesty to trustworthiness. Not just anyone can become a health practitioner or can practice nursing. It takes someone with more than just the ability to retain the head knowledge, a person who can handle and conduct himself or herself professionally whilst working with different colleagues, patients, family members or even bodily fluids and drugs. Care and compassion is supposed to be realized while at the same time maintaining a personable and an approachable attitude. It is regarded that the different aspects of nursing developed by the nursing students are of substantial use in a clinical environment. Nevertheless, the most useful of all is care and compassion since it helps the health practitioners bond more with their patients. Moreover, the aspect of care and compassion is quite complex in nursing and it differs in different individual persons. Some people just have it naturally while others do not. However, it is possible to learn it (Johnson, 2008, p. 20). In a clinical setting, health practitioners integrate the use of care and compassion values when making interpretation of the fears held by their patients in order to adversely offer them the most needed support. People normally think that most health practitioners in the field deal more with the physical aspects than the un-seeable ones. This is a misconception since deep in the hearts of these medical practitioners they truly bear the concerns of the unseen aspects of their patients. Normally, the patients experience varied agony; emotional, mental, physical and even spiritual of which all calls for the skills and expertise of the health practitioners. When in line of duty, the medical officers and the health practitioners do not only engage their skills and clinical knowledge but also their heart as human beings. Specifically, the health assistants and the nurses provide comfort to the patients in the time of crisis and uncertainties with just a friendly smile, a reassurance of a hand to hold and a comfort shoulder to lean on. This essay seeks to establish how care and compassion can be developed as a special aspect in nursing practice and the challenges to its development. Care and compassion According to Gilbert (2009, p.11), compassion is “a basic kindness with a deep awareness of the suffering of oneself and of the other living things coupled with the wish and the effort to relive it”. On the other hand, care is the serious attention one gives to something or an act so as to do it in the most perfect way without inflicting harm, damage or risk. Care and compassion is considered a more personal characteristic in individuals thus perceived to be different in different people. In nursing, compassion and care is considered as the “nursing’s most precious asset (Johnson, 2008, p. 19-21). It is believed that health practitioners are not only supposed to bring the aspect of humanity to the clinical field but also care and understanding. The ones who are sick normally feel good to not only be “cared for” but also “cared about” (Hatifa, 2013, p. 121). Some scholars of the world have in the past argued that care and compassion are distinctive aspects of nursing something that is not only difficult to evaluate but also impractical. It is hard to separate the two since no matter how much you try, one of them leads to the other. In real sense, for there to be good care, compassion has to prevail. According to Bradshaw (2009, p. 465-468), even observing the two aspects from diverse perspectives, there is a very significant relationship existing between care and compassion and that they are directly linkable to one another. As for the nurses and the health assistants, developing compassion and care has not been an easy task and has been faced by numerous challenges. In the recent past, scholars and psychologists of the world have stipulated that with the current healthcare setting, care and compassion in nursing is just a ‘pale imitation’ (Bradshaw, 2009, p. 465-468). Factors undermining care and compassion development in nursing practices The fact is there are very dominant factors that limit the growth of care and compassion in nursing ranging from the most current issue of inadequate training in the nursing institutions resulting to improper practical skills, issues of inadequate resources, limited number of qualified practitioners, harsh clients and patients to unsupportive management which is only concerned with the end results. According to Allan and Smith (2009) the level of care and compassion has significantly reduced among the different nurses as a result of inadequate development of the practical nursing skills. The practical nursing skills are supposed to be learnt from the different nursing institutions. This has brought about a heated debate amongst scholars and psychologists of the world with each of them taking a side on the matter. However, some scholars like Dietze and Orb (2000) argue that care and passion is more of a moral dimension in the field of nursing and even though practical skills do play a vital role in its development, the bigger percentage is innate. Practical skills are variedly acquired by the nurses and the health assistants after going through the set nursing education systems. However, the nursing institutions today have been accused of not integrating effective and more integrative learning methods of teaching to ensure that the nurses and the health assistants are equipped with the right practical knowledge and expertise (Heise and Himes, 2010, p. 343-345). It is normally argued that care and compassion only needs the right values and proper motivation to adequately be developed. However, care and compassion cannot be developed and administered without the proper skills and practical knowledge. Without skills and knowledge, patients are likely to feel distressed when the nurses and the health assistants attend to the tasks such as wound dressing in a manner that does compromise their dignity. It is a fact that providing care for the sick, vulnerable and distressed, people who you as a person do not have a blood relationship with is itself a skilled role. Therefore, to become an expert in this, it requires adoption of complex skills which are developed in class and through extensive practice in the clinical environment. Limited resources and shortage of staff further makes the different health practitioners feel disempowered, angry and disillusioned in the line of duty (Brophy, 2010, p. 5-15). According to Gilbert (2009, p.15), the nurses and the health assistants today are making a lot of effort in providing high-quality care to the patients with very limited resources. According to the world statistics, the nursing field has not only been hit by the problem of inadequate resources that has resulted to under-resourced teams but also shortage of staff what has further continued to pause danger to the lives of the different people. It is impossible to provide the needed care and compassion when you have no or minimal resources. How then are the nurses and the health assistants expected to provide care and compassion? Will it be through a miracle? Nurses and the different health assistants are said to be the most kind for they operate around people who need substantial care and attention. However, in the resource-constrained society existing today, compassion, love and kindness can only be seen as more of a luxury (Gilbert, 2009, p. 16). ). Lack of resources has continued to be a major impending care and compassion development and has resulted to nurses and health assistants feeling burnt out with care and compassion overload for they are too stressed up in the field hence ends up being less kind and compassionate as they should be (Mooney, 2009, p. 2). Further, leadership and management of the different organizations which promote nursing practices in the different parts of the world have failed the development of care and compassion aspect in nursing practices. Since as the nurses and the health practitioners continue being audited against the targets set by the different organizations, care and compassion continue to deplete since the management and the leaders in charge are more concerned with the targets to be achieved or met, outcomes and risk management more than even the well being of the patients (Gilbert 2009, p.11). In this case, the nurses and health assistants are undervalued, not listened to hence they end up not feeling the need to adequately embrace care and compassion in their day to day activities. In some other occasions, the nurses and the health assistants have been criticized and abused; physically or verbally by the patients and yet the management only views this as their mistake and never the mistake of the patient or the client (Radcliffe, 2010c, p. 24). In such an environment, how then can care and compassion be developed? Bearing in mind that the different nurses and the health practitioners are doing all it takes to respond to the varied needs of the different clients and patients in the best way possible. It is very rude to criticize such efforts or abuse them in the line of duty. Such cases have contributed to the factors that have made it impossible for development of care and compassion in nursing practice (Gilbert, 2009, p.21). Analyzing how the aspect of care and compassion is developed by health care practitioners The main aim of existence of the different institutions of higher learning providing nursing courses is to equip the health practitioners with adequate skills to provide dignified care and compassion to the different patients and clients. According to Halifax (2013, p.121), the nursing institutions have increased health practitioner’s training on care and compassion for it has become quite an important aspect following the impact of technology on medicine. During the training in the institutions of higher learning or nursing college institutions, the nurses and the health assistants follow a certain standardized pattern that is normally developed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The standardized pattern requires that all the nurses and health assistants undergo different trainings ranging from class-based to field-based trainings. The nurses and the health assistants are therefore served with varied skills and amongst these skills are personal care skills. The personal care skills are learnt when the health care assistants together with the nurses spend hours learning how to attend to the different patients with dignity. Also, care and compassion is developed when mandatory supervision is carried out when the nurses and the health assistants are delivering personal care during their clinical environment placements (James and Thomas, 2011, p. 417-423). Further, Adequate examinations are administered to ensure that the different nurses and health assistants have the needed knowledge to give adequate care and compassion to the different patients and clients. In a nutshell, through the current education system of the world, the nurses and the health assistants get an opportunity to integrate skill and knowledge that is to be used once in the field to adequately deliver healthcare services with care and compassion. The clinical environment is variedly different from the class environment in that in a class setting, there is always somebody guiding the trainees, therefore one works without straining and with very minimal errors. However, in a clinical setting, you are always on your own hence application of the practical skills and knowledge integrated with critical thinking become a vital factor. Practicing care and compassion in this case becomes even more difficult but with time one gets to learn and polish out the personal factors inhibiting practice of care and compassion after gaining work experience. In this regard, one starts learning from very simple basics such as always demonstrating care and compassion by ensuring that for example a patient feeds well, a patient has been helped to the toilet as required, the patient’s wounds have been washed and dressed well as supposed to. In undertaking all these activities, empathy, respect and dignity should well be incorporated. Further, communication between the patient and the health practitioner plays a significant contribution to development of care and compassion. The kind of dialogues that ensues between the health practitioner and the patients as human-to-human rather than clinician-to-human adequately promotes the development of love and compassion in different health practitioners (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008, p. 10). Further, the aspect of active listening changes how the clinicians see or feel about particular patients and adequately make the feelings of the health practitioners extend towards their patients. This way, they care more and conduct their activities with compassion. Further, as the health practitioners gain more and more work experience in the clinical environment, they gather more courage in what they do. They become more confident and perform their duties more diligently. Confidence and courage are highly associated with high levels of care and compassion (Middleton, 2011, p. 8). Also, through seminars and workshops, the health practitioners are further equipped with more professional values and skills. They also share their work experiences amongst themselves and further expand on knowledge and ideas on how to address certain issues in the line of duty since they all have different work experiences. Further, such trainings detaches the health care professionals from the guidelines they are supposed to follow and further promote the need to relate more with the patients further enabling development of love and compassion. Middleton (2011, p. 8-9) states that “even where the value of compassion is taught in the syllabus, there is a concern that, without systematic modeling and explicit endorsement and support…compassion will be eroded and become less practical”. Therefore, seminars and workshops are important for the different health practitioners for they aid in development of care and compassion values. Conclusion Too much pressure, little time, shortage of workforce and inadequate resources are core factors impeding development of care and compassion values in nursing practices. Promoting development of care and compassion in this regard is not just an action of an individual but action of different persons at multiple levels. At the personal level, development of care and compassion values begins right from school where a clinician is subjected to class work aimed at alleviating his or her understanding of his or her roles as a clinical officer. Practical exercises and first-hand experiences gained from clinical placement further aids in development of care and compassion values. Also, the aspect of sharing the experiences with the colleagues in honest dialogues is important and not forgetting the aspect of encouraging human-to-human communication between the health practitioners and the patients. Bibliography Allan H, Smith P. 2010. It is the education system that leads students to reject basic care. Nurse Times. 106(1): 9. Bradshaw, A. 2009. Measuring nursing care and compassion: the McDonaldised nurse? J Med Ethics, Vol. 35, pp. 465-468 doi:10.1136/jme.2008.028530 Brophy, S. 2010. Compassion in healthcare: a patient’s perspective. NHS Lothian and Edinburgh Napier University Inaugural International Conference on Compassionate Care. Jun 9–11; Edinburgh. Cobb, Erin, M. n.d. Three Aspects of Nursing. Pdf. Available at http://www.michleaguenursing.org/docs/cobb_essay10.pdf Dietze, Erich, Von and Orb, Angelica. 2000. Compassionate care: a moral dimension of nursing, Nursing Inquiry, Vol. 7, Issue 3, pp. 166-174. Gilbert, P. 2009. The Compassionate Mind. 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