The Values and Attitudes of Nurses - Essay Example

Paper Name: Insert Name: Lecturer’s Name: Institution: Date: Introduction The values, beliefs and attitudes of nurses who are taking care of patients impact a lot in the improvement or deterioration of a patient’s status. The nursing care ought to be a calling, done voluntarily, but not because one has a job to do (Tornval & Wilhelmsson, 2008). The attitude of the nursing care determines the ability of the nurse to take care of the patient. A positive attitude helps a nurse to be keen while observing the status of a patient, during the routine check up. In this case, a nurse is likely to notice if a patient’s condition is improving or deteriorating (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). On the other hand, a nurse with a negative attitude will not be concerned with any signal of danger pertaining a patient’s condition, or might not even notice any deteriorating cues. The attitude knowledge and beliefs of health care professionals not only determine their procedure, but it also determines their behaviour during the evaluation and treatment of a patient (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). The nurses are the most precious palliative care team members after the physicians, and they are charged with addressing functional, social, physical, and the spiritual dimensions of care giving. Research done shows that nurses have rather strong positive attitude towards elderly patients, but they have a deficit in the knowledge in gerontic nursing, and this affect their beliefs and attitudes, hence affecting the overall outcome of the nursing care of a patient, as well as the patient’s status and condition. Attitudes and beliefs versus nursing care One of the major issues facing the health care systems internationally includes the aging population. With better medication and technology, the lifespan has shot up, increasing the aging population (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). The aging population in Australia (65 years and older) is estimated and predicted to go up to 5 million, (22%), by 2051. Research shows that as the age advances, the probability of developing chronic diseases and health problems increases, and this in turn escalates the demand for health care resources. This in turn affects and will continue affecting the long term care facilities as well as the hospitals. It is a general fact that most nurses have a positive attitude towards elderly patients, but the nursing students generally have a negative attitude towards these elderly patients (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). This contrast in attitudes toward the experienced nurses and the student nurses is caused by factors like; values, beliefs, observations, culture and experience (Tornval & Wilhelmsson, 2008). It is evident that most nurses, who display negative attitudes towards their patients, do so more to the elderly patients than to those who are not elderly (Kenaszchuk, Wilkins, Reeves, Zwarenstein, & Russell, 2010). Again, the negative attitude is normally displayed by the young and less experienced nurses as compared to the experienced ones. Lack of knowledge about care process may not affect attitude towards patients, but poor knowledge on health care, may lead to nurses having negative attitudes towards their patients. This may result to nurses being unable and, sometimes, unwilling to modify care accordingly, hence placing the patients in potential risk (Preston & Flynn, 2010). Attitude of registered nurses towards the patients they are caring especially elderly patients, affect the quality of care provided (Kenaszchuk, Wilkins, Reeves, Zwarenstein & Russell, 2010). The rampant negative attitude towards the elderly patients reflect knowledge deficiency as well as ageist stereotypes that extensively the registered nurses and other medical practitioners’ practice (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). This also affects the quality of care provided by the practitioners, as well as the quality of care received by the patient in focus. In an acute setting, elderly patients go through limited decision making opportunities, reduced independence, and a high likelihood of developing complications. They also develop little or no consideration about the needs related to their age, as well as social isolation and limited health education. This in turn may make the elderly patients not to cooperate with the care givers, or even make the care givers develop negative attitudes towards them (Debourgh & Prion, 2012). Long- term care nurses generally hold neutral or even slightly positive attitude toward elderly patients, which is less positive than that of nurses in health departments, teaching and rehabilitative areas (Elliott & Coventry, 2012). Negative attitudes in the gerontic care stem from the structure of the nursing system, high patient dependency and lack of experience and staffing. The quality of care received by older people is highly dependent on care givers positive attitudes. The attitudes towards the elderly notably determine and influence the health care practice (Preston & Flynn, 2010). The nurses who place a high degree in talking to patients hold and demonstrate more positive attitude toward the patients. On the other hand, nurses who place a high extent of significance on the general nursing care like toileting and bathing hold and exhibit negative attitudes toward the patients. Elderly patients are perceived as being easy and pleasant to interact with, but they in most cases, are not able to make their own decisions and performing important functions (Elliott & Coventry, 2012). Nurses’ professional education influence on attitude Nurses who have a higher professional education are seen to have more positive attitudes towards their patient and the elderly patients (Preston & Flynn, 2010). This is the same case in long – term care setting. The decision making practices of nurses with older people is altered by educational interventions (Firth-Cozens, 2011). It is changed from a medically oriented professional approach towards an approach of patient choice (Elliott & Coventry, 2012). This allows patients to have more control over the decisions relating to the care they are given, as well as their place of residence after they are discharged (Elliott & Coventry, 2012). Having more knowledge about the ageing patients helps the nurses and care givers understand the patient as well as develop a positive attitude and shelve their stereotypical beliefs about the aged. For example, understanding that the old people loose independence and have a problem with decision making, help nurses deal with the over dependency of the elderly patients (Elliott & Coventry, 2012). Understanding the patient’s condition helps immensely in the quality of care given to the patient. This is because, when the responding care giver or nurse understands the patient’s condition, he or she passes on credible information about the patient to the next care giver, and there is no break down of interdepartmental communication during care giving (Kenaszchuk, Wilkins, Reeves, Zwarenstein, & Russell, 2010)). Values and attitudes of nurses influence on other health care professionals practice Inter-professional collaboration is immensely vital in providing quality health care to patients. This is because there is team work and effective communication in the different departments as well as the different health care givers (Henneman, Gawlinski & Giuliano, 2012). This facilitates successful transition from one care giver to the other without causing hitches. This successful transition is possible only if the different health care givers have the required attitude towards their patients and other health care practitioners. Neutral values and beliefs play a vital role in the quality of care given to a patient as well as during communication and transition (Tornval & Wilhelmsson, 2008). A nurse with stereotypical beliefs, for example, that old people are all dirty may pass on the belief to the receiving nurse, and this may enormously affect the attitude of the next care giver towards the patient, hence leading to the patient receiving poor quality health care (Henneman, Gawlinski & Giuliano, 2012). This is because, the receiving nurse may have the perception that the elderly patient is uncooperative and does not want to shower, yet in the reality, the patient may have lost the sense of knowing that showering is essential for his or her health (Preston & Flynn, 2010). The nurse’s attitude, belief and values determine immensely on how the relationship between the nurse and the other health care givers (McHugh, & Lake, 2008). A constantly complaining nurse whose practice is crowded by negative attitude towards patients especially the aged ones will eventually have a negative attitude towards the health care practice itself. This in turn will always strain the relationship of the nurse and a patient the nurse is taking care of. Not only will it affect the nurse- patient relationship, but also the nurse relationship with other health care practitioners (Henneman, Gawlinski & Giuliano, 2012). Teamwork is pivotal in the health care practice, but it can only be successful if there is a healthy relationship between the medical practitioners (Rogers, Dean, Hwang & Scott, 2008)). When a patient- nurse relationship is strained, the patient tends to transfer the same relationship and attitude to other care givers assigned to him or her (Odell, Victor, & Oliver, 2009). This in turn makes helping and giving care to the patient hard, and eventually the quality of the care that the patient receives is poor. The care giver is also left exhausted and strained because of dealing with a difficult and an unco-operating patient. This in turn can affect the health care giver’s perception about other patients of the same genre (Robson & Haddad, 2012). Deterioration of a patient’s status, especially the elderly, is very common. This is because most of them do not have the health care education, and lack the knowledge of understanding how they should take care of themselves (Odell, Victor, & Oliver, 2009). Deterioration cues can be noted by nurses or care givers who are assigned to the patient, and the condition can be reversed or controlled. A nurse with a negative attitude does not take time to engage with the patient through keen observation as well as the routine check- up (Jonsson, Jonsdottier, Moller & Baldursdottier, 2011). Routine check- up is not enough since some cues are not clinical, for example a patient being moody or unwilling to talk. A nurse who does not engage in taking with the patient may not notice if a patient is unwilling to talk or even moody, and this may be a cue that the patient’s status is deteriorating (Henneman, Gawlinski & Giuliano, 2012). The nurse will pass a report during transition without the correct observation to the next health care giver, who may assume that everything is fine with the patient. This in turn may cause the patient to be neglected deteriorate and even lead to death (Ridley, 2008)). Therefore, a negative attitude or perception of one care giver might mislead other health practitioners leading to a joint professional failure on the side of the health care givers to the patient (Jonsson, Jonsdottier, Moller & Baldursdottier, 2011). Conclusion The attitude, perceptions, beliefs and values of nurses practicing health care are pivotal in the overall health care that a patient will receive (Frank , Asp & Dahlberg, 2009)). They also play an immense role in the overall practice of other health care practitioners since they impact greatly on the relationship between patients and care givers, as well as the relationship between the health care givers in the line of their duty. Research shows that even if the health care givers have positive attitudes towards the elderly patients, other factors like lack of enough knowledge, skills and experience on gerontic nursing, also pose challenges to the health care practitioners while in the line of their duty. This, in turn, affects the overall quality of care given to the patient. Other factors posing challenges to the health care practice lie with the patients, especially the elderly patients. For example, the elderly patients may have reduced sight, touch or even hearing. They may also be so over dependent on the care givers, hence over bearing and demanding. Their demands and attention may not be fulfilled in case there are not enough care givers to take care of every patient. This, in turn, affects the quality of health care the patient receives. Therefore, the perception, beliefs, values and attitudes of a nurse only contribute to an already deteriorating situation. The negative attitudes may even be contributed by the patient’s attitude as well as a lot of workload due to under staffing. References Debourgh, G., & Prion, S. (2012). Patient safety manifesto: A professional imperative for pre-licensure nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing 28 (2), 110- 118. Elliott, M., & Coventry, A. (2012). Critical care: the eight vital signs of patient monitoring. British Journal of Nursing, 21 (10). Firth-Cozens, J. (2011). Cultures for improving patient safety through learning: the role of teamwork. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 10 (2), 26-31. Henneman, E., Gawlinski, A., & Giuliano, K. (2012). 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