Importance of Psychology in Nursing - Dissertation Example

 Importance of Psychology in Nursing Psychology has played a crucial role in the life of man since the very beginning of its inception. Be it personal or official, militant or political, social or medical, this field, which deals with the study of human behavior and mind processes has affected and continues to do so in every single aspect of human life. With significant amount of research carried out by experts in the field, the branch of psychology supplements major fields of science with its thorough understanding of how people interact and deal with each other and other imperative factors in a particular setting. With its over-arching knowledge and general applicability to various discourses, psychology has been successful in having an impact on the profession of nursing as well. The profession of nursing entails, “the use of clinical judgment in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health, to cope with health problems and to achieve the best possible quality of life whatever their disease or disability until death” (Glasper & Richardson, pp. 95, 2006). As obvious from this definition, nursing is inevitably related to psychology and its inferences since it does not only deal with humans (patients) but also has a critical impact on how nurses deal with different patients, as well as on the element of care and strategies that focus on the stimulation of quicker recovery. Thus, in all aspects, psychology and nursing are highly interrelated with one affecting the performance of the other. However, there is more to it than just the element of care and its psychological underlying themes. What is particularly interesting, especially in the light of modern advancements in career planning and professional motivations is the issue of gender in nursing. Recently, what was considered to be only women’s profession, first of prostitutes and nuns and later on, by the virtue of Florence Nightingale, of decent educated and cultures young women, is now profession of young men. In specific, there has been a significant rise in number of male nurses in the past decade globally. Interesting to note; however, are the differences and similarities between these trends and behaviors of caring and treating the patients by male and female nurses individually (Miers, 2000). In this regard, this paper will attempt to discover these differences and trends and identify response patterns particular to each of them. Brief analysis of the literature indicated research of Kalisch & Kalisch (1987) who put efforts to explore change in the image of nursing profession all along the passage of time. In specific, concise description of their hypothesis is that perception of the female nurse as Angel of Mary in late 19th century evolved into that of Girl Friday prevalent in 1920’s. Subsequently, during World War II, the nurses played the role of Heroines followed by their image as Wives and Mothers in 1950’s and from mid 1960’s until 1980’s, they confronted their perception as sex objects (Kalisch & Kalisch, 1987). However, since after 1980s, the image of female nurses has changed radically. Nowadays, society look at the nurses as middle-aged, Caucasian, overworked and female representatives of the society. In addition, one can come across many reasons to evaluate how the femininity in the perception of nursing has accentuated. Specifically, nursing came about as a popular profession for women who wanted to step outside their homes and work. Therefore, since the very beginning, society perceived it as a feminine profession. Several other researchers (Miers, 2000) noted that during the World Wars, this gender divide became all the more visible as the women took up the care-giving role and supported their male counterparts who went and fought in the battle. On the other hand, men were also discouraged as they confront rejection while acquiring admission in nursing schools. Statistics (Miers, 2000) show that in the year 1941 alone, only 68 nursing schools offered admissions to men out of the 1303. In addition, media also played its part depicting nurses as a totally and strictly feminine entities such as sex symbols, angels, women in white etc, repelling the men to a great extent and creating image of male nurses as ‘sissies’. In addition to media and the built-in bias of the profession itself, a huge blame for such a meager quantity of male nurses is also due to the psychological effects of enculturation and gender socialization, which are the processes that affect individual preferences towards one profession or the other. In this regard, such process has resulted in adverse impact on the nursing, as males who once used to form a huge nursing workforce are now confronting as minority (Tranbarger, 2007). This flaw of socialization has led to an important profession missing approximately one-half of the total population, which is one of the major reasons of decline in quality of healthcare owing to low number of nurses. So far, the paper has explored the psychological and social reasons of why nursing came about primarily as a female profession. What will now be pursued will be the inter-gender dynamics of this profession and an analysis of different parameters in both genders pertaining to the profession of nursing. While evaluating the role of gender in nursing, one can observe a huge conflict in males with regard to the freedom they enjoy in the profession. Some male nurses agree that they enjoy complete freedom to explore different avenues and move from one part to the next; however, many others feel inertia to do so. In addition, they complain that they are singled out, hindered from being free to visit around in all wards, and confront suspicion. Vern Bullough, Adjunct Professor of Nursing at the University of Southern California (Hilton, 2001) explains that although there were some reservations about letting male nurses freely roam around in ‘gyn’ wards before, things have eased down in the past years. Even though some still confront discrimination, it is a very small minority and things are now better for the male nurses in the profession that has surely resulted in a very positive impact on their behaviors and attitudes towards patients, as well as towards the profession (Hilton, 2001). Besides, when it comes to on-job performance of nurses, male nurses perform their duties in the same caring manner as their female counterparts do. Although a very minute portion of the total population actually wants to do public service and help the people in need, it does not affect their strong call to care. However, most male nurses look at their profession as other professions, and they look at it from economic perspective and find it quite plausible opportunity with good deal on money. Secondly, one can observe a power struggle amongst nurses from both genders with a little bit of difference in the pursuit (Tranbarger, 2007). In specific, women pursue power for their own selves and their patients, whereas, the male nurses are not only interested in the power for above but also for the power over the profession as a whole. There is also an argument of emotional intelligence between male and female nurses. Since men are proven stronger in handling critical situations than women, male nurses are often more supportive and emotionally available for patients going through difficult times as compared to the female nurses. The behavioral patterns of male nurses make them connect more with all sorts of patients (Tranbarger, 2007). For instance, a female nurse might want to keep herself to the stated duties and leave once her hours are over; on the other hand, a male nurse will be more comfortable and extroverted with both male and female patients, spending time with them after working hours as well. This also has a lot to do with harassment issues that female nurses often experience. With histories of sexual harassment hospitals, many female nurses might tend to stay reserved and introvert to avoid any trouble (Crisp et al., 2005). On the other hand, male nurses, typically more comfortable with their surroundings and people including strangers and relatively much lesser probability of harassment, open up far more than female nurses do with their patients and their families, as well as with the fellow doctors and other staff. In the result, this helps male nurses form good networks, which may lead to better promotions and higher pay rate along with a greater deal of customer (patient) satisfaction. On the other hand, female nurses do have an edge in other departments, nonetheless. If male nurses can connect better, female nurses have proven to be better readers. This is because most of female nurses come in the field with reading experience as mothers, babysitters, or elder sisters (Hunt, 1994). This ability also makes them connect more to children in pediatric wards than male nurses since their own experience of raising a child or helping their mother or neighbor makes them more aware of different patterns of child psychology and tactics to make children follow one’s orders. In order to understand this behavioral difference, ‘role strain’ is an effective term. In specific, role strain refers to the confrontations that an individual face while ensuring fulfillment of his/her role obligations. In specific, role strain comes in synonymously with work overload, work conflict, ambiguity in the work, as well as uneasiness at work as well. In specific, researchers have identified that in nursing practices and experiences, male nurses show higher levels of role strain in their nursing profession in comparison to their female counterparts (Crisp et al., 2005). One of the major reasons as discussed earlier is the psychological dilemma that exists in developing, as well as developed parts of the globe where society considers nursing as a female profession, and that result in huge impact on behavior and attitudes of male nurses. For instance, it has been an observation that female patients mostly reject caring by male nurses due to the reasons of privacy and secrecy, and thus, although male nurses would have a caring and kind nature but they do not get the opportunity to perform the same during their nursing practices. Concluding, one can state that a huge number of researchers and psychologists have put efforts and contributed extensively in the field of nursing, especially in emphasizing the role of gender in nursing; however, the paper observes failure. In specific, failure in resolving gender issues and differences regarding the role and importance of male and female nurses in the profession that has significantly affected the performance and practices of both genders in the nursing. In addition, although one can find historical evidence indicating the eminent role and contribution of men in taking care of patients, however, still, there is an urgent need of efforts by researchers and psychologists in re-igniting the role of gender in the nursing field. Besides, discussion has observed that although male nurses show equal kindness and caring nature in comparison with their female counterparts at work; however, male nurses have been more efficient in ICUs and emergency wards due to their higher emotional intelligence. Studies have indicated that females show higher emotional distress in critical and emergency situations, whereas, male nurses show emotional maturity during such situations. On the other hand, male nurses usually feel unfit in maternity and children wards, whereas, female nurses seem to work efficiently and comfortably in such wards due to their conventional perceived roles as mothers, sisters, and caretakers. In this regard, while evaluating from a gender-based perspective, male and female nurses seem to have come up to a virtual understanding of dividing their gender roles according to their psychological and behavioral characteristics. However, due to psychological and virtual nature of this agreement, new comers in the field of nursing indicate their unawareness of this understanding and often confront discrimination from female dominance that then becomes observable in their attitude with patients. In this regard, increment in the number of male nurses globally has now initiated a race between male and female nurses for attainment of dominant position, as well as psychological power in the profession. In addition, males’ masculinity and higher levels of emotional intelligence have been benefiting them in performing their roles and fulfilling their responsibilities in critical situations (Glasper & Richardson, 2006). On the other hand, female counterparts have been enjoying psychological dominance in the profession due to traditional conceived notions regarding nursing as a feminine profession. In conclusion, it is an expectation that this discussion would have been beneficial in comprehensive understanding of psychology’s contribution in nursing, as well as role of gender in the profession. References Crisp, J., Potter, P. A., Taylor, C., & Perry, A. G. (2005). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of nursing. Elsevier Australia. Glasper, E. A., Richardson, J. (2006). A Textbook of Children and Young People’s Nursing. Elservier Health Sciences. Hilton, L. (2001). Male Nursing Stereotypes and Discrimination. Retrieved on April 11, 2011: http://allnurses.com/men-nursing-forum/article-male-nursing-96299.html Hunt, G. (1994). Ethical issues in nursing. Routledge. Kalisch, P., Kalisch, B. J. (1987). The Changing Image of the Nurse. Addison-Wesley Publishing. Miers, M. (2000). Gender Issues & Nursing Practice. Macmillan. Tranbarger, R. E. (2007). Men in Nursing. Springer. Read More