Nursing plays a vital role in the health care system, without nursing staff providing care and support to patients is impractical. Nursing is the largest medical profession in the United States. They are responsible for communicating with patients and physicians, administering medicines, and caring for patients. They mainly focus on individuals, communities, and families to achieve, maintain, and recover health and ensure quality of life. The nursing theory refers to the innovative and thoroughly designed structure of ideas which project purposeful, timid, and systematic views of the phenomena.
A systematic inquiry can enable a nurse to develop knowledge through practice and research to improve the care of a patient. In this profession, ethics are an important consideration; ethics define righteous actions and restrict wrong activities. According to ethics, they should respect patients, maintain the dignity of their patients, and protect their rights of patients. They are held responsible for developing an environment of mutual trust and respect among the patients, doctors, and other staff. Nursing is the most trusted profession, to maintain this trust, it is essential to be accountable for their practices, maintaining the environment, and safety of the patients. Professional accountability refers to being answerable to oneself, and to others for your actions. Nurses are not only holding high-level clinical practices, and following ethical standards, but also accept responsibility when they deviate from their care standards. For instance, a palliative care nurse is responsible for taking better care of those patients who are suffering from life-threatening diseases; they are responsible for delivering the best quality services to improve their life standards and to the families of terminally ill patients. Palliative care nurses are following ethical standards, and high-level care to maintain the physical, mental, and emotional health of terminally ill patients.
In the initial history of nursing, there was scant knowledge and research about nursing practices. As the education developed the nursing theories helped nurses to improve their efficiency and performance. According to the Nursing theory proposed by Erickson, nurses provide care to nurture their patients with dignity, and respect and know the distinguished nature of every patient. (Erickson Theory – Nursing Theory (2019). The focus of this theory is on the needs of patients. Nurses should learn how the patient responds to stressors and the personal model of the patient and appreciate his or her values. In my profession, this theory will help me to know the psyche of each patient and provide the best care.
Florence Nightingale was the best nursing figure in nursing history; she was born in Florence, Italy, in 1820. She was famous for her contribution as a nurse in the Crimean war. Her work was remarkable and changed the notion of people about nursing, with her highly skilled services, made this profession the most respected and important. Mary Breckinridge was a renowned nurse of the 20th century; she was born in Tennessee, the USA, she is famous as the founder of Frontier nursing services. Her most important contribution is that she developed modern nursing services in rural communities. Florence works on the development of skills of nurses, while Mary worked for midwifery services in rural communities. Being a nursing professional, I am inspired by the contribution of both legends because they provided a foundation for the modern practices of nursing.
The aim of the board of nursing is to issue licenses and improve the standards through defined SOPs. They define the boundaries of practices of nurses and improve the standard of members through education research and practice while the ANA raises its voice for the needs and rights of its members. They brought certain dramatic reforms in health care, as they play a crucial role in the policies development and initiatives. Both of these organizations can influence my nursing practices because these are the regulatory authorities, and without their support, one cannot execute services.
For the renewal of the license in our state, each nurse is liable to attend twenty-four hours of general CE with an additional task to attend two hours of domestic violence CE and complete 2 hours course of laws and rules of nursing. If a person fails to meet the requirements, a person must take a refresher course before the license is renewed. In a compact state, nurse licensure must meet the requirements such as a degree and other requirements of the state. While in a non-compact state, a person can apply for a license through the board of nursing.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is contributing to protecting public health through the assurance of the safety of foods and drugs, the supply of food, cosmetics, and human and veterinary drugs (Selecting and Serving Produce Safely, (2019). While the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a federal agency in the USA to administer the Medicare and Medicaid programs, both these programs are associated with the healthcare system and influence the practices of healthcare professionals.
Being a patient advocate in promoting safety, I will inform my patients regarding the decision about their health, including the alternate therapy, and guide them about its details.
The fundamental objective of the Nurse Practice Act (NPA) is to provide proper safety to patients under the provision of nursing care. NPA is developing written laws and state regulations regarding competent and safe nursing practices. So NPA has greater impact on my professional practices. The scope of a nurse in our state is that a person must have a license, and know the rules and regulations of nursing in the state.
Delegations for the RN in our state transference to a competent person and authority to do certain selected activities in certain situations by a qualified nurse based on license and experience.
It is the core responsibility of a nurse as a researcher to study and investigate different aspects of health and healthcare services. In a detective role of a nurse, one has to use a computer and the internet; colleagues are playing an important role to provide better services to their patients. The nurse manager is liable to know how various environmental designs could reduce the anxiety and stress of patients and staff.
According to the code of ethics set by ANA, Provision 1: A nurse practicing in a health care system with respect, dignity, compassion, and respect for human dignity.
Provision 2: A nurse has to protect the rights and health and safety of the patient, and keep the privacy of the patient confidential (Lachman et al., 2015).
To prevent errors in nursing practices, there are certain protective measures. To avoid these medication errors, a nurse should follow proper reconciliation procedures of medication. They have to double-check the procedures and document every action.
The first provision of ANA can reduce the chances of errors because of mutual interest and working with respect. The basic leadership qualities and traits required for the excellence of nursing care; Delegation, strong communication, empathy, and conflict resolution. With patients, the required leadership traits are empathy and strong communication. While within the nursing team, they need strong communication, conflict resolution, and delegation traits of leadership.
The work environment has a strong impact on nursing leadership, in a decentralized and autonomous structure nurses can work with authority and dignity. Similarly, the main role of a leader is to make decisions, which is affected by the professional work environment. Professional learning and development depend on the environment and organizational culture. A positive and cooperative environment provides more opportunities for a nurse to flourish their skills and development.
References
Erickson Theory – Nursing Theory. (2019). Nursing-theory.org. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/erickson-modeling-and-role-modeling-theory.php
Selecting and Serving Produce Safely. (2019). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/selecting-and-serving-produce-safely
Lachman, V. D., Swanson, E. O. C., & Winland-Brown, J. (2015). The new code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretative Statements'(2015): Practical Clinical Application, Part II. MedSurg Nursing, 24(5), 363.
