Nursing is a profession that focuses on the autonomous and collaborative provision of care to individuals of all ages, families, groups, and communities. In other words, the nursing profession focuses on provision of care to the sick. The nursing professionals engage in activities that help prevent illnesses, provide care to the sick, and health education. It is important to note that nursing is the largest and most effective profession in the health care sector. Traditional nursing dates back in 1854 and is associated with Florence Nightingale, a British nurse, tactician, and social reformer (Egenes, 2017). Nightingale first practiced nursing during the Crimean war when she was asked by the British government to take care of the wounded soldiers (Egenes, 2017). Skills such as critical thinking, time management, attention to detail, and compassion are necessary in the nursing profession. Although the requirements for pursuing nursing differ between countries, states, and provinces, it is possible to practice in a foreign country. A foreigner desiring to practice nursing in the United States requires to meet the basic educational requirements, CGFNS clearance, and pass a licensure examination. This paper argues that nursing is the most crucial healthcare practice as it determines the quality of patients’ recovery, and should, therefore, embody high ethical standards, quality improvement, and leadership development. Read more
The nursing profession prioritizes values such as respect for human dignity and an intuition for patients’ needs. Nurses show respect to their patients by involving them in care decisions, informing them regarding various aspects of care, and respecting their autonomy. In other words, nurses should follow the treatment option preferred by patients. This helps to increase satisfaction of patients in the treatment process.
According to research done by Reinhart (2020), the nursing profession is the most trusted medical professions in the world. Interestingly, it has maintained the first position for about 18 years in a raw. The reasons why nursing is the best profession is that nurses are honest and ethical in their practice. Furthermore, nurses spend more time with patients during care than doctors and family members combined. The nurses perform various tasks in provision of care to patients including medical assessment, diagnosis, counseling, and healthcare coordination (Mockler, 2014). It is important to note that healthcare coordination aims at addressing potential health problems. Therefore, nurses are involved not only in the visual and physical examination of patients but also identification of the nature of an illness. Besides, nurses recommend a course of action for patients and help organize care activities.
Nursing ethics
Ethics are moral principles that govern an individual’s behavior. Nursing ethics, therefore, are principles and standards that guide the behavior of nurses during their practice. The ethical principles and standards are established to help nurses make the right decision when faced with a moral dilemma. Moreover, the ethical principles and standards help nurses to practice with professionalism and promote ethical practices. There are seven ethical principles that nurses apply in the nursing practice. The first one is the principle of justice. The principle of justice posits that nurses should encourage fairness when providing care to different patients. In other words, nurses should be fair and practice equity among all clients or patients without gender, race, or color discrimination. The second principle is beneficence. It states that nurses should always endeavor to do the right thing for the patient. The third principle is nonmaleficence. The principle of nonmaleficence provides that nurses should not engage in any practice that can harm patients. This means that the care provided by nurses should, by no means, cause harm to patients.
The fourth ethical principle is accountability. The principle of accountability holds that nurses should always assume whole responsibility for their actions. Nurses must, therefore, be careful as their actions during provision of care may result in personal or professional consequences. Fidelity is the fifth principle, and requires that nurses should keep their promises. Some of the promises of nurses to patients include provision of quality services, ensuring patient safety, and respecting patients’ autonomy. Autonomy and self-determination of patients is the sixth ethical principle. The principle states that nurses should appreciate and respect the autonomy of patients. Additionally, nurses should follow the wishes, perspectives, values, and beliefs of patients. In simpler terms, patients should make decisions without being coerced by nurses. The seventh and last ethical principle is veracity. The veracity principle provides that nurses should always inform patients about care even when it may have adverse effects on them.
The nursing profession requires that nurses adhere to high standards of ethics in their decision-making processes (Mockler, 2014). Nurses need to consider some of the principles discussed above, including justice, autonomy, and beneficence, to ensure that they make ethical decisions. Other than the principles of ethics, the decision-making process of nurses is guided by guidelines highlighted by the American Nursing Association (ANA) and the National Code of Ethics for Nurses (Butts & Rich 2019). The ANA code of ethics outlines the ethical values, duties, obligations, and standards that nurses should observe when proving care to patients. Also, the ANA codes of ethics ensure that nurses respect the rights of patients. Moreover, the guideline expects nurses to practice with professionalism, integrity, and safety.
According to Butts & Rich (2019), the actions of nurses should always reflect the patients’ preferences, psychological realities, and the profession’s ethical code of conduct. Patient preferences refers to individual likes that influence the health outcomes. The patients’ preferences provide nurses with a sense of direction regarding the treatment options and other interventions. Additionally, patients’ preferences help to inform the clinical decisions taken by nurses in situations where science is yet to provide solutions (Butts & Rich 2019). Psychological realities help nurses to better understand an individual and their skills, thoughts, behavior, and personality. The profession’s ethical code of conduct helps ensure that patients’ rights and their families are respected.
Quality improvement
Quality improvement refers to the use of data to monitor care outcomes and using improvement methods to improve the quality of health care continuously. It is the responsibility of nurses to provide services that meet the set-out standards (Mockler, 2014). In other words, the nurses should employ approaches that meet the quality standards and regulations established. The nurses who offer direct healthcare services to patients are in an excellent position to identify the need for change (Balakas & Smith, 2016). This means that the nurses involved in the day-to-day provision of care should note the quality gaps. After identifying the quality gaps in care, the nurses involved in provision of direct care services should come up with strategies and methods to bridge the quality gaps. Additionally, the nurses should consider attending quality improvement forums to facilitate constructive action for improving the quality of health care. Attending quality improvement forums can help nurses optimize care for patients, minimizing nursing mistakes (Balakas & Smith, 2016). Moreover, nurses should provide care services in good faith to help protect the healthcare system’s reputation. The aim of quality improvement facilitates is to provide a cost-effective health care processes and enhance the patient outcome.
Leadership development
Leadership development refers to activities that improve the confidence, skills, and abilities of leaders. In the nursing profession, leadership development entails influencing point-of-care innovation and improvement to achieve better healthcare outcomes (Joseph & Huber, 2015). The leadership development practice helps leaders to gain a comprehensive understanding of different dynamics between nurses and patients. The nurse managers have a responsibility to empower the staff to improve access and quality of healthcare (Crowne et al., 2017). In other words, effective leaders take the leadership development opportunity to develop competent staff and those who can deliver quality. Lastly, the nursing leadership, should provide a vision to the nurses and avail the necessary resources crucial for healthcare quality improvement (Joseph & Huber, 2015). This means that the leaders should set a good example for practicing nurses. The nursing profession
Conclusion
In conclusion, nursing is the most crucial healthcare profession as it determines the quality of patients’ recovery, and should, therefore, embody high ethical standards, quality improvement, and leadership development. Interestingly, nursing is the largest and most effective profession in the health care sector. One of the reasons for this is that patients regard the nursing profession with high-esteem. This is because nurses are honest, ethical, and spend more time with patients than both doctors and family members combined. Thus, the staff ought to live up to the public’s expectations by embracing healthcare’s fundamental ethics. The nursing profession is guided by principles, including beneficence, justice, accountability, and fidelity. The profession is guided by ethical standards such as the American Nursing Association (ANA) and the National Code of Ethics for Nurses. Nurses have the mandate to provide services that meet the set-out standards. Attending quality improvement forums can help nurses to optimize care for patients, and this minimizes nursing mistakes. Leadership development offers an opportunity for nurses to understand different dynamics between themselves and patients. Innovation emanating from quality improvement and leadership development will go a long way in improving healthcare delivery. The nursing profession