What Roles Do Professional Nurses Hold in Healthcare Today?

Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

many changes are occurring in healthcare, in areas ranging from technology to the delivery of patient care. So it is not surprising that the role of professional nurses continues to evolve. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is now the recommended level of education for employment as a registered nurse (RN). Nurses also have to be technologically savvy while demonstrating cost efficiency as they provide quality care. Nurses are not just at the bedside anymore, recording vital signs and dispensing medicine; instead they are taking on positions of greater responsibility.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER

What Roles Do Professional Nurses Hold in Healthcare Today?
Florence Nightingale introduced novel concepts to the nursing practice that decreased mortality rates. Her contributions, such as establishing the need for sanitation, recognizing dietary requirements, providing round-the-clock patient care, instituting triage, collecting statistical evidence, encouraging education and promoting advocacy, form the foundation of nursing. While these nursing fundamentals are the most important components of the practice, nurses today are expanding their role as caregivers to include much more:

Communicator

Nurses are prepared to collaborate with a healthcare team to effectively perform treatments and procedures. Thus, nurses manage patient care. They ensure cohesive and coordinated care for successful patient outcomes.

Holistic Caregiver

Healthcare should address a patient’s cultural, spiritual and mental needs. Increasing diversity in a growing patient population requires nurses to demonstrate cultural awareness and sensitivity. Patients may have specific needs and preferences due to their religion or gender, for example. Nurses need to be respectful of, and knowledgeable about, diverse backgrounds while remaining vigilant in providing quality care.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Instructor

Technology goes hand in hand with healthcare, and providers are using new types of machines and applications every day. Medicine is becoming personalized requiring nurses to instruct patients about medical apps that can enhance traditional care. Patients can now use apps to monitor their glucose, track their blood pressure or access helpful information.

Specialists

Many patients are older with multiple, multifaceted health conditions. By choosing the appropriate medical specialization, nurses can address complications related to diabetes, obesity, heart problems, kidney disease and dementia.

Researcher

Nurses use research to deliver care. They gather and analyze data to glean insights they can apply to facilitating patient care and pinpointing best practices.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

What Are Some Trends in Nursing?
In their contemporary role, nurses are more involved with improving a patient’s experience, reducing medical errors, lowering costs and decreasing hospital readmission’s. In addition to branching out into new areas like health coaching to prevent diseases and cultivate a dedication to healthy living, they are also pursuing positions in the following emerging fields:

Informatics.
Genetics.
Genomics.
Health.
Many nursing schools and healthcare organizations are following the recommendation found in the 2010 report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which was renamed the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2015. The IOM report suggested that 80 percent of nurses should hold a BSN by 2020.

The demand for highly educated nurses will keep rising because large numbers of nurses with Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Doctor of Philosophy in nursing (Ph.D.) degrees are retiring. Moreover, nurses with advanced degrees are needed for positions in academics, family care and oncology.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Why Is Socialization, Accountability and Advocacy Important in Nursing?
Socialization in nursing is an integral part of developing a commitment to the profession. Through skillful and responsible performance, nurses can secure their professional development, which contributes to their socialization along with a sense of belonging and purpose.

Accountability is an obligation or willingness to uphold certain standards. Nurses sometimes have to make quick judgments or take charge of a situation, so accountability is a factor in their profession. Nurses who are accountable take responsibility for their actions. They accept all consequences and do not make excuses.

In protecting a patient’s medical, legal and human rights, a nurse serves as an advocate. The nurse’s job is to inform and support patients when they have questions or are apprehensive about a treatment, procedure or any other aspect of their care.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

The evolving role of professional nurses is intertwined with technology. Even though technology is integral to nursing, nurses provide the human touch and are still at the forefront of patient care. No matter what type of healthcare setting they work in, they have the most interaction with patients. Nurses assess and monitor patients and relay information to other care providers. With the advent and spread of mobile technology and medicine, nurses are no longer confined to practicing in physical buildings. They are able to assist patients in their communities and homes, in person or with the use of mobile technology.

ORDER A FREE PAPER HERE

Professional Nursing Role
There are many opportunities to shape the future of the nursing profession and nursing practice since the nurses improve the quality of the lives of their clients, community and society. Nurses provide care for the sick. Are the first providers of primary health care, wellness and self- care.

The uniqueness of nursing has its focus on the care of the client, the community and society. The basis for the profession is a theoretical body of information defining its skills, abilities and norms. A professional nurse provides a specified service and follows a code of ethics for practice. Professional nurse have autonomy in decision making and practice.

The role of the professional nurse has evolved from the days of Florence Nightingale (1880), when nurses were expected to provide care, perform housekeeping duties, wash the linen, prepare and serve the meals. Throughout history nurses have had many roles: direct care provider, client advocate , teacher counselor and researcher.

Nursing includes keeping people healthy; assisting them to adapt to lifestyle changes resulting from illness or injury; promoting comfort measures; teaching and educating clients about their health and well-being; striving to improve comfort, dignity and respect at the life´s end.

The role of a nurse meets client and family needs; guide, assist and teach the client and family and provide an environment that facilitates client and family growth and development.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Nursing roles

Direct Care Provider: the nurse assists the client to regain health through the healing process. The nurse provides a holistic approach to care which includes: assisting the client/family in coping with the physical, emotional, social and spiritual impacts of the illness.

Protector and Client Advocate: the nurse helps maintain a safe environment for the client and takes steps to prevent injury and protect the client from possible adverse effects of diagnostic or treatment measures. The nurse protects client´s human and legal rights.

Case Manager: the nurse coordinates the activities of the other health care providers in collaboration with the direct care providers ( assisting with scheduling of tests and procedures etc).

Client/Family Educator: nurses provide clients and their family with the information and skills necessary to manage their illness independently.

Career roles

Nurse Educator: they are responsible for teaching nursing theory, clinical practice, technical skills to prepare the students to take the censurer examination and to assume the role of the nurses.

Advanced Practice Nurse: the nurse has a master´s degree in nursing and expertise in a specialized area of practice ( they may specialize in the management of a specific population such as pediatrics or gerontology or a client population such as oncology or pulmonary). They can be: clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, certified registered nurse anesthetists.

Nurse Administrator: nurse manages client care and specific nursing services within a health care agency. Position range from : middle management, such as nurse manager or supervisor, to upper management, such as associate director, director or vice president.

Nurse Researcher: is a doctor ally prepared nurse who investigates problems to improve nursing care, further defines and expands the scope of nursing, or validates nursing care practices.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

So, why someone would choose a nurse profession: because nursing is so flexible, is so vast, means so much and everything. Because of its diversity of fields. Because the roles and responsibilities are expanding all the time and that can makes out of you a professional with unlimited skills and abilities.

Professional standards describe the competent level of care in each phase of the nursing process. They reflect a desired and achievable level of performance against which a nurse’s actual performance can be compared. The main purpose of professional standards is to direct and maintain safe and clinically competent nursing practice.

These standards are important to our profession because they promote and guide our clinical practice. They provide an evaluation tool for yourself and your colleagues to ensure clinical proficiency and safety. Professional nursing standards are also used to provide a framework for developing clinical competency checklists or proficiency evaluations for a specific clinical unit or employer. And they may be used as a comparison tool to evaluate a nurse’s care if the employer suspects the nurse has developed unsafe work habits or isn’t adhering to established organizational policies or widely accepted guidelines established by state and federal laws or leading healthcare organizations.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Professional standards assist us, our management team, and our healthcare organization to develop safe staffing practices, delegate tasks to licensed and unlicensed personnel, ensure adequate documentation, and even create policies for new technology such as social media. For example, if a nurse discloses on a social media site that he or she is providing care to a specific patient, it potentially violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Violating a professional standard can expose you and your healthcare organization to liability and potential loss of censurer.

Professional standards guarantee that we’re accountable for our clinical decisions and actions, and for maintaining competence during our career. They’re patient centered, promote the best possible outcome, and minimize exposure to risk of harm. These standards encourage us to persistently enhance our knowledge base through experience, continuing education, and the latest guidelines.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

We can utilize professional standards to identify areas for improvement in our clinical practice and work areas, as well as to improve patient and workplace safety. We must continue to ensure that our—and our peers’—clinical practice meets or exceeds established professional standards to maintain the trust and respect of our patients and the community.

You can review professional standards by visiting the websites of accredited organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American Nurses Association, The Joint Commission, and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, as well as state and national regulatory agencies such as your state’s board of nursing. Specialty areas of nursing will typically have a leadership organization that guides or establishes professional guidelines for the specific area of practice, such as the Emergency Nurses Association.

Roles and Functions of the Nurse
What exactly does a nurse do? Your answer probably depends on the experiences that you have had in the past. Most people think a nurse is someone who gives a shot at the doctor’s office – or simply is a doctor’s assistant. Furthermore, images of nurses in the media also paint a different picture of who a nurse really is.

However, a nurse has a number of roles that he or she performs, often at the same time, depending on a patient’s needs. With all of the changes in healthcare over the last few decades, that role has expanded even more. Let’s explore a few of these roles.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Caregiver

As a caregiver, a nurse provides hands-on care to patients in a variety of settings. This includes physical needs, which can range from total care (doing everything for someone) to helping a patient with illness prevention. The nurse maintains a patient’s dignity while providing knowledgeable, skilled care.

In addition, nurses care holistically for a patient. Holistic care emphasizes that the whole person is greater than the sum of their parts. This means that nurses also address psycho social, developmental, cultural, and spiritual needs. The role of caregiver includes all of the tasks and skills that we associate with nursing care, but also includes the other elements that make up the whole person.

Decision Maker

Another role of the nurse, as a decision maker, is to use critical thinking skills to make decisions, set goals, and promote outcomes for a patient. These critical thinking skills include assessing the patient, identifying the problem, planning and implementing interventions, and evaluating the outcomes. A nurse uses clinical judgment – his or her ability to discern what is best for the patient – to determine the best course of action for the patient.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Communicator

As a communicator, the nurse understands that effective communication techniques can help improve the healthcare environment. Barriers to effective communication can inhibit the healing process. The nurse has to communicate effectively with the patient and family members as well as other members of the healthcare team. In addition, the nurse is responsible for written communication, or patient charting, which is a key component to continuity of care.

Manager of Care

The nurse works with other healthcare workers as the manager of care and ensures that the patient’s care is cohesive. The nurse directs and coordinates care by both professionals and nonprofessionals to confirm that a patient’s goals are being met.

The nurse is also responsible for continuity from the moment a patient enters the hospital setting to the time they are discharged home and beyond. This may even include overseeing home care instructions. For nurses in the hospital setting, the nurse is responsible for prioritizing and managing the care of multiple patients at the same time, which adds another dimension to this process.

Patient Advocate

Being a patient advocate may be the most important of all nursing roles. As a patient advocate, the nurse’s responsibility is to protect a patient’s rights. When a person is sick, they are unable to act as they might when they are well. The nurse acts on the patient’s behalf and supports their decisions, standing up for his or her best interests at all times. This can empower a patient while recognizing that a patient’s values supersede the health care providers’.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Roles and Functions of a Professional Nurse
Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all setting. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. With these nurses work in a large variety of specialties where they work independently and as part of a team to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care.

These nursing practices have been influenced by the nursing leaders in the past. Among the few of them were Clara Barton, Lavinia Dock, Lillian Wald, Margaret Sanger, Florence Nightingale and Virginia Henderson. Florence Nightingale, often considered as the first theorist, earned her title as “The Lady of Lamp” and was the Founder of Nursing while Virginia Henderson is considered as the “First Modern Nurse”.

In this paper, we are going to discuss what is nursing, nurses roles and functions and the two visionary leaders and their contributions to nursing.

Nursing and its Definition.

According to Virginia Henderson, “the unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge”.
She emphasized that nurses should be concerned on both healthy and ill individuals and interacts with clients even when recovery may not be feasible. She also mentioned that nurses may act as a client advocate and should provide education about the client’s health condition and nursing activities to be performed to improve client’s health condition.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

The nurses goal is to assist the sick and healthy individual to gain independence as rapidly as possible in performing nursing activities. Moreover, nurses can either be a substitute (work for the person) to the fully dependent patient, supplementary (helping the person) to the partially-able patient and complementary (working with the person) to the able patient.
ORDER HERE NOW

Roles and Functions of a Professional Nurse.

Nurses are expected to perform a variety of roles in health care institutions whenever care is provided to the clients. They maybe carried out simultaneously depending on the need of the client in a particular situation and case.
Caregiver. As a caregiver, nurses are expected to assist the client’s physical, psychological, developmental, cultural and spiritual needs. It involves a full care to a completely dependent client, partial care for the partially dependent client and supportive-educative care, in order to attain the highest possible level of health and wellness.
Communicator. Communication is very important in nursing roles. It is vital to establish nurse-client relationship. Nurses who communicate effectively get better information about the client’s problem either from the client itself or from his family. With better information nurses will be able to identify and implement better interventions and or nursing care that promotes fast recovery, health and wellness.
Teacher. Being a teacher is an important role for a nurse. It is her duty to give health education to the clients, families and community. However, the nurse must be able to assess the knowledge level, learning needs and readiness of the clients, families and community to give appropriate and necessary health care education they need to restore and maintain their health. Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
Client Advocate. A nurse may act as an advocator. An advocator is the one who expresses and defends the cause of another or acts as representative. Some people who are ill maybe too weak to do on his own and or even to know hi rights to health care. In this instance, the nurse may convey is client’s wish like change of physician, change of food, upgrade his room or even to refuse a particular type of treatment.
Counselor. A nurse may act as a Counselor. She provides emotional, intellectual and psychological support. She helps a client to recognize with stressful psychological or social problems, to develop and improved interpersonal relationship and to promote personal growth.
Change Agent. As a change agent, oftentimes a nurse change or modify nursing care plan based on her assessment on the client’s health condition. This change and modification will only happen when the intervention/s does not help and improve a client’s health.
Leader. Nurse often assumes the role of leader. Not all nurses have the ability and capacity to become a leader. As a leader it allows you to participate in and guide teams that assess the effectiveness of care, implement-based practices, and construct process improvement strategies. You may hold a variety of positions like shift team leader, ward in-charge, board of directors, etc.
Manager. As a Manager, a nurse has the authority, power, and responsibility for planning, organizing, coordinating and directing work of others. She is responsible for setting goals, make decisions, and solve problems that the organization may encounter. It is also her responsibility to supervise and evaluate the performance of
her subordinates. The manager always ensures that nursing care for individuals, families and communities are met.
Case Manager. In some hospitals, a case manager is a primary nurse who provides direct care to the client or family e.g. case manager for diabetic client, she has the responsibility to give health education, measure the effectiveness of the nursing care plan and monitor the outcomes of intervention whether effective or not.
Research Consumer. Nurses often do research to improve nursing care, define and expand nursing knowledge.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
Biography and Contribution of Florence Nightingale and Virginia Henderson in Nursing.
Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910)

She was the younger daughter of William Edward Nightingale of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hurst, Derby shire, was born at Florence on the 15th of May 1820, and named after that city, but her childhood was spent in England, chiefly in Derby shire.

Born to a comfortable family, Florence Nightingale was educated by governesses and then by her father, with her older sister, Pantheon. She was familiar with the Greek and Latin classical languages, and modern languages of French, German, and Italian. She also studied history, grammar, philosophy and mathematics.

By 1844, over parental objections, Florence Nightingale chose a different path than the social life and marriage expected of her by her parents — she chose to work in nursing, which was then not quite a respectable profession for women. She went to Kaiserwerth, Prussia in 1847, where she received 3 months training in nursing. In 1853 she studied in Paris with Sisters of Charity, after which she return to England to assume the position of superintendent of London’s Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

She came to prominence during the Crimean War for her pioneering work in nursing, and was dubbed “The Lady with the Lamp” after her habit of making rounds at night to tend injured soldiers. Nightingale laid the foundation stone of professional nursing with the principles summarized in the book Notes on Nursing. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honor, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday (wikipedia).
In later life Florence Nightingale suffered from poor health and in 1895 went blind. Soon afterwards, the loss of other faculties meant she had to receive full-time nursing. Although a complete invalid she lived another fifteen years before her death in London on 13th August, 1910 (John Simkin).

Her Contributions

Her improvements in improving the standards for the care of war casualties in the Crimean earned her the title “Lady with the Lamp”. Her efforts in reforming hospitals and producing and implementing public health policies also made her an accomplished political nurse: She was the first nurse to exert political pressure on government.

She is recognized as the first nursing’s scientist-theorist for her work on “Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is
Not” and “Notes on Hospitals”. She published these books in 1859 with the support of wealthy friends and John Delane at The Times and was able to raise £59,000 to improve the quality of nursing.

In 1860, she founded the Nightingale School & Home for Nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital. The school served as a model for other training schools. Its graduates traveled to other countries to manage hospitals and institute nurse-training programs. Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

She also became involved in the training of nurses for employment in the workhouses that had been established as a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.
Virginia Henderson (1897 – 1996)

She was born in Kansas City, Missouri on Nov. 30, 1897, the fifth of eight children of Daniel B. and Lucy Minor (Abbot) Henderson. Her father was an attorney for Native American Indians. Her mother came from the state of Virginia to which Miss Henderson returned for her early schooling. She was educated at the U.S. Army School of Nursing (1921) and Teachers College, Columbia University where she completed her B.S. (1932) and M.A. (1934), then taught from 1934 until 1948.

Virginia Avenel Henderson died on March 19, 1996 at the age of 98. Her ending had the warmth, style, and graciousness of her life. After partaking chocolate cake and ice cream and saying goodbyes to her family and friends, she passed from one dimension to another. Miss Henderson, and she always preferred Miss to Ms., left behind a quantity of work that is the soul of modern nursing.

Her Contributions:

Virginia Henderson has been called the “first lady of nursing” and the “first truly international nurse.” Her writing, presentations and her research and contacts with nurses have profoundly affected nursing and impacted the recipients of care by nurses throughout the world. Among them are as follows:
She began her career in public health nursing in the Henry Street Settlement and in the visiting nurse service in Washington, D.C.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
She was the first full-time instructor in nursing in Virginia when she was at Norfolk Protestant Hospital in Norfolk and was active in the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia. She designed a plan to create district organizations within the state. She was an early advocate for the inclusion of psychiatric nursing in the curriculum and served on a committee to develop such a course at Eastern State Hospital in Williams burg, Virginia in 1929.
During her years at Teachers College, Columbia University, Henderson was an outstanding teacher and drew students from many countries to study with her. Nurses through the United States studied with her without ever leaving their home schools when her revision of Bertha Hammer’s Textbook of the Principles and Practice of Nursing became widely use.
Other important publications grew out of Henderson’s years at Yale University including Nursing Research a Survey and Assessment in collaboration with Leo Simmonds. She also directed a twelve-year project entitled Nursing Studies Index, four volumes recognized as an essential reference for many years.
Her book, Nature of Nursing, published in 1966 expressed her belief about the essence of nursing and influenced the hearts and minds of those who read it.
At the age of 75, Henderson directed her career to international teaching and speaking. This enabled another generation to reap the benefits of contact with this quintessential nurse of the twentieth century.
In 1953, she joined Yale School of Nursing, a particularly fitting association, since the first dean, Annie Warbonnet Goodrich, had served as her mentor in her early professional years. The Yale years were a time of great productivity.
Conclusion

Florence Nightingale and Virginia Henderson were among the visionary leaders in the past who have greatly influenced the nursing practice and contributed much to the improvement of nursing status worldwide. Though nursing have a lot of definition, yet it all boils down to caring of the clients as a holistic being. Nurses also assume variety of roles and functions such as caregiver, leader, change agents, teacher, manager, case manager, counselor, client advocate, and consumer research.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
The role of nurses has always been crucial in healthcare.

Nurses are on the front line every day, tending to the sick, counseling patients on their health, and improving processes throughout the healthcare system.

Now, nursing is expanding into healthcare redesign and management.

ORDER NOW

Nursing Plays a Greater Role in Patient Education
As the healthcare system recognizes that patient education is crucial to recovery and reduces costly readmission’s to hospitals, the role of nurses continues to expand.

Nurses are now responsible for following up with patients to provide greater resources to those with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. By working with the patients to monitor their conditions, nurses play a role well beyond the hospital.

Care coordination fits well with many nurses interest in bedside care and their focus on the whole patient rather than an episodic problem.

Advanced Education Builds Path to Greater Roles
The expansion of nursing roles is due in part to increased professional development for nurses and the number of nurses seeking higher education.
Nurses bring a wealth of patient experience and a unique perspective to leadership roles. Their critical thinking skills and training on improved performance techniques, enable nurses to design better processes and procedures to care for patients.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

The increase in nurses seeking higher education is partly due to a report released in 2010 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change and Advancing Health.” The report recommended that nurses should practice at the top of license, achieve higher levels of education, and act as full partners with physicians.

The same report also set a goal for 80 percent of nurses have baccalaureate degrees by 2020. The leadership and research skills BSN degrees bring improve professional development for nurses.

In the fall of 2014, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) published a survey that showed enrollment in RN to BSN programs increased 10.4 percent, marking 12 years of growth.

Nursing roles

Case Manager: the nurse coordinates the activities of the other health care providers in collaboration with the direct care providers ( assisting with scheduling of tests and procedures etc).

Client/Family Educator: nurses provide clients and their family with the information and skills necessary to manage their illness independently.

Career roles

Nurse Educator: they are responsible for teaching nursing theory, clinical practice, technical skills to prepare the students to take the licensure examination and to assume the role of the nurses.

Massachusetts General Hospital is known for medical innovations such as the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia and the first re plantation of a severed arm.

Today, the venerable Boston hospital is testing out another innovation, but this time it’s in the field of nursing. When a patient arrives at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) now, he or she is assigned an attending registered nurse (ARN) for the duration of the hospital stay and after discharge. The ARN builds a relationship with the patient and his or her caregivers, and ensures that all members of the patient’s health care team follow a shared care plan. Unlike other RNs, ARNs are designed to promote continuity of care, ideally with a five-day, eight-hour work schedule.

“The role is designed to be a constant throughout the patient experience,” says Jeffrey Adams, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Innovations in Care Delivery at MGH and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Executive Nurse Fellow (2014-2017). “The person the patient sees every day is available ahead of admissions and post-discharge. This is different than anything we’ve seen before. We evaluate this work closely and we know ARNs have significantly contributed to improved quality and patient satisfaction. Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

The ARN is just one of the many new roles for nurses in a changing health care system. These new roles are empowering nurses to play a greater role in improving patient experiences and population health and lowering costs. Nurses in new roles are doing that by reducing unnecessary and costly hospital readmission’s and preventable medical errors, providing more affordable, more convenient, and more patient-centered primary care in community-based settings, and more.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER

Nurses today are playing new roles in coordinating care from multiple providers, managing caseloads of patients with intense care needs, and helping patients transition out of hospitals and into the home or other settings. They are working as “health coaches” and in other ways to prevent illness and promote wellness. And they are charting new paths in emerging fields like health, informatics, and genetics and genomics, and as scientists and leaders in society.

Traditional RNs and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), meanwhile, are playing expanded roles as the health care system evolves to meet new needs. Once viewed as subservient and subordinate, nurses are now serving as full and essential partners on interdisciplinary health care teams. APRNs are opening nurse-led primary care clinics and operating independently—without physician supervision—in a growing number of states and in new settings, such as at retail pharmacies and “big-box” stores like CVS, Walgreens, and Target.

Clear Benefits Include Better Clinical Performance and Patient Experience

Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, has observed this shift as co-director of The Primary Care Team: Learning from Effective Ambulatory Practices (LEAP), an RWY-supported program. During 2012 and 2013, he and his colleagues visited 30 high-functioning primary care practices to learn about innovative staffing arrangements that maximize the contributions of nurses and other staff. During the visits, the LEAP team noticed that nurses are increasingly providing more direct, face-to-face care in independent nurse visits or shared visits with providers.

The benefits, he said, are clear. “The practices that are engaging nurses in these new, expanded ways are showing better clinical performance and better patient experience” scores, he noted. For patients, “it means better care, no question.”

LEAP’s findings echo a 2010 report by the Institute of Medicine on the future of nursing that said nurses must play new and expanded roles to improve access to quality care and to lower costs. “Nurses are well positioned to help meet the evolving needs of the health care system,” the report states. “They have vital roles to play in achieving patient-centered care; strengthening primary care services; delivering more care in the community; and providing seamless, coordinated care. They also can take on re conceptualized roles as health care coaches and system innovators. In all of these ways, nurses can contribute to a reformed health care system that provides safe, patient-centered, accessible, affordable care.”Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

New Payment Systems Support New Roles for Nurses

New laws and policies are enabling nurses do to just that, according to Ellen-Marie Whelan, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, senior advisor to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Innovation Center. “Health reform and changes in the Affordable Care Act create amazing opportunities for nurses, in large part because of the way we’re paying differently for health care,” she said.

The government is moving away from fee-for-service systems and toward paying for improved outcomes, which create opportunities for nurses, said Whelan, an RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow (2012-2015) and an alumna of the RWJF Health Policy Fellows program (2003-2004). Payment changes, based in part on improved patient outcomes—such as with shared savings in accountable care organizations and bundled payments—will allow nursing contributions to be maximized, she noted. Medicare coverage for wellness and behavioral health visits and care coordination for patients with multiple chronic conditions are services often led by nurses.

“We are going to see increased accountability and responsibility for nurses in the general areas of transitional care and care coordination,” said Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, national program director for the RWY-sponsored Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative and creator of a model in which nurses lead care transitions across settings.

“Nurses,” she continued, “will not only have enhanced responsibility and accountability in traditional settings, such as patients homes and community-based clinics, but increasingly have roles that enable them to move across health care settings such as from hospitals to patients homes. Evidence reveals that such role changes will better align with the care experience and needs of patients and their families, and result in improved outcomes.”

“Some people call this the de-linking of the hospital nurse,” Naylor said. “Rather than being setting-bound, nurses will work door-to-door. These aren’t just ideas, this is happening now.”

And that’s just the beginning, Adams predicted. “I am confident we have not yet seen the full spectrum of the innovative roles that nurses will develop and fulfill. As health care incrementally transforms to embody a Culture of Health, there will certainly be increased opportunities to … place nurses at the center of conversations, development, and implementation of new roles and new models of care.”Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

The aim of nursing education is a development of the nursing profession. One way to promote development is to clarify the professional role. The role definition for nursing is mostly transmitted through tacit knowledge. We consider that the professional development of the nursing profession in Sweden requires a clear and well-defined nurse role. Stated goals of professional program mes for nursing do not include the entire body of tacit knowledge. The overall development requires recognition of a professional status together with a clear and well-defined role. We have found a significant change in the distribution of role-conceptions which occurred after the nurses had experienced their first year as registered nurses, and which did not occur during the educational process. This indicates that the conceptions of the need for a more clearly defined nursing role are assimilated during work experience. This confirms the necessity and importance of role modelling, role repetition and interactions with a professional group as part of the educational process.

A nurse is a professional who is focused in health related issues and views man as a whole being. The most important tool in providing nursing care is through utilization of the nursing process. In order to be a registered nurse, a student nurse must be able to acquaint himself with the various roles and functions of a nurse. Years of academic training and clinical exposure must be needed in order to be accustomed with the stated roles below.

1. Care Provider – As a nurse, he or she is responsible in rendering services wherein the patient or client can feel that his or her needs are being met. The use of the term “care” means that the nurse is concerned on the welfare of the patient. She views the patient as a person who needs not only physical care as well as other aspects of being a person such as emotional needs, psychological needs, spiritual needs and biological needs.

Communicator – A nurse is actually an agent of communication. Communication is very important in the field of nursing as this is the means of giving and receiving information. Therapeutic communication is being studied by nurses in order to give better nursing care. As a communicator, she must be a good listener so that she can address the needs of the client or patient in various health care personnel. She is obviously the one who gives bedside care, therefore she is also the first hand to get updates and progress of the patient’s condition. It is her task to give this information to other medical personnel.
Teacher – A nurse is also expected to be a teacher in her daily activities. Giving nursing care is geared towards better health practices and this can be addressed through teaching the proper ways and health habits. Aside from that, the nurse is not only concerned in teaching the patient but also the significant others who will be responsible in caring the patient when discharged from the health institution. Health teachings were intended to promote health and maintain the healthy set-up thus preventing the incidence of hospital admissions.
Counselor – Being a counselor means that the nurse helps the client to develop coping mechanisms that are healthy enough. Since each client faces different degrees of stress, the nurse must be able to facilitate the recognition of the patient to cope with the challenge of certain alterations in the daily living brought about by health related problems. The role encompasses the emotional, intellectual and psychological support.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
Change Agent – The nurse catalyses the change that is needed for the patient’s improvement. Using the nursing process, the nurse will identify first the problem areas and develop a plan of action in order for the patient to change his mind and eventually change his behaviour. Being a change agent means that the nurse will help the patient to get out of the usual scenario, identify the need for the change and implement the changes and getting accustomed with these changes.
6. Client Advocate –As a client advocate, the nurse represents the patient when the patient is not able to represent himself. In order to be a client advocate, listening and placing yourself in the shoes of the patient will enable the you to know what is feels like and react with the situation. The next thing is to plan for ways to voice out the part of the patient so that the health care team will be able to know how to deal with the case of the patient.

Leader – As a nurse, he or she must be able to be an inch or a foot farther than other personnel. It means that he or she must have a wider view of the situation and create goals and objectives that were attainable for the group. Leading as a nurse means that you can influence others to be together in a same goal or objective.
8. Manager – A nurse can be both a leader and a manager, however there are differences between these two terms. Although used interchangeably, it really means a lot different. Being a manager means that you have the responsibility to give directions, organize, plan and implements things out. A nurse manager has been given the power to facilitate the unit or case.

Role Mode – A nurse must also be able to be true with what he or she is saying. The cliché “walk the talk” defines this role. A nurse must be able to put into practice the proper ways that he or she has been teaching so that he or she can teach people by example.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
Researcher – The work of a nurse involves changes in the nursing care. This change can only be known using research. Scientifically, a nurse can function as a researcher in order to improve their practice as well as give patient outcomes a better picture.
Nurses are expected to perform a variety of roles in health care institutions whenever care are provided to the clients. They maybe carried out simultaneously depending on the need of the client in a particular situation and case.
a. Caregiver
As a caregiver, nurses are expected to assist the client’s physical, psychological, developmental, cultural and spiritual needs. It involves a full care to a completely dependent client, partial care for the partially dependent client and supportive-educative care, in order to attain the highest possible level of health and wellness.
b. Communicator
Communication is very important in nursing roles. It is vital to establish nurse-client relationship. Nurses who communicate effectively gets better information about the client’s problem either from the client itself or from his family. With better information nurses will be able to identify and implement better interventions and or nursing care that promotes fast recovery, health and wellness. Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
c. Teacher
Being a teacher is an important role for a nurse. It is her duty to give health education to the clients, families and community. However, the nurse must be able to assess the knowledge level, learning needs and readiness of the clients, families and community to give appropriate and necessary health care education e.g. diseases, health, wellness, nursing care procedure, etc. they need to do to restore and maintain their health.
d. Client Advocate
A nurse may act as an advocator. An advocator is the one who expresses and defends the cause of another or acts as representative. Some people who are ill maybe too weak to do on his own and or even to know his rights to health care. In this instance, the nurse may convey is client’s wish like change of physician, change of food, upgrade his room or even to refuse a particular type of treatment.

e. Counselor
A nurse may act as a Counselor. She provides emotional. Intellectual and psychological support. She helps a client to recognize with stressful psychological or social problems, to develop and improved interpersonal relationship and to promote personal growth.
f. Change Agent
As a change agent, oftentimes a nurse change or modify nursing care plan based on her assessment on the client’s health condition. This change and modification will only happen when the intervention/s does not help and improve a client’s health e.g. caring of the pressure ulcer, change in medication, change of food, etc.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
g. Leader
Nurse often assumes the role of leader. Not all nurses have the ability and capacity to become a leader. It takes confidence, initiative and ability to innovate change, motivate, facilitate and mentor others. As a leader it allows you to participate in and guide teams that assess the effectiveness of care, implement-based practices, and construct process improvement strategies. You may hold a variety of positions like shift team leader, chairperson of a professional organization, ward in-charge, board of directors, sister, matron, etc.
h. Manager
As a Manager, a nurse has the authority, power, and responsibility for planning, organizing, coordinating and directing work of others. She is responsible for setting goals, make decisions, and solve problems that the organization may encounter. It is also her responsibility to supervise and evaluate the performance of her subordinates. The manager always ensure that nursing care for individuals, families and communities are meet.

i. Case Manager
In some hospitals, a case manager is a primary nurse who provide direct care to the client or family. For example a case manager for diabetic client. She has the responsibility to give health education, measure the effectiveness of the nursing care plan and monitor the outcomes of intervention whether effective or not.
j. Research Consumer
Nurses often do research to improve nursing care, define and expand nursing knowledge.
In accordance with the Code of Ethics for Nurses, the intent of this statement is to provide guidelines for registered nurses assuming the role of charge nurse. ONA recognizes that the role of the charge nurse may vary with the area of practice and facility policy; however, the registered nurse’s role must be consistent with professional standards as developed by the nursing profession, the scope of practice defined in the Law, and the rules of the Board of Nursing.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Position
Charge nurses are registered nurses who are responsible for the operation of the nursing unit over a specific time period. The charge nurse must have a strong foundation of clinical knowledge and skills on which to base judgments and make decisions, organizing abilities to direct nursing tasks and operations, and interpersonal skills to facilitate communication and the work of others.

The charge nurse accepts the responsibility for, and is accountable for, his/her own nursing practice. The charge nurse also seeks out and pursues opportunities for learning and assumes responsibility for his/her own self-development. Registered nurses must be knowledgeable and skillful in performing the charge nurse role.

A registered nurse who assumes the role of charge nurse also assumes the responsibility inherent to the role. Three fundamental responsibilities for charge nurses include planning, coordinating, and evaluating unit nursing activities.

Planning
The charge nurse identifies the procedures, processes, and patient care to be accomplished during the work period, as well as the resources that will be required to safely carry out the work of the unit.

Coordinating
The charge nurse distributes the work of the unit in a manner that makes the best use of available resources, both personnel and material, and which take into account the knowledge, skills, and abilities of those persons who will be integral to the patient care process. The charge nurse provides ongoing coordination of work and resources as necessary to meet changing requirements in the work environment.

Evaluating
On an ongoing basis, the charge nurse evaluates individual and collective outcomes of the patient care provided during their shift, compares patient care delivery to accepted standards, adjusts assignment of resources as necessary, and reports changing needs and outcomes to the health care staff.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

Because the charge nurse observes and weighs patient care delivery and outcomes as provided by coworkers, the charge nurse may be asked to contribute observations to individual employee evaluations, suggest competency evaluations, or to advise and educate fellow staff. These functions of the charge nurse should not, however, be constructed as supervisory in the sense of exercising control regarding employment decisions. The charge nurse is accountable for overall operation of an assigned unit during a specific time period, but is not solely or personally responsible for the selection or discharge of employees of the health care facility.

Functions and Competencies of the Charge Nurse
Coordination of activities, e.g., collaborating with physicians, other departments, consulting with other nurses.
Awareness of legal aspects of nursing and applies this knowledge when making staff assignments.
Awareness of institution policies and procedures related to nursing service.
Interprets organizational chart, and uses the institution’s organizational structure effectively.
Identifies the priorities for patient care management.
Knows the responsibilities of all nursing staff members and utilizes this knowledge when preparing assignments for staff members.
Utilizes the talents of all members of the nursing staff.
Solves problems or avoids potential ones by making appropriate assignments of staff to patients.
Demonstrates leadership through clinical practice and teaching.
Delegates unit and patient responsibilities to nursing staff members according to each staff member’s education, training and availability and in accordance with 4723-13 of the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC).
Recognizes leadership styles and selects the appropriate leadership style for given situation.
Applies decision-making theory and the scientific method to solve patient care problems.
Educates nursing staff and students utilizing formal and informal venues, including peer consultation, mentor ship, preceptor programs, unit conferences, case studies, patient rounds, and in-service programs.
Applies communication theories and techniques in negotiating with patients, families and other staff members to accomplish the nursing care plan.
Initiates and completes the designated forms required by administration in the delivery of patient care.
Observes performance of nursing personnel and shares this information with the nursing manager.
Monitors the quality of patient care being delivered by other nursing staff members.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper
Checks the completeness and accuracy of patient care plans routinely, and continually updates and revises these plans as changes occur in the patient’s condition.
Contrasts and evaluates the patient’s behavior and/or condition with the physical, psycho social and spiritual goals stated in the nursing care plan.
Assists with the establishment of criteria for patient care to be utilized in a total quality improvement program.
Checks equipment to determine if it is functioning properly.
Checks the environment for patient safety.
Audits the patient’s medical record to determine that all orders have been carried out, that laboratory tests are posted, delivered nursing care is documented, and patient progress or lack of progress is described.
Implements measures to correct inadequacies noted in the quality of patient care administered on the unit.Role of Professional Nurse Essay Paper

What Roles Do Professional Nurses Hold in Healthcare Today?

What is the Best Training to Prepare for a Career in Functional Medicine?

Discuss ways of treating Bowel and Urinary Disorders

What Roles Do Professional Nurses Hold in Healthcare Today?