Adult nurses care for patients or clients of varying ages from the young adult to the elderly. Assessment, planning, implementing and evaluation of patient’s care that healthcare professionals provide, which requires excellent interpersonal skills to effectively communicate with patients, relatives and healthcare professionals. For the nurse the central focus is always the individual patient or client and the provision of holistic care. Adult nursing involves caring for patients in the hospital, in their own homes, nursing homes and other community from simple tasks such as assisting in washing and dressing patients to planning complex care for critically ill patients also working closely with other health care professionals to ensure that seamless care is provided. Adult Nurses are involved with nearly all aspects of a patient’s care, from providing comfort and hygiene to administering injections and IV’s (intravenous injection), updating medical records, as well as minor therapeutic and diagnostic procedures and processes. Nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) work 37.5 hours a week. This may include early, late and night shifts. Many NHS employers offer flexible working hours and career breaks. Nurses can be diverse in character and temperament extroverted, shy, ambitious, idealistic, funny, and serious; having the drive to attain the necessary professional standards for nursing one will gain the opportunity to have an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career.
“Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles” (ICN 2010)
Registered nurses have several duties and responsibilities that can range depending on the organization that they work for. Registered Nurse’s may be employed in physicians' offices, schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, clinics, and even in prison settings. They are responsible to provide direct care to patients that are done under the order and supervision of a licensed health professional. The licensed healthcare professionals include physicians, nurse practitioners or physician's assistants. The daily actions of an RN may include receiving a patient assignment, assessment of each patient, administering medications, attending to patient needs, facilitating patient, assisting the physician with bedside procedures, monitoring laboratory results, and monitoring for any changes in condition. While on the job they might also encounter heavy lifting of patients, exposure to bodily fluids, and large amounts of time on feet. The amounts of hours they work depend on where they work. For example, hospital-based nurses mostly work a total of 3 twelve-hour shifts per week while a office-based nurse usually works 5 days a week for a total of 40 hours.
Being a nurse means that there are multiple responsibilities to juggle, working with both young and old people, with numerous priorities ranging from counselling and teaching to giving medication.
In modern day healthcare, there are many interesting job professions. Some are intense and requires an extensive amount of work, while others are less demanding. The two health professions that I will be focusing on in this essay, are Long Term Care Nurses (LTC) and Nurse Practitioners (NP). I’ve interviewed two healthcare providers one of each title, and the information that I have been given, I must say is quite interesting.
There is an endless amount of possibilities an individual can go with a career in nursing. Nursing has plenty of specialties to choose from and nursing work is widely available throughout the world. It is personally rewarding and emotional to have an interactive relationship with the patients. This career allows nurses to get on a more personal level with the patients and provide comfort and bed care. Most importantly we can make a difference in patient's lives by bringing hope. Nurses are guardian angels when the patients are sick or seriously ill. They are the ones that spend a lot of time with patients and build long lasting relationships. During these interactions, it is these type of
Registered nurses have many important roles and responsibilities when involved with the care of a patient. The main roles in nursing care do not change, regardless of whether they work in a small town clinic, a community centre or a large scale hospital. One of the main responsibilities all registered nurses have is to consistently provide high quality, safe and evidence based holistic health care to every one of their patients and to cause no harm. Providing high levels of attention and care on a daily basis for long shifts at a time can be stressful and both physically and emotionally demanding. This can cause nurses to ‘burn out; which has a negative effect on the nurse’s wellbeing and potentially on the care and outcomes of their patients.
5 years ago I went to London to visit my grandfather who was terminally ill. Even though he passed away 1 year after but he was lucky enough to have the best quality of care within the time being. For as long as I can remember I have always appreciated how nurses take care of each individual. Nursing is a profession I have always looked upon with respect.
I think that when giving nursing care to older adults it is important to consider all of Erikson's eight stages, but particularly the last two stages because they give insight into how your patient maybe feel or what conflicts they are facing in life. Stage 7, adulthood deals with the conflict between generativity Vs stagnation. This is the period when people are building their career and raising their families. It is important to take into consideration when working with an older adult who is retiring from a career they devoted their life to, they may feel conflicted about the life choices they made or feel like they lost their identity. In a similar someone who devoted their life to their family may feel like they lost the opportunity to
Nursing today is at the heart of healthcare provision in the United Kingdom, and nurses are the largest group of clinical employees in the NHS (The Royal Marsden, 2011). This essay will illustrate a discussion on how nursing has changed in the past twenty or so years with regards to how the public health needs have changed and in particular, at how the role of the nurse has adapted to ensure that high quality care is provided. Fluctuating demographics and an upsurge in life expectancy has had increased demand on the NHS services, which in turn has resulted in variations in the roles of healthcare professionals. In particular this, and a change in education, has led to new and more complex roles for nurses who are now taking on more responsibility
In today’s society, the medical field is constantly thriving with technological improvements and the growth of educated individuals that contribute to the well-being of others. Nurses make up the largest majority of the industry, and with that, nursing is the fastest growing occupation. Nursing is a job that allows people to not only take care of the sick but also to experience, learn, and further their interests of the human body.
Nurses are known as the heart of health care. Being a nurse is a demanding job that requires commitment, but does not lack rewards. A fact stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nurses claims that “Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation 's long-term care” (“Nursing Fact Sheet”). With many roles throughout the healthcare system as a whole, nurses are a large, very important role that interacts with every other part of the health care system. They have great qualities that not everyone has. They are highly compassionate, caring, professional, diligent and understanding individuals. A nurse experiences people at their worst and still care for patients in a way that no one else would. All these honest points prove that nurses are the most important members of the health care system because, nurses spend the most time with patients, nurses are the managers of patient care; they are teachers and are great with conflict resolution.
Adult nursing is a lifelong learning career which I have been drawn to since I was young. My mum is a registered nurse and I’ve always admired what she’s done. I would like to apply for this course as I want to help, not only emotionally but medically. I think that these two approaches have to go hand in hand when dealing with patients in care. It is an extremely challenging and demanding career that can be rewarding and satisfying. I am very attracted to the profession as I’ve always had an interest in caring for people and be keen on the thought of working in a large hospital environment where I can be involved in the hands on medical treatment of patients. Working in a large hospital promises a stimulating work environment and there are
The prospect defined adult nurse as nurses who cares for adult patients who are suffering from a variety of health conditions, ranging from minor injuries and ailments, to acute and long-term illnesses and diseases. (Prospect.ac.uk accessed
Nursing is universal in the sense that nurses can be found almost in all countries around the world (Henderson, 1978). They are in the hospitals, in school clinics, in the community centres, residential homes and even play major roles in some of the popular soap operas in television. There are even television shows that mainly revolve around nurses and which chronicles what they do at work - both the positive and the negative. It is one of the most visible and easily identifiable occupations as compared for example to other occupations such as engineers, managers or even pharmacists, medical technologists and other health related occupations. This is partly because of what nurses do and most especially how nurses look - with some still
Nurse’s roles are expanding according to the need of the patient and society. A nurse has to play roles from bed side nursing to the prevention of disease and illness, educating patient, families and collaboration with different healthcare teams. Howell (2012) indicated