Four Key RN Roles

This paper brings up my personal nursing philosophy that I am planning to deliver in my nursing career. I believe that nursing is more than merely as a profession, it also involves my medical knowledge combined it with a commitment to quality nursing care with compassion, respect, dignity, and advocacy for each patient. I believe that the interdisciplinary care and collaboration in the medical field are crucial elements that lead to a healthy relationship among healthcare professionals in promoting quality patient care that is individualized to each patient’s needs.

Nursing is defined as the promotion, protection and the prevention of illness and Injury, the treatment of a patient’s disease or diseases, the patient’s response to a disease, as well as one big thing that nurses are known for, and that is being a patient’s advocate nursing has been one of the fastest growing fields since the 1990’s (Mueller et al.,2012). Advocacy is defined as an action in which a person speaks out, argues a cause, supports and defends on the behalf of others. I believe that the role of being a patient advocate is one of the most important things a nurse can do because there are many patients that cannot speak on their behalf, I believe that it is up to the nurses to be those patients as well as all patient’s voices (Mueller et al., 2012).

It is understood that interdisciplinary input has always been essential to find the optimal solution in healthcare. The teamwork required has historically had its own problems. This paper looks at the problems one team encountered and discusses the evidence-based theories and solutions and how they apply. This team’s members are RNs and RPNs who comprise the Nursing Administrative Team at a long-term care facility. This paper discusses the team’s strengths and weaknesses and the strategies to overcome them.

“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)

This assignment will explore and critically evaluate the role of the registered nurse in the development of a plan of care that is patient centred. This will involve examining and critically analysing the chosen nursing model in a holistic assessment of the patient and the use of the nursing framework ASPIRE (Barrett, Wilson and Wollands, 2012).

The success of NPs depends on practicing evidence-based care with competency in assessment, diagnosing, managing patients, and maintaining a caring practice. The nursing component of the NP role continues to be challenged from within nursing, as well as by large national physician organizations. NPs are extensions of nursing practice who are guided by nursing theory. The transformation from nurse to the advanced practice role of NP involves development of advanced knowledge and skills for listening, knowing, being with patients, connecting patients to their communities, promoting health,

It's important for nurses to be actively involved with an interdisciplinary team because of the increasing complexity and scope of patient problems. As these complexities and problems increase, patient care necessitates the combination of efforts of physicians from different disciplines. Actually, comprehensive patient care in today's healthcare settings incorporates attempts to solve problems that are beyond the scope of expertise and training of a single professional. Therefore, the active involvement of nurses in interdisciplinary teams is vital for the provision of comprehensive and effective patient care that help in dealing with the evolving patient problems

The healthcare industry has intensely advanced throughout the world, in turn changing the principles that incorporate the practice and culture of nursing practice. Altering the model of care to a patient-centered mode signifies an organizational culture shift and requires the participation of executives at the senior level (Cliff, 2012). To practice this care to provide the best care possible, it goes beyond the nurse to all healthcare professionals and senior leadership. The days of patients and nurses following a physician’s order without favor to care has now loaned themselves to more of an interdisciplinary approach to practice. Though, it is encouraged that the patient makes decisions for themselves, after receiving the proper education and information on their condition. Part of the patient-centered care is to be the patients’ advocate, by letting them know you are there for them when they are unable to speak and advocate for themselves and what is in their best interest. That goes in hand with educating them on “self-management of care, health literacy, patient, and family education through nurse-patient communication and interaction (Finkelman & Kenner, 2016, p. 271).”

Nursing is also more than just following physicians’ orders, we as nurses need to be educated and have the ability to provide compassionate care. Nurses often provide information and insight gained from their relationship with their patient that can have a huge impact on their plan of care and final outcome. Nurses also need to be able to educate our patients, so they can be empowered to perform their own care as necessary. As the medical field continues to evolve and focus on interdisciplinary teams, nurses need to be prepared to fulfill their responsibility to their

This addressed ways in which the nurses could increase their participatory involvement in their professional community. One of the most telling facets of the meeting was the in depth discussion of key issues and challenges within the nurse force. Many issues broached during the meeting included ethical, emotional, relational and corporate concerns. The discourse on these pervasive problems served a few functional purposes. Firstly, they explained issues commonly faced by nurses, allowing people to find a sense of common ground. The communal dilemma among all nurses suddenly became evident, in spite of their differences in education or background. This served to advance and evolve the nurses as a whole, making them more empathetic contributors to the healthcare field.

Nursing is a valued profession that serves to protect, promote, and optimized the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities, and populations through care, regardless of age, race, sex, diagnosis, financial stability, and abilities or disabilities. As time progressed, nursing has been regarded as a human science, in which it not only requires one to be knowledgeable and skilful in the field of health care, but they must also possess a strong desire and passion to care and help patients who are in their most vulnerable states. The primary goal of nursing is empowerment of patient through advocacy, health promotion and education, along with direct care.

Advocacy nursing roles are very interesting ranging from patients to the healthcare field. Patients look to nurses for support, comfort, and other needs and concerns. We are a lock-key type of relationship and want to be able to communicate properly their course of treatment with them and their family members. We also have to ensure they are receiving highest quality treatment from the moment they interact with us to the final step.

More strategies that can be implemented are for RN who aren’t ethically prepared are: Training in ethics portion while hiring newly graduated nurses Hospitals, clinics and the different facilities/organizations should have in-services: Educate the staff, interns, volunteers and students about the code of ethics

But, for nurses to actively engage in such teamwork allows them to shape individual nursing leadership. This recommendation initiated by the RNAO proves that creating an environment that allows and supports such interprofessional teamwork, has shown to have increased job satisfaction, increased work effectiveness, increased empowerment and autonomy, enhanced quality of practice and care, enhanced staff relationships, and increased trust in the leader (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, 2013, p. 42). As said, the nurse used this method when she had called PSM who specialized in palliative patients. Getting PSM’s insight allowed for the proper care to be implement. This recommendation again, would be most effective during rounds, as discussing with other health care providers allows for other insights and other professions to be involved when appropriate.

Research is not new to nursing but the focus of the research has expanded in light of the occupation evolving into an emerging profession. One of the most significant areas of research involves creating and articulating the principle definition of nursing (Hood, 2014, p. 120). Conducting this qualitative research will allow the nursing profession to separate itself and its definition from the medical profession. This aspect of research is important because until nursing separates its definition from medicine the profession will not stand as an equal partner with other members in the health care delivery team.