Professional Nursing: Emerging and Growing Through Research
Nursing as a profession involves multidisciplinary and holistic approaches to integrate the essence of scientific practices into compassionate and humanistic approaches in rendering care to patients. It is an art that reflects an expression of science, emotions, power and creativity to deliver the so-called “tailored” delivery of patient care. From the time of Florence Nightingale up to the present, countless developments and improvements in the field of nursing evolved. This is the outcome of thorough research activities that influenced the modernization of this noble profession. Nursing research is critical to the practice of professional nursing, it is a continuous process that entails identification
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The information is disseminated to nurses to be applied and incorporated into practice to be a better advocate for patients and to provide optimal nursing care (Tingen, Burnett, Murchison, & Zhu, 2013).
Defining Fundamental Pattern of Nursing Knowledge
As a nursing professional, several aspects of knowledge are involved in the application of care. The fundamental pattern of nursing knowledge starts with science or empirical evidences governed by factual and explicit information and acceptable knowledge, such as the procedures and guidelines of nursing practice. It is derived from scientific methodology that supports the intellectual explanation of health and illness phenomena and the processes involve in the cycle of human life. (Carper, 1978). The second pattern represents the esthetic part of nursing knowledge which is also known as the art of nursing. The concept that is represented in this pattern is the expressive nature of delivery of care rather than descriptive and objective in nature.
Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses who have received special courses and training. They usually work closely with doctors and can perform many high-level primary care tasks. They often specialize in specific types of practice such as pediatrics, psychiatry, or obstetrics. Some establish private practices; however, most work in doctors' offices, hospitals, or neighborhood health centers. Their duties often include taking detailed medical histories and performing complete physical exams, providing diagnoses and recommending treatment plans, treating common medical conditions, illnesses, and injuries, prescribing limited medications, and counseling patients and families. They also care
Nursing education is constantly evolving as new techniques are introduced within the medical profession. Thus, it is imperative nurses are kept updated, and continuously learning new methods to enhance and improve patient care. Over the last 150 years there has been a drastic change in nursing`s participation in research. Nursing research advanced initially from the investigations made by Nightingale in the nineteenth century of nursing education during the 1930`s. This further progressed to the research of nursing roles in 1950s following on to the 1990s where nurses began to focus on clinical problems and finding solutions to these problems which had a major impact within the nursing profession. As of today many health professionals are focusing on clinical research which in turn has helped to establish an evidence informed practice for nurses. (Burns and Grove 2003)
Nursing care is a dynamic field of practice. The way it looks today is far out greater intense and very structured. It advances itself by the use of nursing theories and evidence based practice. Policies and procedures constantly change with the advancement of technology and science. While caring for the patient in the given case studies, a nurse involved utilizes practical knowledge, a culture care model and transpersonal caring relationship to attain a caring environment (Smith & Parker, 2015).
Nursing is the most trusted and reliable profession leading in the transformation of healthcare. “Nursing helps to promote, protect, and optimization of health and abilities to prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities and populations” (American Nursing Association, 2017). Nursing offered careers for both men and women and it is the profession that provides healthcare everywhere. Society has great expectations for this profession. Caregivers are one the reasons why nursing is seen as the engine room of healthcare system. In the quest to provide preventive and restorative measures. There are three basic career guides which are; education, job opportunities, and salary.
The knowing addresses how nurses understand the knowledge. The doing of nursing entails the actions of nurses, bringing both knowledge and practice together (Butts and Rich, 2015). The four patterns of knowing, developed by Carper, include empirics. ethics, aesthetics, and personal knowledge. Empirical knowledge is the scientific aspect of knowing. It is based on general knowledge, and usually shared with other disciplines such sociologists and psychologists. Ethical knowledge involves morals and judgement. This is used when determining right or good acts in nursing practice, ensuring that the best decision is made and is right for the patient. Aesthetic knowledge, the art aspect of nursing, involve of the nurse’s understanding and acknowledgment of other’s living experiences. Showing empathy and respect to patients as they experience their life’s journey. Personal knowledge entails self-awareness and others, and interpersonal skills. These four patterns of knowing shows that nursing practice consist of holistic patient care, and not being solely scientific
In this essay we are going to explore the connection between professional nursing practice and professional caring. I will outline the terms of professional nursing practice and what makes nursing a profession? I will describe the term of professional caring and the connection to the nursing practice and discuss the dilemma of care and cure. And also determine the importance of both in professional nursing practice.
There are different types of knowledge and different ways of knowing. Four fundamental concepts of knowing in nursing highlighted by Caper (1978) are empirical, personal, ethical and aesthetic. He divided knowledge into two forms which are tacit and explicit. Tacit is insights and based on experience and not easily visible and expressible, difficult to share and communicate with others which is highly personal. Empirical sources of knowledge depend upon an individual’s manner of observing and responding to events in the outside world (Higgs et al, 2004). Whereas explicit is formal and based on rationality and easily can be expressed, shared, communicate which are highly universal principles. Rationalism comes from within the individual and
Carper (1978) identified four fundamental patterns of knowing which are (1) empirics, or the science of nursing; (2) personal knowledge; (3) esthetics, or the art of nursing; and (4) ethics, or the moral component of nursing. The purpose of this discussion is to explain how each pattern of knowing affects this author’s practice, and to identify the author’s preferred paradigm and provide justification for choosing this paradigm.
Nursing care incorporates not only a compassionate attitude but passion for care of patients. The caring component of nursing cannot be measured, rather dissected through theory within the clarification of what nurses do. Systemically this is all supported through abundant theories and theorist. The nursing profession emphasizes on holistic care which is defined as treatment of the whole person. Within this skill is the admittance of problems that are biomedical but also opportune clarification of the well-being and health of a human that introduces added indicators of disease that are non-visualized (Powers, 2011).
Currently, nurses gain nursing knowledge through various sources, such as journals, research articles, books, Internet etc. Nursing knowledge is the basis for conducting research in nursing. This knowledge can be obtained by nurses through personal experience and clinical practice. Carper (1975, 1978) illustrates that the level of understanding is governed by four basic patterns such as Empirics, Aesthetics, personal knowledge
Research is an essential tool in nursing practice; it been an important link in best nursing care since the days of Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale participated in nursing
Since its establishment as a profession more than a century ago, Nursing has been a source for numerous debates related to its course, methods and development of nursing knowledge. Many nursing definitions and theories have evolved over time. Furthermore it is in a constant process of being redefined.
So many people say saving lives takes hard work and extensive training, but are they really dedicated to do the work it takes. Medical school takes hard work and so much time to do the work as being a nurse. Being a nurse you have to have the heart and the great skills to be the best care giver you could be to a patient in need for help. Not only are you impacting someone else life but you are also impacting yourself with the great benefits they offer you, the way the patients acknowledge you by your hard work. Nurses make sure they have the care they need. Nursing is one of the most longest working shifts in the medical field you will ever experience.
Modern nursing is a rewarding, but challenging, career choice. The modern nurse's role is not limited only to assist the doctor in procedures, however. Instead, the contemporary nursing professional takes on a partnership role with both the doctor and patient as advocate caregiver, teacher, researcher, counselor, and case manager. The caregiver role includes those activities that assist the client physically, mentally, and emotionally, while still preserving the client's dignity. In order for a nurse to be an effective caregiver, the patient must be treated in a holistic manner. Within the subject of nursing, there are often times in which different aspects of the practice must be analyzed by using primary research from other scholars. Nursing scholarship is vital to the profession, as we have seen, in order for the modern nurse to remain current with scholarship and practice. At the very core of this paradigm, though, is the manner in which the blend of art and science in nursing will be expressed to others, to the next generation, and through pedagogical theory (Alligood & Tomey, 2002). To do this, however, requires a new approach to the paradigm of nursing leadership strategic thinking, planning and action and above all appropriate integration of a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach to professional nursing.
The theory of nursing discipline has been adapted from various discipline such as which acts a bridge which focuses on providing complete healthcare to patient. Hence, Nurses are taught the basics of those disciplines and are well diverse in them as well. For example, when a patient gets admitted to the ward, it is the nurse who assess the patient’s condition to assess and identify the need for the involvement of other disciplines like dietitian, speech therapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, medical social