The Core Principles of Nursing

For centuries the development of nursing knowledge has been influenced by numerous theorists and their respective theories. These theories have influenced, and continue to influence, nursing education, practice and research. (Johnson & Webber, 2005)

This is the fifth article in a nine-part series describing the Principles of Nursing Practice developed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in collaboration with patient and service organisations, the Department of Health, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, nurses and other healthcare

Nurses actively preserve the dignity of people through practiced kindness and respect for the vulnerability and powerlessness of people in their care… This vulnerability creates a power differential in the relationship between nurses and persons in their care that must be recognised and managed.7 A diagram representing a continuum of professional behaviour provides a picture of therapeutic versus non-therapeutic behaviour in the relationship between the nurse and the persons in their care.8

This essay will consider ethics in nursing, discuss values and morals and how dignity and respect in patient care is influenced; considering the importance of reflection and the implications it has on effective practice from the perspective of a student nurse. The scenario “Call Me Joe” provided by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2010a) highlights concerning issues and bad practice that are happening in modern day nursing practice, and using the Driscoll and Teh (2001) reflective model: What, Now What and So What, to consider the care that Joe is receiving; considering how the nursing practice affects him directly and the implications of the nature of knowledge in nursing practice. Part of the way in which nursing practice is

An underlining principle that forms all nursing practice is respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals. (Jimenez-Lopez, Roales-Nieto, Seco, Preciado, 2016) Nurses are to always treat all patients with dignity. For example, closing doors before you start providing patient care. It’s also essential as a nurse to respect patients regardless of their background, race, culture, value system, or spiritual belief. (Jimenez-Lopez, et al., 2016)

A nurse is given an opportunity to help patients, either if its by helping them through a very serious sickness or just helping a patient get to the bathroom on time, or a time when happiness is overfilling the room and a child is being born. Registered nurses provide a wide variety of patient care services (Mitchell, p.12). A Nurse must always know where to begin and where to stop, as any other career in the health field there is always something that cannot be done by everyone but only the certified person, a nurse must always remain inside her scope of practice to prevent any misunderstandings. A nurse must also follow a code of ethics , the code of ethics of the American Association of Medical Assistants states that a nurse should at all times render service with full respect and dignity of humanity, respect confidential information obtained by a patients file, uphold the honor and high principles the profession and accept its discipline, and last but not least always want to improve her services to better serve the health and well being of the community. (Mitchell, p.65).

dignity of the patient are essential components of caring. Caring in nursing is there to meet the

As a student nurse, I ascertain that the main principle in nursing is the care of my patients, to treat them as individuals and respect their dignity. I feel that it is fundamental to provide a high standard of practice and care at all times. To be open, honest and to work with integrity. The four main principles of the code that I will be working to are outlined by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (Guidance on professional conduct for students of Nursing and Midwifery, 2012).

Dignity is the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect. If you talk about someone’s condition and joke about it then you are not giving them dignity. Treat everyone as a unique person. If you laugh or joke around about their condition to their face tor ridicule them this is not giving them the dignity they deserve. Some people if they are being cared for may feel like they are losing dignity as they cannot dress or clean themselves. Some nurses make fun of the patient. This can lead to them losing confidence. If someone does lose confidence then you should still respect them and treat them with dignity. Some people might get angry if they have someone else washing them as it could be seen as

This essay is going describe the skills that student nurses need to demonstrate to show that they have a clear understanding of good nursing practice. This essay will focus on four inter-related skills that complement each other in achieving goals (Barker 2007). The goal that these nursing skills seek to achieve is good nursing practice as according to Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC 2008) mission of protecting the health and welfare of the public. NMC is the National Regulatory body that stipulates and regulates standards of education, training, and conduct of nurses and midwives throughout Great Britain and islands. They have published four core principles to ensure people are treated as individuals with respect and dignity

Dignity in the Nursing Care and Practice Nursing is a profession that embraces client centred care. According to the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (2006), client centred care demands that nurses advocate, empower, and respect the client’s autonomy, voice, self-determination and participation in decision making. It is our responsibility as frontline professionals to promote and raise awareness in the importance of dignity in nursing care and practice (Clark, 2010). It is our duty to protect our patients’ rights to dignity and to encourage health and social conditions that will allow patients to love and die with dignity (Potter, Perry, Stockert & Hall, 2014).

Human dignity is respect for an individual regardless of sex, race, or gender. This ethical principle promotes respect for life, freedom and privacy. A nurse can promote dignity by providing patient privacy during nursing care procedures, allowing independence, and upholding the cleanliness of the patient. For the nurse, human dignity does not only apply to patients but also to our peer and colleagues. The nursing student can promote human dignity by being respectful to his or her fellow classmates, faculty, and staff. They can also promote dignity by decreasing prejudice, judgment and competition among students (Shaw & Degazon, 2008).

Dignity is a core element of nursing care. In nurses' clinical practice, maintaining the dignity of patients is an important issue because a lack of dignity in care can affect the health and recovery of patients. To treat a patient with dignity is to treat them in a way that shows they are valued and important, in a way that is appropriate and respectful to the individual. A patient needs to feel safe and secure in the nurses care and should be made feel comfortable, in control and valued at all times.

Theory is a cluster of concept or ideas that propose a view concerning a phenomenon to guide nursing practice (Chitty, 2005). The four concepts basic to nursing that are incorporated in this paper are nursing, person, health, and environment (Cherry & Jacob, 2005). The goal of this paper is to describe the core concept of nursing shared amongst Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson’s theories. The comparison and analysis of concept definitions between these two theories will also examined. Finally Henderson’s theory of concept statement, metaparadigm and her philosophy will be explored.

The “No Lift” approach is advocated by Worksafe Victoria as best practice for patient manual handling in the healthcare industry. Identify two (2) control measures that fit under this “No Lift” approach and discuss how they reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injuries faced by nurses within Australia health care settings.