Understand The Duties And Responsibilities Of A Professional Nurse

Nursing is one of the most intimate health care professions. They are connected to their patients as soon as they are admitted into their care right through until they are discharged into someone else’s care. With this, nurses have a strict professional identity and scope of practice to prevent a nurse from over stepping their professional boundaries. A nurses’ duty of care does go beyond the average healthcare professional but still does not impair the

Nursing is a career that is governed by a set of ethical principles. The duties of a nurse consist of care and support and its important that nurses are aware of their professional ethics. These principles are put into place to uphold and maintain moral values in healthcare. The American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics for nurses consists of nine provisions, outlined in the Code of Ethics for nurses with Interpretive Statements. These provisions are constructed to blueprint the role and responsibilities of a nurse. The chosen provisions being discussed will refer to the three main principles of patient autonomy, patient confidentiality, and patient rights.

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).

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).

I learned that as a nurse it is my duty to always consider my own well being, along with my patient’s. I must keep a high moral character both in the workplace and in my personal life. I must continue to educate myself and keep myself up to date with all the latest nursing practices and research. I must subject myself to peer review and evaluation. I must never let my personal feelings about a patient’s lifestyle affect my care for them. When met with a tough choice that places me in an ethical crisis I must keep a good head on my shoulders and always have my patient’s best interests in mind. If I feel that a situation at work is in direct conflict with my personal values or my oath to be an ethical nurse I must go through the proper channels to work through the problem.

The ANMC (2010, pp.6) state on the topic of confidentiality, that nurses must insure the information obtained in a professional setting remain private and that information received is not used by nurses to give them an advantage or power in any way. Education in the matter is one solution to guarantee the boundaries and to keep a professional position. These breaches can be classified as boundary crossings, boundary violations or sexual misconduct and can lead to violations of a nurse’s professional responsibility causing consequences to occur.

As healthcare providers, maintaining a patient’s confidentiality, human dignity and privacy is expected at all times. Nurses are faced with maintaining patient confidentiality on a daily basis. The Coded of Ethics for Nurses is the framework of nonnegotiable ethical standards and obligations that all nurses are to uphold. Nurses are to be accountable for their actions and are expected to advocate and strive to protect the rights, health and safety of patients (American Nurses Association, 2011).

In a true therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, establishing trust is a key factor to promote quality and compassionate care. This trust can be easily jeopardized by a breach in confidentiality of the patient’s personal health information. This paper will focus on the importance of confidentiality as it relates to nursing and patient information and the vulnerabilities that can attribute to breaches of that information. Whether verbal, electronic, or written documentation, confidentiality must encompass all information obtained about a patient and exist only on a need to know basis among those healthcare professionals involved in that patient’s care. In today’s age of information technology and the use of electronic medical records, a patient’s personal health information may be vulnerable to inappropriate misuse. When confidentiality is broken then the ever important nurse-patient relationship is broken. The ethical dilemmas and legal issues that accompany confidentiality breaches can result in large fines and lawsuits against healthcare facilities and also end nursing careers. It is the patient’s right to have his or her personal medical information protected at all times and the nurse must understand the responsibility to protect that right is an important factor in maintaining the nurse-patient relationship.

Nurses are subject to a plethora of legal, ethical, and professional duties which can be very challenging on a day to day basis. Some of these duties include respecting a patient 's confidentiality and autonomy, and to recognize the duty of care that is owed to all patients. As nurses our duties are always professional; however there are legal implications if these duties are breached. We also must consider when it is okay as nurses to breach these duties and therefore ethical issues arise. As nurses one of our main priorities is to advocate for our patients, without our own personal feelings on the matter taking over.

A professional nurse is one who puts the needs and importance of patient care above all others. While striving for professionalism, nurses need compassion, patience, empathy, strong moral and ethics, accountability and the commitment to always act in the best interest of their patients. Nurses are held accountable for providing quality, safe, and effective nursing care (Hood, 2014). A professional nurse has the responsibility to continually improve and implement nursing standards while maintaining integrity by involving themselves in various tasks. Regular involvement in reading professional literature and sharing of evidence- based research with other healthcare personal helps increase knowledge and skills. This nursing ability can be used to encourage the actions of others in the healthcare team resulting in improved patient care. Nurses should encourage each other to become involved in hospital committees, provide an environment to encourage the discussions of ethical dilemmas, promote professional growth of nurses to voice their concerns and share viewpoints to address issues. “A professional nurse should expect to commit to a life of continuous learning growth and development”. (Hood, 2014, pp. 29). Nurses choose this profession to help others. As professional nurses we must maintain our ethics, values, characteristics, and commitment to drive our profession forward (CCN, 2015). Nurses must be autonomous, accountable, and be able to delegate to unlicensed assistive personnel. Being autonomous as a nurse means having control over their practice (Hood, 2014). It allows a nurse to take risks while being held accountable for ones’ actions (Hood, 2014).

This essay will discuss why confidentiality is important within nursing practice and the reasons why a registered nurse and student nurse are accountable and to whom they are accountable to in relation to patient care. It will further discuss patient’s rights in relation to law.

Leeanne, I realized you point. There some good doctors that appreciate what nurses are doing. They understand the practice of nursing and they even give kudos to nurses’ work. Unlike others among the doctors that think they are superior to nurses. Some physician trust and believe in nurses, because they realized that without nurses, high quality of patients’ care can never be

Nursing is one of the most trusted professions in the community. This means that nurses are trusted to enter into therapeutic relationships that adhere to the concept of patient care physically, mentally and ethically. The therapeutic relationship that is created is built on the professional knowledge and skills of the nurse and the patient trusting in the nurse’s ability to care for them. Professional boundaries are an intricate aspect of a nurse’s daily work. These boundaries are based on trust, respect and the appropriate use of power. Breaches can be classified as boundary crossings, boundary violations or sexual misconduct. Breaches of boundaries lead to violations of a nurse’s professional responsibility. Nurses must maintain

I value that I am a resilient woman who has the courage to try and tackle challenges. I am hardworking, empathetic, jovial and a natural leader. However, as member of a health care time there is often the issue of when is a good time to lead and when is a good time to follow? However, I find that when working in a team I am able to balance my role in order to meet the goals of my team. I am also an efficient listener. Each time my patients share grievances with me, such as mistrust in a healthcare professional, I do my best to alter the way I provide care to ensure the patient develops trust in my ability as their provider. I greet the patients every time I enter the department and I make sure to spend time to explain their illness while adding

Nursing is a complicated profession. It is an occupation regulated by specific organizations like the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (Health Professions Act, 2015). This writing assignment briefly clarifies nurses’ roles as assistances and leaders, heroes and mothers due to their influence on the health care system and to the patients.