Nurses changing channel for televisions, pouring a cup of water and feeding the mother dinner while the daughter sits and watch are a common sight in our local hospital setting. We are being regarded as maids and people who can be pushed around as public have got the mind-set that we are depending on them for a living. It is necessary to be educating our public that nurses’ roles are more than just assisting patient despite having family members at their bedside. The responsibilities of nurses are higher than just preventing bedsores from developing on a bedbound patients. There might be a patient’s life depending on the nurses’ punctuality of administering a medication.
Roles of nurses (From then till now)
In the early years, …show more content…
With the set of Code of Ethics and professional conduct to abide to, this made nursing more known as professionals. “Being autonomous, carrying out responsibility towards others and being accountable for our own actions are three major components that measure the professionalism of a nurse. Autonomy is having independence on a particular situation and making appropriate and precise decision.” (Mosby, 2011, p.74) Despite involving the freedom to act, we have to bear in mind that the contribution to a total client care is actually interdependent and it involves other healthcare professionals such as the doctors, physiotherapists and also the dieticians. Thus, abiding to policies and standards of practice is crucial in order to prevent complications and unwanted issues from arising. Proper nursing education and an oversight to ensure competent practices in the clinical setting is necessary too. Responsibility is another component which makes nursing the most vulnerable profession as it carries a thousand loads. From having to build trust and collaborate working with another colleague in a considerate way to being an informer to clients in making treatment choices and highlighting the importance of self-caring for themselves and also taking charge of their own health. The ability to establish and maintain a good rapport with patients and family is a good platform to enabling a nurse to have active collaboration of patient and family in choosing their own care. The last aspect of a nursing profession is accountability which means being answerable for any actions taken on a patient under the care of the particular nurse. Apart from all these, as quoted from (Houle, 1980) “qualities of a the profession is also define as an idea of mission available to change, mastery of theoretical understanding, chance to solve problems, utilization of theoretical understanding, ongoing seeking of self-enhancement