Quality of Nursing – Nursing is a profession within the healthcare sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other healthcare providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses practice in many specialisms with differing levels of prescriber authority.
Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurses are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings depending on training level. In the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.
Nurses develop a plan of care, working collaboratively with physicians, therapists, the patient, the patient’s family, and other team members, that focus on treating illness to improve quality of life. Nurses may help coordinate the patient care performed by other members of an interdisciplinary healthcare team such as therapists, medical practitioners, and dietitians. Nurses provide care both interdependently, for example, with physicians, and independently as nursing professionals.
Quality of Nursing
Quality is the result of assessing patient needs an delivering care to meet those needs. Quality frame work proposed by Donabedian is often used in health care organizations. Three elements of this frame work are structure, process and outcomes.
Structure elements of quality
Identify what structures must be in place, such as number of nursing staff, equipment’s, in environment standard etc.
Process elements of quality
Identify what nursing interventions must be in place deliver quality such as managing the care process. Utilizing clinical practice guidelines or standards nursing intervention, administering medication etc.
Outcomes elements of quality
Review the status of patients after interventions have been delivered. Example of outcome quality measures include length of stays, rate of nosocomial infection, falls etc.
Qualities and Characteristics of a Good/Professional Nurse
The professional nurse must have certain qualities and characteristics, in order to be considered a good professional. These are:
- Nurse must be mature physically and emotionally (good physical and mental health).
- Nurse must have an up to date knowledge.
- Nurse must keep herself clean, tidy and well groomed.
- Nurse must be dependably clever, gentle, sympathetic, cheerful alert, tactful kind and honest.
- Nurse must inspire confidence in others and in herself
- Nurse must be intelligence
- Nurse must be open minded, cooperative, responsible and able to develop good interpersonal relations.
- Nurse must be a good leader.
- Nurse must have positive attitude towards caring.
- Nurse must be truthful efficient in technical competence
- Nurse should be responsible of family society and not particularly devoted to the patients
- Nurse should have self-belief towards human care and cure.
- Nurse should convey cooperative attitude towards co-workers. In turn they will develop greater respect for the nurse, who is courteous and considerate.
Or
- Intelligence
- Good physical and mental health
- Alertness and love for fellow human beings.
- Technical competence
- Dependability
- Ability to inspire confidence
- Resourcefulness
- Poise
- Consideration for others
- Ability
- Co-operations
- Professional responsibility
- Genuineness, honesty and loyalty
- Non-possessive warmth and dignity
- Accurate empathy, sympathy, courtesy.
- Concreteness in communication
- Immediacy in communication
- Sensitive confrontation
- Patience and sense of humour.
Role and Responsibilities of Student Nurse
Nursing student nurses are held to the same standards of care as are registered nurses. Nurses must be familiar not only with their state’s standards of practice, but also with the policies and procedures in which they have their clinical experiences. Their instructor is responsible for making assignments that are within their competence and for providing clinical supervision. However, this does not excuse from own legal responsibilities.
- Prepare carefully for each clinical experience
- Never attempt a procedure or make a judgment about which we feel unsure. If we lack the theoretical or practical knowledge for an assignment, notify our clinical instructor immediately.
- Notify our instructor or a stuff nurse if our patient’s condition changes significantly.
Ethical and legal issues are a major source of conflict for nursing practice. It is important to be clear in our mind that “legal” and “ethical” are not always the same things.
The component of basic nursing care
- Helping the patient with proper respiration.
- Helping the patient with eating and drinking.
- Helping the patient with elimination.
- Helping the patient to maintain desirable posture in walking, sitting and lying and moving from one posture to another.
- Helping the patient for better rest and sleep.
- To encourage/motivate the patient for respect with his/her own faith.
- Helping the patient to maintain body temperature within normal range by adjusting clothing & modifying the environment.
- Helping the patient to keep the body clean and well groomed and protect the integument (Skin).
- Helping the patient to avoid danger in the environment and protecting others from any potential danger from the patient.
- Such as infection or violence. Helping the patient communicate with others to express his emotions, needs, feelings.
- Helping the patient with religious practices or condition to patient’s concept of right or wrong.
- Helping the patient with work or productive occupation.
- Play or participate in various forms of recreational activities.
- Helping the patient to learn, discover or satisfy the curiosity that lead to normal development & health.
Punctuality is Important for a Good Nurse
Punctuality is important in all workplaces, but especially in those that employ nurses. Shift changes and rotations must occur like clockwork to ensure that there are no gaps in patient care. Patient consultations, lab tests, surgeries, patient follow-up calls, medicine disbursement, medical treatments and administrative tasks run on a tight schedule at most hospitals and clinics.
Without punctuality, patient needs go unmet and doctors can’t perform their responsibilities in a timely and effective manner.
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