Nurses’ Roles and Competencies Required in Promoting, Maintaining, and Restoring Health – 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.
Nurses’ Roles and Competencies Required in Promoting, Maintaining, and Restoring Health
The nurses’ roles and competencies required in promoting, maintaining and restoring health are –
1. Care giver
2. Teacher
3. Counselor
4. Diagnostic and monitoring role
5. Administering and monitoring treatment regimens
6. Manager
7. Researcher
8. Monitoring and ensuring care quality.
9. Change agent
10. Client advocate
Nurses Roles
1. Caregiver:
a) As a caregiver, a nurse provides hands-on care to patients in a variety of settings.
b) This includes physical needs, which can range from total care (doing everything for someone) to helping a patient with illness prevention.
c) The nurse maintains a patient’s dignity while providing knowledgeable, skilled care.
2. Teacher
a) Educate the patient to develop self-care abilities
b) Provide knowledge to allow pt. to make informed decisions
c) Demonstrate needed skills
d) Promote health, prevent illness, restore health & facilitate coping
3. Counselor
a) Assist and guide patient in solving problems or making decisions
b) Utilize the interpersonal (helping) relationship
c) Provides emotional, intellectual to and psychological support
4. Diagnostic and monitoring role
This is a critical role that nurses do on a regular basis to identify nursing problems:
a) In some groups of patients such as those in critical care settings.
b) In some vulnerable groups such as the elderly or patients with impaired cognitive function, this role is prominent and requires knowledgeable and skillful nurses to early detect serious problems.
c) Being assessors, nurses identify problems, causes and risk factors.
d) Therefore they are able to alleviate suffering, prevent complications and relapse of their client health problems.
5. Administering and monitoring treatment regimens
Nurses as treatment caretaker-
a) Nurses work in collaboration with physicians.
b) Physicians’ prescriptions are delivered to the patients by nurses. Such as –
- Medication.
- Fluid infusion.
- Blood transfusion.
- Drawing blood for diagnostic tests.
c) Carrying out this role, the client receives full range of treatment regiments.
6. Manager
a) Plans
b) Organizes
c) Directs
d)control
e) Delegates
7. Researcher
a) Collect data to improve nursing practice
b) Provides info for evidenced-based practice
c) Studies are done on nursing practice, education & administration
d) Provides professionalism to nursing
8. Monitoring and ensuring care quality
a) Nurses are also involved in evaluating and modifying the overall quality of care given to groups of clients.
b) Nursing efforts are to monitor and improve patient care services through quality assurance, quality improvement.
9. Change agent
a) Initiate changes or assist clients to make modifications in themselves or in the system of care.
10. Client advocate
a) Protect and support the patient.
b) Patient representative for All patient.
c) Provides explanation in client’s language and support client’s decisions.
d) Assertiveness
e) Promote self determination
Other Additional Roles of a Nurse:
1. Coordinator
a) Coordinates and plans care
b) Piece together fragmented care
2. Communicator
a) Establish rapport
b) Establish therapeutic (helping) relationship
c) Be aware of verbal & nonverbal communication
d) Assertive communicator
3. Leader
a) Have visions to energize others
b) Motivates others to achieve goals
c) Encourages others to do their best
4. Motivator
a) Motivation- Internal impulse that allows one to take action or change behaviors.
b) Nurses motivate patients to make changes by: having a positive attitude, listening to patient needs, encouraging, rewarding, and devoting time and energy to assist with changes.
5. Critical Thinker
a) A way of looking at problems other than the obvious
b) “Thinking outside the box”
c) Open to new ideas
6. Innovator
a) Takes action to make things happen
b) Initiates change
c) Sees a problem and looks for solutions. Instead of, “Oh well, there’s nothing that can be done about it” the innovator will be proactive.
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