The nursing profession: development, challenges

Nurses are the largest group of healthcare professionals, serving even in the most remote areas. Because nurses are the health care workers most closely involved with patients, their families, and communities, they have intimate knowledge of the underlying causes of ill-health. Using their voice in activism and innovation they can bring real change to the health of communities. History shows us that this is not a new call on nurses and, though the language used is old-fashioned, the following might as well have been written today.

We need a whole army of energetic and courageous nurses with the spirit of the old pioneers, but with better preparation than theirs, to open up new fields and to challenge the difficult and complicated problems of our own day.

Current discussions on the issues in the nursing profession still echo the following written by Lavinia Dock in The global issue which never end. We can say that the receipee is almost similar but only in different plate. I agreed with the writer mentioned that there are also Nurse Leaders are not supporting Nursing Education for the Higher Learning as they see students could fill up the staffing gap.

Make use of students as a pair of hands in the clinical areas. We must move on and be. Bold , Brave and Be Brave always. As Wise old sayings…. Great Crisis is produce great men and great deeds ofCourage. Detours and dead ends for theory development involved metatheory debates and specific events. Challenges identified relate to rapid changes in society, healthcare, and science.

A pathway for the future is presented in a figure with its description of the structure of nursing knowledge. In fact, many nurses are part of the baby boomer generation and are slowing down themselves. The baby boomer generation started making their way to the age of retirement in In , 26 percent of the U. Soon, this large group of people will require more care, more hospital stays, more nursing home beds, and more nursing care as they age and their health begins to deteriorate.

A large influx of patients in a field already short on nursing staff. Not only are the baby boomers large in numbers, they are smart! The days of just telling patients to take a pill are in the past. These patients are able to monitor things that were at one time only monitored by nurses.

Bullying and harassment by patients and their family members is an additional source of bullying. Medscape published the results of a poll showing that 71 percent of nurses had experienced being harassed by a patient. This could take the form of stalking or inappropriate communication, whether in person or via social media. While this is one of the more daunting challenges of nursing, nurses must choose to stand up to bullies of any kind and demand respectful behavior from patients and peers alike.

A continued shortage of nurses is one of the ongoing challenges of nursing. This contributes to nurses being stretched thin and overworked. With more people having access to health insurance, more baby boomers living longer and fewer nurses available to replace those who are retiring, many hospitals today are short-staffed. Nurses often see their role as a calling, and not being able to provide as much direct patient care as they feel is necessary is unmotivating and stressful.

Back in the eighties and nineties, pagers revolutionized how nurses and patients communicated. Fast-forward twenty years and those pagers seem pretty outdated.

The communications systems modern hospitals and clinics have access to are sophisticated and efficient, allowing everyone on the medical staff to stay in touch with patients via smartphones and apps. Technological advancements have impacted the healthcare profession in positive and exciting ways, but technology also has created one of the newest challenges of nursing. Technology moves at a very fast pace, and new advances can have an immediate impact on the way nurses work, requiring nurses to continually learn new skills.

With the challenges of long hours, how can a nurse keep up with all the newly emerging data? For example, electronic records have made physical paper charts nearly obsolete.

Faxing medical records is also a thing of the past for the most part. Nurses are a resilient, proactive group, and dealing with and overcoming the challenges of nursing is part of what makes them so amazing at their jobs and how they care for their patients. To help your patients become healthy requires that you are healthy and feeling at your best.

When you leave work, leave work issues behind. Focus on your family. Eat nutritiously, get adequate rest, and take well-earned time for yourself. Even a short walk can refresh your perspective. Put your communication skills to work on your own behalf. Form positive relationships with those you work with and be collaborative. Be proactive and make your voice heard if you see or experience something that poses a safety risk—either to a patient or to the medical staff.

Even though nurses work in an environment populated by sick people, most of them never get sick. They become pros at knowing how to avoid germs and stay healthy during flu season. How do they do it? They wash their hands; they avoid handshakes or too close contact with their patients.

They keep surfaces clean and disinfected. It works! Practicing good hygiene, such as washing their hands thoroughly and frequently, covering their mouths when they cough and their noses when they sneeze, and not touching their face are all simple but surprisingly effective ways nurses can protect themselves.

In the hospital setting, nurses can make sure they wear personal protective equipment, commonly known as PPE. This includes wearing gloves to protect their hands, masks to protect their mouths and noses, goggles to protect their eyes, and gowns to protect their skin and other clothing.