Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

The nurses have a complex behavior expected of them. However, nursing has faced insurmountable problems throughout a long time and turbulent history due to some considerable differences in one or more nursing institutions. These differences come as a result of an effort of trying to be stable at the same time conducting innovation and also an attempt to bring change whilst holding firmly to the old useful practices of nursing. To their much commendation is their attempt to keep pace with the rapidly changing technological and social structure (Mussallem, 2010).  The main aim of this essay is to study in depth the main cause of changes that have occurred on the nurses’ role and how this has affected their relationship with other health professionals.Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

There are many regulations that govern blood bankers to ensure that blood is donated processed and transfused as required by health standards. This was purely a role of laboratory technologists but the nurses were involved along the line of this process especially in the transfusion process such as those in providing emergency.  According to the Malaysian code of conduct, they are required to ensure that blood storage facilities are maintained properly. Also, the person in charge of healthcare facility such as do the nurses in the new evolved roles shall be under adequate control and supervision of the facility (REPRINT Act 586 PRIVATE HEALTHCARE, 2006).

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The nursing role can be discussed under a number of contexts but that in which the nurse’s role as attending to sick human beings. This role of a nurse, especially regarded as a “white collar job,’’ has not been spared by the forces of a changing society. Previously, nurses considered themselves as ministering angels, competent and skilled technicians and as champions of total care.  Some of the difficulties encountered are identifying the common role of nurse when some who work in a variety of situations think of themselves as nurses. For instance, the person working as a receptionist in a doctor’s office and a sterilizer operator in a hospital may consider themselves as nurses. But in the really sense nurses are trained individuals trained for a period of about three years  spent in a hospital setting, with minimum academic qualifications and ranging up to Ph.D. These involve professional training in both practical and theory.Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

One discrepancy with nursing is that the training period is long with high requirements during the learning and yet the rewards are discouraging. The notion that it is usually followed by females may be associated poorly rewards not matched with training and responsibility since females are assumed to follow easier and unimportant tasks. The nurses are expected to portray a high sense of professionalism with extensive knowledge of pharmacology as well as physical and biological sciences. In addition they need to be great economists to allocate time, effort, and materials efficiently. She is expected to cope with feelings, sentiments of colleagues, patients and herself and also emotions in order to be an effective performer (Kluwer & Williams, n.d.).

Changing roles of nurses is illustrated in such a great spectrum of practices. The nurses have now tended to redefine their role so that they see themselves as managers, a status which they take pride of. In this case, they work hard for the incorporation of constructive comprehensive care, which are practices and attitudes, into the clinical routines of the organizational body they work for. This comprehensive care will do much in the give the true function of nursing its proper meaning and also bring restoration of individuality, dignity and to a great extent a sense of worth of patients. Similarly, they have started to learn and effectively use the administration techniques more assuredly than they do now. Being in the chain of command her behavior is political and hence she exercises power and authority and these they use to pursue their professional goals.

The nurses’ role has been very important in the past yet can be more significant if it is combined with new techniques associated with their emerging role. With confidence, they need to move to their collective future in both their abilities and aspirations to attain their professional as well as personal goals (Kluwer & Williams, n.d.).Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

The role of the nurses to care for the sick has become more complicated over time which partly due to understaffing of the hospitals and tight budgets. Further, the nurses have an extra role to care growing complex cases of diabetes and obesity together with many others such as cancer. In addition to care for the sick, they are publishing scientific materials, give the TED talks; they address healthcare policy and develop mobile medical applications which were previously left to other professional workers. They achieve this through collaboration with other professionals such as oncologists, social workers and public safety personnel (Triffin, 2012). As the code of conduct of Malaysia dictates, “Nurses in Malaysia works collaboratively and co-operatively with other members of the healthcare team. She does not hesitate to consult appropriate professional colleagues when needed” (Nursing Board Malaysia, n.d).Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

Currently, due to a growth in technology, many opportunities have been created for nurses such as PhD and DNP nurses and nurse anesthetics. Also, they now don’t have to look at the symptoms of patients alone but also at the health of the community at large and see the trends in which illnesses fit into national disease using health information databases. This is in addition to their ability to connect with technology to make systems such as built-in sensors for measuring vital signs more user- friendly. To curb the high costs care of patients with chronic diseases in hospitals, nurses will soon be able to use new at-home monitoring programs to see patients on webcasts. Since some patients use online resources for their own treatment, nurses will have to serve as health technology librarians (Traffin, 2012).

The boundaries drawn for nurses have a wide range. The consequences of trespassing them bear great consequences irrespective of vulnerabilities. For instance, there are malpractice costs which are proportional to the number of claims. The new technological developments embraced by the nursing practitioners are the common causes of violation of the boundaries. The negative effects are that the nurse has to give malpractice payments (Professional Boundaries in Nursing, n.d.).

According to a study by Nemie as reported by Vanaki and Memarian(2009), nurses must be accountable to their clients, to the nursing profession and also to the employing agency. A question however arises whether nurses are allowed to make decisions for accountability purposes since patients were seen to deteriorate in their conditions as they waited to be attended by the physician. The nurses in this case are not allowed to act autonomously as that would amount to violation of boundaries (Professional Boundaries in Nursing, n.d.).Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

Crossing of boundaries set by the nurses can sometimes extend past the transactions that brought the patient or a client to the hospital. This can be failed business transactions such as a nurse selling property to a former patient who is later declared bankrupt. There have also been reports sexual and nonsexual violations in the psychiatric contexts. One limitation of the theory is that it is one sided, that is, only on the nurses but the nurses are unaware of yet they constantly initiate the violations. The novices are always vulnerable to the tendency of trying to please the patients and thus the therapists’ turning to patients for solace as a result of aging, marital conflict and dissatisfaction and  career disappointments is a shameful violation of the boundaries. The approaches to reduce the violations are basically through training supervision and consultation, (Donna et al., 2003).Changing Role of the Nurses Essay

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According to connate theory, violations of professional nursing boundaries come in different ways and are always almost unavoidable by almost all nurses. The limits for nursing professional practice apply both to the novice and the experts. They are basically both emotional and especially physical barriers that must be maintained between nurses and patients. The outcome of crossing these boundaries mostly affects the patients directly. If nurses gossip between each other leads the patients to feel sorry and sympathetic to the nurses which should not be the case. The patients are instilled with fear when the nurses discuss issues such as understaffing or the difficult they face in performing some tasks. The other common outcome is a two in one consequence and it involve paying claims after being implicated and if there is defiance, then a nurse can lose her job (Holland, n.d.).

Conclusion

Professional nursing boundaries are the values and roles which outline the services specifically by nurses and also limit them on other practices they are to avoid. These boundaries apply to all nurses as stipulated by a countries code of conduct. The roles they played in the past years are slowly changing to give room to changes brought about by new technology.Changing Role of the Nurses Essay