What Do Nurses Really Do?

Many things influence the image of nursing; one's own personal experiences, what nurses say, and what television and movies portray nurses as. This image has changed a lot over the years, but there are some things that have continued to affect the image that is not correct; for instance that nurses are the “Physician's assistant” or wait on orders of higher-ups. Some questions that are going to be answered about this image include: how the image has changed, who is defining the image, and how can this image be changed.

The medical field has changed so much in the last decade, and continues to change everyday. New information is always coming out on how to give better care to patients and not make mistakes when doing it. The latest project that has emerged is the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project. This project was started by the non-profit, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The project was stared to reduce the number of healthcare errors and to better prepare nurses for their roles in patient care. The six competencies that make up the QSEN project are as follows; Patient-centered care, Teamwork and collaboration, Evidence-based practice, Quality improvement, Safety, and Informatics.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) emerged because of a need for improved nursing education and nursing practice. The AACN continually recommends policies that develop nursing education programs. Subsequently, the AACN promotes exceptional patient care. Similarly, IOM assists healthcare facilities in both the government and private sector by providing evidence-based advice for health decisions (Wujcik, 2012). The IOM works to strengthen BSN curricula and to improve communication between health care team members. Correspondingly, QSEN promotes safety and quality in both nursing education and nursing practice. Even though AACN,

Throughout time, nurses have had many images portrayed by society. Typical stereotypes of nurses include angels of mercy, sexy female nurse, and assistant to the physician. American culture and media play a huge factor in influencing the public’s perception of nursing. A nurse’s image may be portrayed by what work assignment one has, or the image can be portrayed by how one does the assignment, how one speaks, and what is said. The physical image of nurses has changed from white dresses and nursing caps, to modern day scrubs. The face of nursing has also evolved from a profession of mostly women, to a growing number of men. Through the development of nursing protocols and guidelines, nurses have established themselves as professionals, but, despite the developments, society does not recognize nurses as the knowledgeable professionals they are.

Given that nurses encompass the largest part of health care workers, they devote the most time with patients, where they share an exceptional understanding of patients. Nurses bring critical, thoughtful solutions to many complex medical issues. Nurses witness health policies in action, such as access to care and conditions that impact patients and their

What does it take to be a safe nurse? The nursing profession offers many opportunities for error. Great challenges arise when trying to keep patients safe. Quality healthcare is defined by patient safety and the fulfillment of personal needs. Society, nurses, physicians, and patients themselves are responsible for ensuring that operational systems and methods are taken to illuminate the likelihood of errors occurring. As a nurse, it is important to make sure that the appropriate actions are being taken to limit the amount of mistakes that put patients and their families at risk. Although a nurse has to perform with a certain level of competency, there is always need for improvement when it comes to self-care, patient-care, and the environmental care.

Quality and safety competencies as a component of the nursing academic curriculum became a focus of reflection and debate after the publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports in 2000 and 2003. The IOM reports found clinical education was out dated with the changing healthcare systems, and patient populations. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) framework represents a national effort to redesign nursing education around knowledge, skills, and attitudes, which are crucial to improve patient safety (Cronenwett et al., 2007). Developed with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and building on the IOM reports, QSEN created a new paradigm for nursing education.

The nursing profession is a critical part to the healthcare system and in America millions of nurses work in many unique settings to provide their services to patients in need. They work with other health professionals and individually to deliver the health and well being of the

Media inaccurately portrays not only nurses, but physicians as well (Gray’s Anatomy, House). Hopefully, majority of public realizes that the negativity coming from opinionated media is just a tool to entertain and attract audience. Building trusting relationship between a nurse and a patient is crucial in the nursing profession. This is a first step that needs to be done in order to continue the job, and most of nurses know that. As nurses, we have ability to influence patient’s health. Nurses see patients at their worst when they are vulnerable. Most of time, nurses are a part of their support circle providing assistance and comfort when patients need the most.

Making small changes in units sometimes lights the spark that can promote critical thinking, aim for competence, affect the whole system, and can bring quality in care delivery. Quality improvement processes help to identify issues and barriers in care, design safety techniques to prevent errors in the future, and provide patient-centered care in terms of individual needs, differences, preferences, education, and coordinate care depending on the health needs of that individual (IOM, 2010). Nurses make up the largest workforce in the healthcare system and have the privilege to play a leading and fundamental role in the transformation and initiation of changes in the field. The use of competency of a nurse, especially the use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values, and reflections in practice, brings quality outcomes and improvement in care delivery (Rubenfeld & Scheffer, 2015). Patient-centered care is intertwined with quality and safety; to achieve high quality and safety, nurses have to understand the complexity of the work environment and engage in strategies to improve situations. Competency and knowledge of professionals play a major role in quality improvement. Effective, safe, timely, efficient, and equitable patient-centered care to customers bring quality to the nursing profession.

With rapidly advancing technology and the aging population, health care improvement remains at the center of providing proper patient care. However, it is imperative to ensure improvement is quality improvement, thus advancing patient care while still protecting patient safety. Quality and Safety Education in Nursing provides goals and guidelines for providing the best care. Prioritizing patient-centered care, quality improvement, and teamwork provides methods to increase patient safety, while excellent patient care can be maximized when striving to achieve cares that are safe, timely, efficient, effective, equitable, and patient-centered.

Nursing is a profession that takes up a role in providing quality health care for a patient and ensuring that the patient’s holistic health is being recovered. All nurses have different scope of practice, but it is up to the nurse to be able to delegate the appropriate care needed for the patient. According to Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiated a quality and safety competencies for nursing and proposed targets for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be developed in nursing pre-licensure program. Nurses are supposed to master Patient-Centered Care, Teamwork & Collaboration, Evidence Based Practice, Quality Improvement, Safety and Informatics (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses, 2014). Nurses should be able to

Nurses provide care for patients, residents, and clients. They also are the first to be in contact with the family of their patients, providing emotional support, and physical support as they help patients recover health and quality of life. Nurses are seen as caring, trusting and well-respected individuals. Moral beliefs and values are a foundation on which nursing stands. In addition, education has become an important aspect to being an effective nurse. I possess all of these qualities; compassion, a desire to develop my medical expertise, and the values that exist at the foundation of being a nurse.

Every human being deserves efficient and safe health care. Nurses are in the frontline of providing care and have a leading role in making our health care system safer and need to be better prepared with quality and safety competencies (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014). In the Institute of Medicines (IOM), To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System report opened the eyes of healthcare professionals to the importance of improving health care outcomes (Dolansky & Moore, 2013). Which spearheaded the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) to improve the quality of healthcare funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Dolansky & Moore, 2013). Moreover, the QSEN had a mission to address the challenge of assuring that nurses continuously

A common phrase I hear frequently from my family and peers regarding the nursing profession “nurses are unappreciated and overworked.” I see nurses as hard working people who are determined to save lives. Nurse’s play a great role in healthcare, they are the support of the hospital. They are a part of an assembly line that provides patients the care they need. If one step is interrupted, rifts will occur in patient care. Nurses may not be high on the ladder of superiority, but according to a yearly conducted survey, nurses are one of the top three trusted professionals. There is a reason why people trust nurses far more than doctors. Nurses are easier to trust; they create a stable environment and are more interactive with patients. An