Caring in Nursing
When a child is sick, they turn to their mother
To get medications and much-needed care.
But when an adult is sick, they care for themselves,
Get doctor’s prescriptions, cook, and work from home.
Nurses are there when self-care is not enough,
When people can no longer cope with stress, illness, or pain.
Like a doctor to a patient, a nurse gives prescriptions and medications.
Like a mother to a child, a nurse provides care and comfort.
A nurse’s role is not just to treat patients, but to care.
To care for patients from birth to death,
To care about people and the problems they face,
To care about the health system and those in need.
Caring for patients is never easy,
So nurses work long hours, face stress, and burnout.
But they return to work each time
With a goal to remain compassionate and caring,
And thus help to make the world a better place for all.
Nurses carry immense responsibility for patients,
They have to use empathy and rationalism at the same time,
which is never easy. But when the job is done,
A nurse can go home knowing that they helped someone,
that they cared enough for the person to get better,
and this is the best reward for a day of hard work.
The importance of caring to nurse practice and the profession
Nurses are the primary caregivers in the American health system. They spend more time with patients than doctors and other health professionals, and thus their communication with patients is essential to recovery. While caring for patients, it is critical for nurses to practice a holistic approach, as it can improve patient outcomes and promote well-being. The present essay will review the concept of caring in nursing and reflect on my personal view of caring.
A personal definition of caring; include principles of holistic care
Caring is of utmost importance in the nursing process and a crucial part of the nurse’s role in the health system. While nurses have many other duties, providing care to patients is their primary responsibility. Adequate care can help patients to recover more quickly and improve the quality of life of patients in long-term care facilities. Caring is a multi-dimensional concept that also involves showing compassion and empathy. These qualities are essential for nurses since they help to understand and support patients’ decisions and wishes, thus promoting patient autonomy and contributing to their self-confidence.
Definitions of caring found in nursing literature that support your perspective on caring
My personal definition of caring is “supporting people by fulfilling the needs that cannot be adequately addressed through self-care”. This means that if an illness is restricting a person’s mobility, caring would involve helping them to fulfill their needs with regards to hygiene, nutrition, and physical activity. However, if a person is influenced by a traumatic event, caring for them would involve providing comfort and creating a feeling of safety.
Similar definitions of nursing are found in some scholarly works. For instance, Bagherian, Sabzevari, Mirzaei, and Ravary (2017) maintain that caring “is a holistic process which needs nurses’ vigilance regarding all aspects of patients’ needs and striving to meet them with both artistic and scientific parts of nursing” (p. 40). A different article by Andersson, Willman, Sjöström-Strand, and Borglin (2015) defines caring as “a value and an attitude that manifests itself in the form of a concrete act” (p. 16). The activities performed by nurses in an attempt to fulfill the patient’s needs are thus important in both definitions.
When considering caring in nursing, it is also essential to address the concept of holistic care. This approach to caring involves assisting with physical, social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the patient’s life. There are several important principles of holistic care. First of all, it is essential to identify the patient’s needs in all four areas of functioning. Secondly, nurses should learn more about the patient’s life, faith, culture, and health condition. This would help to respect the patient’s preferences when it comes to making care decisions or providing assistance. Thirdly, nurses should always seek to support and promote patient autonomy by allowing patients to take an active part in the care process. The final principle of providing holistic care is that nurses should establish a supportive emotional connection with patients.
An explanation of the artistic expression you chose (poem) and how it represents caring
The poem written for this assignment addresses all the aspects of caring in the nursing profession. It is written in free verse, with literary devices, such as similes, repetition, and anaphora, to aid the artistic expression. The verse shows that caring is a fundamental concept in nursing, which influences how nurses fit into the health system. While nurses perform medical duties, like doctors, they also provide care and comfort to patients. The poem also depicts some of the negative influences that the nurses’ complex role has on their well-being, including burnout. However, when it comes to caring for patients, the positive feelings usually outweigh the stress, which makes nursing truly rewarding.
Conclusion
All in all, the paper examined the importance of caring in nursing and summarized some of the critical principles that nurses should apply when they provide care. Fulfilling the patient’s needs, learning more about their background, and respecting patient autonomy are essential to ensure that nursing care benefits patients. The poem written for this assignment adds to the exploration of caring by offering the nurse’s perspective on the concept and showing how it influences the role and lives of American nurses.
References
Andersson, E. K., Willman, A., Sjöström-Strand, A., & Borglin, G. (2015). Registered nurses’ descriptions of caring: A phenomenographic interview study. BMC Nursing, 14(1), 16-25.
Bagherian, B., Sabzevari, S., Mirzaei, T., & Ravary, A. (2017). Meaning of caring from critical care nurses’ perspective: A phenomenological study. Journal of Intensive and Critical Care, 3(3), 33-41.