Nursing Professionalism, Coursework Example

Introduction

Becoming a professional nurse requires a number of key characteristics and approaches to managing roles and responsibilities in an effective manner. It is important to identify the primary strengths that are necessary to achieve success in this field and to consider the opportunities that are available in order to enhancing the ability to act in a professional manner as required within this field. Nurses must recognize the attributes that are most critical in supporting a successful nursing career, and this requires an understanding of inner strengths that effectively align with the responsibilities of nursing practice. Therefore, core strengths such as compassion and multi-tasking are essential components of the nursing profession and are essential in providing high quality patient care and treatment at all times.

Analysis

The key to a successful nursing career is the ability to demonstrate compassion and understanding for patient needs and for the stressors of the position on a daily basis. It is necessary for nurses to recognize the plight of their patients and to be compassionate towards their circumstances. Compassion may signify a simple gesture or an elaborate set of actions, but regardless of the direction that is taken, compassion is essential to high quality delivery in nursing care. In spite of the necessity to juggle many responsibilities at once, compassion should not be lost in the process of providing care to patients (Maben et.al, 2009). In this context, it is observed that nurses must recognize the difficulties that patients experience, particularly when their diagnoses are complex or difficult to accept, as this is perhaps the time when compassion is most essential to the delivery of care (Maben et.al, 2009). Nurses must remember why they entered the profession in the first place: to care for patients, to treat their ailments, and to put their patients above all other priorities (Maben et.al, 2009). When patients recognize that their nurses are compassionate towards them, it is likely that they will respond favorably to the treatment that is provided (Maben et.al, 2009).

One of the challenges of nursing practice is the need to consistently provide compassion to patients in all aspects of care. Nurses choose this career path because they want to provide compassionate care to their patients at all times and to provide them with an opportunity for recovery and to achieve optimal wellbeing (Lombardo and Eyre, 2011). However, some nurses experience what is known as compassion fatigue, whereby they encounter different experiences and embrace them as if they were their own, which makes it difficult to care for others with the desired level of compassion (Lombardo and Eyre, 2011). Therefore, it is necessary to prevent compassion fatigue by turning to nursing leaders in order to achieve a greater balance between the experiences that are encountered on a regular basis in the nursing profession (Lombardo and Eyre, 2011). Nurses should look to their leaders so that they are more successful in achieving their efforts to be compassionate at all times without reaching burnout status (Lombardo and Eyre, 2011).

Nurses must also exercise sound and reasonable judgment when working with patients so that they are able to be successful in their care and treatment objectives. However, nurses typically work with many different patients at one time; therefore, they must learn how to multitask effectively so that all patients are given the proper attention as necessary. On a daily basis, interruptions are likely to occur and may interfere with workflow; as a result, it is necessary to develop the ability to multitask and to manage a number of tasks at the same time so that productivity is expanded and patients are treated with the highest possible quality of care at all times (Kalisch and Aebersold, 2010). It is also important to develop multitasking strategies that are designed to prevent errors and that limit the risks that patients experience while under the care of nurses (Kalisch and Aebersold, 2010). However, multitasking does not only include the completion of tasks, as communication also requires a strong level of multitasking in order to achieve effective results (Kalisch and Aebersold, 2010). By minimizing the impact of interruptions and other challenges that might make multitasking very difficult for nurses, multitasking is able to be achieved in a more effective manner and on a consistent basis (Kalisch and Aebersold, 2010). The ability to multitask also contributes to effective leadership because leaders are required to be successful in multitasking in this role by managing advanced responsibilities in an effective manner (Kalisch and Aebersold, 2010).

Conclusion

Nurses must identify specific characteristics upon which they are able to build successful nursing practice objectives and considerations that will enable them to be successful in all areas of nursing practice. It is important to recognize these considerations, and two of the most important attributes are compassion and multitasking. Nurses must exercise sound and reasonable judgment at all times throughout their careers. In addition, a well-rounded and successful nurse is able to demonstrate compassion towards his or her patients and towards other nurses. Compassion is an important characteristic that supports high quality patient care and treatment in order to accomplish the desired objectives in a successful manner. Compassion supports the ability of patients to recover and to maintain optimal health and wellbeing when they recognize that nurses are in full support of these objectives. In addition, the ability to multitask is critical in providing all patients with the best possible outcomes by managing difficult tasks in a professional manner. These attributes support the ability of nurses to be effective leaders and to lead by example so that other nurses also follow suit in their own career objectives.

References

Kalisch, B.J., and Aebersold, M. (2010). Interruptions and multitasking in nursing care. The ?Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 36(3), 126-132.

Lombardo, B., and Eyre, C. (2011). Compassion fatigue: a nurse’s primer. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(1), retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-16-2011/No1-Jan-2011/Compassion-Fatigue-A-Nurses-Primer.html

Maben, J., Cornwell, J., and Sweeney, K. (2009). In praise of compassion. Journal of Research in Nursing, 15(1), 9-13.