Roles of the Nurse in Health

Care

Faculty : Asia Naeem

SHED ION & AHS
At the end of this lectures students will be able to:

1. Define Professional
2. Explain Characteristics of a Profession
3. High light the Role of the Professional
nurse
4. Describe the Career roles
5. Describe the role of Nurse as a
Communicator
6. Describe the role as a Teacher
7. Describe the role as a Counselor
 Introduction

 Nursing has a significant effect on people's lives.

As rapid change continues to transform the profession
of nursing and health care system.
 Today, nurses bring knowledge, leadership, spirit, and
vital expertise to expanding roles that afford increased
participation, responsibility, and rewards.
Definitions of a
“Profession”
-Profess
To declare or admit openly
To declare in words or
APPEARANCE
-Profession
An act of openly declaring or
publicly claiming
What is a “Profession”?
Vocation requiring advanced training and

generally recognized by universities and colleges as

requiring special training of an advanced
character leading to degrees distinct from the
usual degrees in arts and sciences

requiring principallymental rather than manual

recognizing the obligation of public service and of
the public interest

having a code of ethics generally accepted as

binding upon its members

.Kohler’s Dictionary for Accountants (6th ed. ), Prentice-Hall, 1983

Two terms related to
profession need to be
differentiated
 Professionalism

Refers to professional character, spirit, or

methods. It is a set of attributes, a way of life
that implies responsibility and commitment.
 Professionalization

Is the process of becoming professional, that is,

of acquiring characteristics considered to be
professional.
Characteristics of a Profession

Value Orientation to Service

for the Welfare of Society

,Abstract Knowledge Used Autonomy in Decision-Making

,Adaptably & Skillfully &
In the Area of Service Action Relative to Service
Professionalism:
is a passion for personal responsibility,
devotion to a life of service, commitment to
a mission, and openness to new ideas and
alternatives.

In contrast:
Paraprofessionals define their role
narrowly, see no larger purpose, set sights
low, know enough about their work without
a holistic view of it.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROFESSION

 ESSENTIAL SOCIAL FUNCTION

 SPECIALIZED BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

 SELF-REGULATED

 ADAPTABILITY
Definitions of
Nursing
 Florence Nightingale

“. The act of utilizing the environment of the

patient to assist him in his recovery"
(Nightingale, 1860).
Nightingale considered a clean, well-
ventilated, and quite environment essential
for recovery
Verginia Henderson

"The unique function of the nurse is to

assist the individual, sick or well, in the
performance of those activities contributing
to health or its recovery (or to peaceful
death)".
Canadian Nurses Association (CNA)

Described nursing practice as a

dynamic, caring, helping
relationship in which the nurse
assists the client to achieve and
obtain optimal health.
 Certain themes are common to
many of these definitions
 Nursing is caring.
 Nursing is an art.
 Nursing is a science.
 Nursing is client centered.
 Nursing is holistic.
 Nursing is adaptive.
 Nursingis concerned with health promotion,
health maintenance, and health restoration.
 Nursing is a helping profession.
American Nurses Association (ANA)

"direct, goal oriented, and

adaptable to the needs of the
individual, the family, and the
community during health and
illness" (ANA, 1973).
 In1980, the (ANA) changed this definition
of nursing to this
"Nursing is the diagnosis and
treatment of human responses to actual
or potential health problems".
The Recipients of Nursing are
sometimes called consumers,
sometimes patients, and sometimes
clients.
A consumer isan individual, a
group of people, or a
community that uses a service
or community. People who
use health care products or
services are consumers of
health care.
A patient is a person who is
waiting for or undergoing
medical treatment and care. The
word patient comes from a
Latin word meaning "to suffer"
or "to bear".
Traditionally, the person
receiving health care has been
called a patient.
A client is a person who engages the
advice or services of another who is
qualified to provide this service.
The term client presents the
receivers of health care as
collaborators in the care, that is, as
people who are also responsible for
their own health.
 Nurses provide care for three types of
clients: individuals, families, and
communities.
Nursing practice involves four areas:
promoting health and wellness, preventing
illness, restoring health, and care of the
dying.
 Promoting Health and Wellness

 Wellness is a state of well-being. It

means engaging in attitudes and
behavior that enhance the quality of
life and maximize personal potential.
 Preventing Illness
The goal of illness preventing
programs is to maintain optimal health
by preventing disease.
Nursing activities that prevent illness
include immunizations, prenatal and
infant care, and prevention of sexually
transmitted disease.
 Nursing Activities
Include the following;
 Providing direct care to the ill person, such as
administering medications, baths, and specific
procedures and treatments.
 Performing diagnostic and assessment
procedures, such as measuring blood pressure
and examining feces for occult blood.
Consulting with other health care
professionals about client problems.
Teaching clients about recovery
activities, such as exercises that will
accelerate recovery after a stroke.
Rehabilitating clients to their optimal
functional level following physical or
mental illness, injury, or chemical
addiction
Settings for Nursing

In the past, the acute care hospital was the

main practice setting open to most nurses.
Today many nurses work in hospitals, but
increasingly they work in clients homes,
community agencies, ambulatory clinics,
long-term care, health maintenance
organization (HMOs), and nursing
practice centers.
Nurses have different degree of nursing
autonomy and nursing responsibility in the
various settings.
 (ANA) Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice:

 Assessment:
The nurse collects patient health data.
 Diagnosis:
The nurse analyzes the assessment data in
determining diagnoses.
 Outcome identification:
The nurse identifies expected outcomes
individualized to the patient.
 Planning: the nurse develops a
plan of care that prescribes
interventions to attain expected
outcomes.
 Implementation: the nurse
implements the interventions
identified in the plan of care.
 Evaluation: the nurse evaluates the
patients progress toward attainment
of outcomes.
Roles and Functions of the
Nurse Caregiver
 Caregiver encompasses the physical,
psychosocial, developmental, cultural, and
spiritual levels. The nursing process provides
nurses with a framework for providing care. a
nurse may provide care directly or delegate it to
other caregivers.
 Communication is integral to all nursing roles.
Nurses communicate with the client, support
persons, other health professionals, and people in
the community.
 Teacher, the nurse helps clients learn about their
health and the health care procedures they need to
perform to restore or maintain their health.

A client Advocate acts to protect the client.
In this role the nurse may represent the client's needs
and wishes to other health professionals, such as
relaying the client's wishes for information to the
physician. They also assist clients in exercising their
rights and help them speak up for themselves.
 Counselor
Counseling is the process of helping a client to
recognize and cope with stressful psychological or social
problems, to develop improved interpersonal relationships,
and to promote personal growth. It involves providing
emotional, intellectual, and psychological support.
 Change agent
 The nurse acts as a change agent when
assisting others, that is, clients, to make
modifications in their own behavior. Nurses also
often act to make changes in a system, such as
clinical care, if it is not helping a client return to
health. Nurses are continually dealing with
change in the health care system.
A leader influences others to work together to
accomplish a specific goal. The leader role can be
employed at different levels: individual client,
family, groups of clients, colleagues, or the
community.
Manager

The nurse manages the nursing care of

individuals, families, and communities.
The nurse manager also delegates nursing
activities to other nurses, and supervises
and evaluates their performance.
In a clinical area, Nurses need to:
 Have awareness of the process and
language of research.
 Be sensitive to rights of human subjects.
 Identification of significant researchable
problems.
 Be a discriminating consumer of research
findings.