In: Nursing
Nurses are 'the most trusted healthcare professionals.' They are with patients throughout the continuum of life. Nurses are teacher, advocates, caregivers, critical thinkers, and innovators. ... Nursing is an honorable profession, and nurses are the heart and soul of the healthcare system.
For many years, nurses were seen as doctor’s handmaidens. Their education was heavily focused on technical skills and their duties were task-based. Today, nurses are usually better educated, with a focus on coordinating patient care and the use of critical-thinking skills. They care for patients with complicated diagnoses who may spend little time in the hospital but who still require highly technological care. Physician and nursing shortages, an aging population, health-care reform and the expanding role of technology will require that nurses take on new roles in the future.
As a Health care professional Nursing Role in customer service:
The Registered Nurse's (RN) unique role on the health care team is the ongoing assessment of the patient's health status and the patient's response to their plan of care. ... The nurse focuses on helping patients meet their needs, including physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual needs
But in an average day, RNs might administer medication, consult with other healthcare providers, monitor patients, educate individuals and family and be responsible for managing medical records. ... Outside of patient care, RNs can eventually attain leadership positions, such as the role of nurse manager. The following areas nurses play a key role and very important to every patient
Customer Safety
Nurses have always played a major role in patient safety. As the professionals who are with patients around the clock, nurses are positioned to prevent medication errors, ensure patients receive the correct therapy and provide safeguards from problems such as falls or skin breakdowns. The bedside professional is well also aware of health-care systems problems that delay care or make it less effective. As the people charged with coordinating care, nurses are more likely to recognize inefficiencies and to be able to make recommendations for change
Leadership
Educational changes in nursing now prepare nurses at all levels to assume leadership roles. There has been an increasingly strong call to make a baccalaureate degree the minimum educational preparation for registered nurses. The standards for national nursing licensure exams have also been raised. Some experts argue that nurses should achieve a master’s degree within 10 years of licensure to strengthen the position of the RN in a health-care setting where many other professionals such as pharmacists, physicians and physical therapists have master's or doctoral degrees.
Clinical Quality
Nurses are often the generalists in health care, professionals who can work with multiple levels of staff, provide a broad range of technical care and coordinate the work of other health care professionals to meet patient goals. The role of clinical leader – a nurse who devotes her time to patient care and outcomes while the nurse manager deals with management issues such as budgeting or policy development – is one way organizations such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to increase the quality and safety of clinical care.
Advocacy
Although it can have personally negative effects to challenge a physician or organization on behalf of a patient, another vitally important role for nurses is that of patient advocate. Nurses at the bedside often recognize potentially serious issues such as a high rate of infections in one surgeon’s patients, the misuse of certain kinds of expensive medications or even verbal or sexual abuse. Nurses are taught they have a responsibility to report such issues to protect the patients in their care.
Advanced Practice
Advanced-practice nurses such as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives and certified registered nurse anesthetists are taking on roles once reserved for physicians. These nurses can provide direct care in the field of adult or pediatric primary care, educate staff, deliver babies and administer anesthesia. Advanced-practice nurses diagnose and treat illness or injury, prescribe medications and assume the overall management of the patients in their care.