Every profession is successful with its honest and honorable professionals. Undoubtedly the way these professionals lead the organization depicts the growth and future development in the world. Talking about responsibilities, as soon as the organization or even a small company is formed, the roles and duties of the individuals are well defined in black and white. Some professions are way more demanding and delicate in matters of trust and satisfaction i.e. healthcare sector.
Healthcare systems are the source of providing healthcare facilities to the population. There are several aspects without which the system would not be able to perform successfully. Hospitals and clinics provide these facilities with the help of their employees. Whenever we talk about hospitals, the first name that hits our mind is of the doctor. Without a shadow of a doubt, they are an important pillar of this system and without them, the concept of hospitals would never exist. However, other employees are equally important and among these are the nurses who are the backbone of a healthcare system. From observing patients to bandaging their wounds and maintaining reports, the responsibilities of a nurse in a hospital know no limits. Since it requires so much versatility and the demand for nurses in the healthcare system isn’t going away anytime soon, it is quite a favorable career choice. As the world gets the awareness of gender equality, nursing is becoming an equally suitable career choice for males as well for females.
There are numerous degrees available for nursing, either individual may seek online programs or attend a relevant institute for advance studies. Among some renowned platforms, MSN Online is providing reliable and state of the art learning arena to the interested candidates and ensuring a sound career foundation to them.
Here we will discuss some of the responsibilities of the nurses to explain this vocation. As you would expect in healthcare, nursing requires a lot of human interaction and helping them in need. So if you have a thing for social work, this is just the profession for you where you can make a true difference in society.
Nurses cater to the emotional, cognitive, and physical needs of a patient. A good nurse will always be the agent of a quick recovery of a patient as all their needs are met on time. A nurse can play multiple roles depending upon the requirement of any case. Nurses are so crucial to the system that according to a study, lower nurse to patient ratios may reduce the efficiency of the treatments.
Effective Communication With Patients
One of the first and foremost steps in a healthcare system is good communication. Without communication, neither diagnosis is possible nor cure. If a patient is not able to explain the problem, the necessary steps to mitigate that problem cannot be taken. As patients can belong to any class, from poor to rich and from educated to illiterate, a nurse can help in making patients comfortable so they can explain their issues with comfort. Even during the care, a nurse’s presence can be crucial to react to any sort of event.
Carefully Recording Medical History
As the doctor to patient ratio is usually very bad in many countries, nurses help in filling the gap to a certain degree. Nurses help doctors by recording the medical history and checking the vitals like blood pressure and temperature. This not only saves the time of a doctor during checking a patient but also helps in keeping a record that can be used in the future. The saved time can then be utilized to cater to more patients who would otherwise have to wait.
A Sound Patient Care
Care is one of the major functions of a nurse and hence empathetic people are best suited for this job. Nurses have to care for the patients as if they are their family since illness can make a human emotionally very fragile. However, the amount of care also depends upon the type of illness. Unlike the patients who have had undergone minor treatment and will soon be discharged, critical patients like those with cancer would require much more vigilance. Nurses ensure that medication and treatment errors are greatly minimized to avoid any complications from happening that can even be fatal. Nurses also keep recording the vitals and symptoms of patients periodically and report them to the doctor. This data can help the doctors a great deal in devising the future course of action in the treatment.
Correctly Operating Medical Equipment
Operating medical equipment is a skill that not everyone including the doctor can possess. Nurses through their training operate this equipment and help perform procedures on the patients. Furthermore, nurses are also trained for conducting tests on patients. For example, when you need to get a chest x-ray done, you would look for a nurse who operates that equipment in the radiology department of the hospital. Furthermore, the blood tests which are used to diagnose issues in the body are also conducted by specialized nurses.
Assisting The Doctors
Sometimes, patients need to go through several hours of surgeries to alleviate their physical problems. These operations can be a strenuous job for the doctors and hence they need the help of the nurses to take care of some of the tasks. These nurses are also specially trained for these purposes and help reduce the overall load of work from doctors during critical surgeries.
Patient Advocacy
Among the lesser-known responsibility of a nurse, nurses also have to advocate for the patients. Since it is their responsibility that the patients face no issue during their stay at the hospital, nurses step up for them. As patients are less knowledgeable about the matter at hand, nurses look out for their interest in the wake of any mistreatment. This makes the job of nurses nobler than it already is. Nurses educate the patients about their rights, the disease, the treatment and hence acting as a bridge between them and the healthcare system.
Conclusion
We have established here that nursing is a very noble profession and hence can grant immense gratification to those who pursue it as a profession. Nursing is also a career with great prospects, and it will always be needed as long as there are patients who need care. Though it requires a lot of patience as one has to deal with people from varying backgrounds. But this wouldn’t deter an ambitious and goal-oriented person from taking this profession not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity to give something to society.
