Nurses have a duty towards individuals, families, or communities, depending upon the domain they are working in. – impact care quality
In essence, nursing is a noble profession in itself, with improving patient health being the first reward any care provider receives, which can not only be fulfilling, but also drive motivation to work harder.
Considering how their services directly affect the patients, things can get stressful at times, but practice and training can help them deal with emerging situations.
If you are planning on being a nurse in the future or if you are just getting started and want to learn about the implications of your performance on the services you are providing, you have come to the right place.
This article has been prepared with both beginners and professionals in mind and caters to the requirements of both.
Considering how nurses are expected to spend more time with patients, depending on the circumstances, it is important to learn about ways of providing better services to patients.
If you are a beginner, these tips will help you learn about ways to enhance the quality of your service, and if you are a professional, these tips can help you keep up with changing requirements, as technology progresses and times change.
The internet has abundant information on the matter, but this article is specifically designed to cater to the core elements of good services.
While it covers a lot on the subject, it is still recommended that you do your research on the matter as well.
Alternatively, you can get an MSN FNP degree to learn in detail the principles surrounding nursing and ways you can aid in improving public health.
With that said, here is a list of some ways nurses can impact care quality:
- Putting the patient at ease:
Nurses usually spend more time with patients than doctors. While the doctors guide the treatment, it is usually nurses who implement the treatment plan by regularly engaging the patient, and administering them the medicines.
Therefore, these nurses have a duty of making the patients feel at ease during their treatment.
This not only helps draw cooperation from the patients, but it also helps maintain an environment conducive for effective treatment, which, in turn, enables smooth operations at any healthcare center.
For this purpose, nurses can use their communication skills to accurately inform the patients about the methods of treatment and the process.
This will make the patients aware of the details surrounding the treatment plan, and if they have any objections, they will feel more comfortable voicing them before the healthcare providers.
Similarly, if a patient is worried about their life or concerned about their loved ones, nurses can talk to them about the risks and benefits associated with the treatment, while also engaging their family members in the process.
So, in essence, communication is vital to the effective provision of services and has a direct relationship with the quality of care being given to a patient.
Any patient who is being handled by a professional nurse would be more likely to talk about their symptoms, thus accurately conveying the details of what they feel. Similarly, these patients would be able to relax and avoid panic during the treatment.
- Respect and empathy- impact care quality:
This is somewhat related to the previous point but needs to be explored in further detail. All patients deserve respect and empathy from healthcare providers, and when they feel like they are being treated as humans rather than medical subjects, they respond better to treatment.
This also helps build a harmonious relationship between those seeking treatment and those administering it.
So, for nurses to know how to treat patients with respect and empathy makes a huge difference in the treatment plan.
Sometimes a patient may behave in unacceptable ways, but if the nurse understands the problems that are prompting them to behave in the said manner, they can use their communication skills to talk them out of it.
They can make the patient understand that their behavior is not suitable, and the healthcare providers are doing all they can in the given situation.
With that said, it is better to refrain from gaslighting, as there is no wisdom in belittling oneself at the behest of the other.
So, if a patient’s behavior is unwarranted, it may require the intervention of their family or a senior healthcare provider to talk them out of it and draw their cooperation to the treatment plan.
In essence, while respect and empathy are important, certain boundaries must be maintained.
- Coordination and expertise:
Nurses’ jobs can get stressful at times, and since they are actively involved in the treatment process, they need to be skilled at coordinating with other healthcare providers.
It is also necessary for them to be skilled at administering emergency treatment in case of emergencies, which require urgent action to save lives.
These two elements form the core of a professional nurse’s job and significantly impact the quality of services being provided.
Unless a nurse understands matters surrounding healthcare inside out, they cannot promptly coordinate with others, whether they are doctors or other nurses.
A deeper understanding of healthcare matters not only enhances their ability to respond quickly to certain matters but also helps them gain proper insight into a problem.
It further enables them to accurately stick to the treatment plan, and do their job in a professionally competent way.
Similarly, if a nurse is experienced in responding urgently, it can help save lives. This especially applies to those working in the emergency department.
In case of a crisis, wherein a patient with trauma, burn, or severe medical condition is brought in, the nurse can administer the first line of treatment to stabilize the patient and ease their pain.
Expertise in handling crises that warrant urgent action is extremely useful when it comes to improving the first line of treatment in emergency departments.
Conclusion:
The aforementioned points show how certain traits in nurses can directly impact the quality of care being provided to patients. The job can be demanding at times, but if a nurse understands these elements, they can do their job better, which, in turn, also enables the patients to feel safe, be more receptive to treatment, and recover sooner.
Therefore, if you are a beginner or a professional, these are the qualities you must develop in yourself to be able to do your job properly and to enable patients to get the most out of their treatment plan.
