Changes In The Roles And Responsibilities Of Nurses

Changes In The Roles And Responsibilities Of NursesNursing staff pay seen their roles and responsibilities change considerably within the modernisation of the NHS, but is this a grievous amour? There atomic number 18 some big changes in the nursing field in the stand firm 50 old age such as, uniform, salaries, job need, the roles of books, the different roles for ready force and women nurses, the engine room use of priceys and servicesd, Litigation and Documentation, Holistic C ar and patient load. Nurses be becoming more popular and demanding in exclusively in all sorts of different give-up the ghostals environments such as, working in nursing homes, hospitals, home help, travel nurse, school nurse and more. Years ago, nurses were seen just as little more than helpers or assistants for doctors. Today in 2010, nurses atomic number 18 wellness mete out professionals in their own right. They are bright, strong-armerable, and often deplete a clearer picture of t he everywhereall situation than the doctors they work alongside with. Nursing has non only changed on the face of it but the background work of a nurse has changed to, for example the education given to nurses, the scope of policies and practice, the structures of nurses and the principles of the care of the patient. People are lead to believe that the modernisation of the NHS will be beneficial to the care of the patient, but is this really the case?Due to the increasingly shortage of nurses, they have acquire to be more independent which is an outstanding way to increase skills and keep up to date with the new trends in health care. As well as nursing changing, health care in general has changed overly. Within the modernisation of the NHS and nursing the care of the patients is still the everlasting goal. This factor that thither is more work for the nurses, which hence has a knock on affect leading to less satisfaction of patient care. Although the NHS and government are d oing their best to modernize nursing with the patients interests are heart, it seems like thither is less time for care due to time, but more time for paperwork. The Department of Health has laid down certain insurance initiatives, targets and structural and organizational changes that can improve the quality of care received by patients through the NHS. These changes are emphasized along with the need for multi-agency and multi-organizational collaborative working across disciplinary boundaries. The four key interfaces for which collaboration and coordination measures are being suggested are health and kindly care general medical and community health services primary and scrapary care and interface with carers (DoH, 1996).The education of nurses now days are a component part more intense and harder than it was 10 days ago. Over the last 10 years, thither has been a gradual shift for the education and training of nurses. Currently all nurses have to be trained to a degree univer sity level before they can practice as a fully qualified nurse. Opportunities for nurses have increased by large, with one training hazard being through the internet although this method of training has to be approved by the NHS. On the other hand, years ago nurses only had to have a diploma or LPNS. Now days all nurses have to attend and complete continuing education courses to keep up to date with the new trends and schooling used in the current day.In addition to the higher and more advanced education, which nurses now have to have, there comes an increases scope of practice. In the current worlds, nurses are doing more and going places that in the past they would not be allowed to have done. The scope of practice is an expression used for various professions that define the procedures, actions, and processes that are allowed to be used and practiced. In the health care profession, there are many different jobs with very different defined scope of practice laws and regulations. These include nursing, social workers, speech and language pathology,audiologists,training, radiography,nuclear medicine, dentists, surgeons, paramedics, physicians and many more. In the interest of the patients, it is a good thing that nurses are allowed to do more and more as there are more doctors than nurses, so the patients whitethorn be seen quicker, but on the other hand, it is not a good thing as nurses are doing more and maybe sympathize with for the patient need and wished less.Nowadays in hospitals, the wards are not gender mixed although the nurses are gender mixed between wards. The stereotypical roles of a nurse have change a lot since the 1990s. There are more staminate nurses but still not enough. However although there are still not enough male nurses, the female domination of nurses is slowly decreasing and now more men are entering the caring profession. For patients the more male nurses is a good thing because some patients i.e. men prefer to be treated by a man. For example, a man may like to be washed by a man and not a woman for dignity reasons. In addition, for years, the majority of nursing was thought of as a female profession but every year more and more males are joining the nursing profession. Nowadays being a male nurse does not have a stigma attached to it and is now seen as a very good career.The demand of nurses now in 2010 is by large massive. The NHS is always asking for more nurses. When the baby dash started there was a very large need for nurses but as the baby boom is decreasing now there is time and money for improvement of standards of living and disease control, our citizens are living longer. As the general population increases, so too does the demand for nurses. Now more than ever nurses are overworked but with the increasingly shortage of nurses they have to work harder and longer hours, which over again is not benefiting the patients. Because of the nursing demand and staff shortage, staffs are taking more si ck days due to excessive stress and lack of sleep and self-time. This is because nursing is very demanding on a person not just mentally but physically too. This is seriously compromising the NHS.In 2010 compared to 1980, there is a lot more technology for nurses to use and to be trained to use. Nurses today have to keep up to date with a lot more technology than a nurse 50 years would have had to. Technology can be seen as a good gadget and as a bad gadget, because not only do nurses have to provide basic and skilled care, they excessively have to learn how to work with many types of equipment that are specific to their area of expertise. The more popular piece of technology used every day by a nurse is a computer. Nurses use them every day as a way to document the care given to a patient. Although new technology is a good advantage for health care, it has its negatives, for example training the staff to use it costs a lot of money, but on the other hand, it can save lifes. Other important technology that is used every day that benefits a patient is, air mattresses as they help to prevent DVTs and assistance with IV insertion which has made things a lot simpler. All of the new high tech equipment being simplified is for user- friendliness, which means that the new methods are speeding things up. Lastly, infection control plays a big part in the NHS every day, so new technology is being developed all the time, although the basic hand washing procedures remain very much the same.There are many different approaches to nursing care, one being the holistic care. This type of care has become more and more popular. The commutations between the Health and Allied Health services improving, a total Patient Care sit has come about. Resulting in decreased in-patient times and better health outcomes. The holistic care has been seen more popular within the complementary therapies and concepts.The patient load that a nursed has is massive. In America, there was a debate about the amount of patients under care of nurses. In 1999, the debate was won and there was a cap of the amount of patients allowed under care of one nurse. The results have been very effective from happier staff and better care for patients. There should be a cap in the UK. The changes of nursing over the last 10 years have been welcomed with open arms, but there are still teething problems and views that need to be heard. optimal patient care is in a constant battle with budget and we can expect to see new policy reforms, new technology, and new demands created in the decade to come. It remains the responsibility of not only the nurses, but also the patients of the future, to voice their opinions in order to guide the Industry in the right direction.Nurses are now expected to come with a bigger patents load but more paper work as well. The importance of the paper work has increases over the last 10 years. This is due to the society that we now live in as it has been raised to ne ed someone to blame for everything. As a nurse or doctor there are many emotional people around you every day as people are dying all the time. Therefore, sometimes people sue the nurses and doctors as they are upset and think the person died due to the NHSs fault. Following this, nurses and doctors keep finding themselves in court. Even if they have not done anything, all allegations have to be investigated. This is the reason for paperwork there is to write up. Paperwork is the only solid setting stone and proof/ backup of a nurses care. A nurse is required to document every blood pressure reading, every medication, every incident, and every day. They have toaccountfor every action, and put it all in writing. The problem with documentation is that it takes time. More time for documentation means less time for patients. Plain and simple.The polices that nurses have to follow are very homogeneous across the whole world. In Australia, the no-lift policy was introduced in the late 19 90s. To date the policy is still used and the nurses are trained use this policy. No-Lift means using Lifting Machines to mobilise patients, using slide sheets to manoeuvre them around the bed and promoting back care in general. Although this concept is yet to be adopted in the UK, the benefits are becoming obvious and discussions have begun on the implementation of a similar policy in the UK.There are many different types of nurses that work in the community and in the hospitals. These can range from, Adult nurses, mental health nurses, Childrens nurses, Learning disability nurses, District nurses, Neonatal nursing, Health visitors, Practice nurses, Prison nurses, civilize nurses and Healthcare assistants. There are also many different levels to being a nurse. A health care assistant is under a nurse, and then you have staff nurses, then sisters and ward sisters and then nurse manager/ matron. All in all these all make up our NHS and work as a team to provide the best possible ca re for the patient. There is a large scale of pay, which starts at around 13,000 to 67,000. The above table shows how the NHS works.The last 40 years nurses uniform has changed but not that much. In the 1960s nurses still wore dresses and stocking .In the 1970s more changes came to the way nurses dressed. Dresses were a little shorter and the white caps were bloodline to lose importance in some hospitals across the country. In the 1980s there was an end of the nursing caps altogether. Nurses also began wearing disposable aprons at this period of time rather than cloth aprons and medical facilities became much less militant in regards to restrictions on jewellery and cosmetics. During the 1990s and today, nursing dresses have been replaced with much more easy scrub accommodates. Scrub suits can be found in a wide variety of colours and styles. Some hospitals have specific scrub suit colours for different types of hospital staff and others allow nurses and other staff to choose co lours and styles that appeal to them. Todays nursing uniforms are designed more for function than form but are also considered much more comfortable than those worn throughout history are.There are many different theories towards nursing. The three main ones are needs based theories. The main point being that the focus of nursing is the assessment and care of the patients / clients needs, which they are unable to meet for themselves. The second theory is interactions theories. The main point of this being the focus of nursing is the relationship between the nurse and the patient / client. Lastly, the other theory is the goal-based theories. The main point again being that the focus of nursing is the outcome and emphasis is placed on facilitating the ability of the patient / client to adapt to changes in their health and regain stableness and harmony.Today in the NHS nursing takes on a role of the biomedical model. The biomedical model has been around since the mid- nineteenth centu ry as the most cat valium model used to diagnose diseases. The biomedical model states that All illness and symptoms arise from underlying abnormality in the body, all diseases give rise to symptoms and that health is absence of disease. The model overlooks the fact that the diagnosis is a result of commutation between doctor and patient. Biomedical model has no doubt led to wide medical advances although the patient has little responsibility for presence /cause of illness.In conclusion, the changes in roles and responsibilities of nurses in the modernisation of the NHS can beneficial towards the patients but can also be damaging towards the patients. This is due to lack of staff and increased working hours, more paperwork, and more tasks that a nurse has to do and there are mostly more patients now than 10 years ago. Therefore, a nurse has less time caring for the patients needs. On the other hand, the modernisation is seen as a good thing because there is more technology nowada ys to make the nurses life easier, which also get a more persist result. Within the context of policies and procedures there are no many more rules than year ago, which does make a nurses life maybe easier but maybe harder. With all of these changes to nurses and the NHS in general, is the modernization is good thing, does it have the patients interests are heart or is it about saving money?