Roles of the Nurse in Health

Care
By : Ibne Amin
BSN,MSN
Khyber Medical University
 Objectives

 1. Professional
2. Characteristics of a Profession
3. Role of the Professional nurse
4. Description of Career roles
5. Description of role as Communicator
6. Description of role as a Teacher
7. Description of role as Counselor
 Professional

A person who belongs to one of the profession.

A professional is a member of a profession or any
person who earns their living from a specified
professional activity. The term also describes the
standards of education and training that prepare
members of the profession with the particular
knowledge and skills necessary to perform their
specific role within that profession
 Professionalism
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.
 Criteria of a Profession
• To provide a needed services to the society.

• To advance Knowledge in its field.

• To protect its members and make it possible to

practice effectively.
 Vocation / Profession

• A vocation is generally a job that requires a particular

set of skills acquired through experience or through
training but not necessarily dependent on a college
degree. These would include plumbing, electrician,
mechanic, etc.
• A profession could be one of the above but generally
references a doctor, lawyer, nurse or other skilled
worker who was required to obtain college/university
training.
 Vocation /Profession

• Though both vocation, as well as profession,

indicates the career or the occupation through which
an individual makes a livelihood, vocation is a
broader term than profession.
• Profession refers to the career that one opts for,
getting extensive training and acquiring special skills
to become eligible for a job in it.
• Profession requires training and qualification
whereas vocation is the innate ability in an individual
towards a particular occupation.
 Vocation /Profession

Vocations almost always carry the connotation of some

kind of manual labor (plumber, carpenter, electrician,
mechanic, etc). By contrast, "profession" implies
some kind of white collar job (historically the
contrast was much stronger, but today any kind of
"knowledge worker", including being a clerk, is
considered a "professional").
 Occupation

Occupation
An activity or task with which one occupies oneself;
usually specifically the productive activity, service,
trade, or craft for which one is regularly paid; a job.
The act, process or state of possessing a place.
 Characteristics of a profession

• Great responsibility
• Accountibility
• Allows Autonomy in decision making
• Involve a skill based on specialized,theoritical knowledge
• Involve a skill that require training & education
• Integrity is maintained by adherence to a code of
conduct
• Is organized
• Ethical constraints
 Characteristics of a profession

• Self regulation
• Honesty and integrity
• Competency
• Image
• It renders an essential socail service
 Nursing as a Profession
Nursing is recognized increasingly as a profession based
on the following criteria.
• Well defined body of specific and unique knowledge.
• Strong service orientation
• Recognized authority by a professional group
• Code of ethics
• Professional organization that sets standards
• Ongoing research
• Autonomy
 Characteristics of a Professional Nurse
• Caring
• Honest
• Faithful
• Patient
• Good listener
• Accountable
• Competent
• Confident
• Commitment
• Reflective
• Non judgmental
• Safe care provider
 Career Role

A role is a set of expected behaviors associated with a

person’s status or position. Role includes behaviors,
rights, and responsibilities.
Nurses function in a variety of roles every day. Often
roles overlap, which may lead to a conflict in
expectations or responsibilities.
 Roles of a Professional nurse

• Caregiver • Decision maker

• Counselor • Researcher
• Teacher
• Client advocate
• Change agent
• Communicator
• Team member
• Resource person
• Leader
 Role as a Care giver

The caregiver is the role most commonly associated

with nursing by the general public. In the role of
caregiver, the nurse provides direct care when clients
are unable to meet their own needs. This includes
physical needs, which can range from total care to
helping a patient with illness prevention(completely
dependent, partialy dependent,supportive-educative
care).
 Role as a Care giver

• Holistic care emphasizes that the whole person is

greater than the sum of their parts.
• This means that nurses also address psychosocial,
developmental, cultural, and spiritual needs.
• The role of caregiver includes all of the tasks and
skills that we associate with nursing care, but also
includes the other elements that make up the whole
person.
 Role as a Counselor

Counseling is the process of helping a client to

recognize and cope with stressful psychologic or
social problem.When acting as a counselor, the nurse
assists clients with problem identification and
resolution. The counselor facilitates client action and
does not tell clients what to do but assists clients to
make their own decisions. Counseling is done to help
clients increase their coping skills.
 Role as a Counselor

Clients are frequently counseled in stress management,

how to deal with chronic conditions, grief and
bereavement. Effective counseling is holistic, in that
it addresses the individual’s emotional, psychological,
spiritual, and cognitive dimensions.
 Role as a Teacher

Teaching is an active process in which one individual

shares information with others to provide them with
the information to make behavioral changes.

Learning is the process of assimilating information with

a resultant change in behavior
 Role as a Teacher

Teaching is an intrinsic part of nursing.The nurse views

each interaction as an opportunity for education;
both client and nurse can learn something from
every encounter with each other. Teaching by nurses
can be formal, informal, intentional, or incidental.
 Role as a Client Advocate

A client advocate is a person who speaks up for or acts

on behalf of the client so as to protect him.In this
role the nurse may represent the client’s need &
wishes to other health professional.
Advocacy empowers clients to be partners in the therapeutic
process rather than passive recipients of care. The
relationship that encourages client empowerment is one of
mutual participation by client and nurse. Clients and families
are actively involved in establishing goals.
 Role as a Client Advocate

Frequently, clients and families do not communicate

their concerns to physicians but will do so to the
nurse with whom a bond has been established.
Nurses function as client advocates by listening and
communicating the expressed concerns to other
health care providers and including those concerns
into care planning.
 Role as a Change Agent

Nurses who function in the role of change agent

recognize that change is a complex process.
The nurse change agent is proactive (takes the
initiative to make things happen) rather than
reactive (responding to things after they have
happened). Change should not be done in a
random manner. It should be planned
carefully and implemented in a deliberate way
to facilitate the client’s progress.
 Role as a Team Member

A vital role of the nurse is that of team member.

The nurse does not function in isolation but
rather works with other members of the
health care team. Collaboration requires the
nurse to use effective interpersonal skills and
promotes continuity of care. They use their
professional and communication skills
applicable to promoting healthy relationships
with clients and colleagues.
 Role as a Resource Person

The nurse functions as a resource person by

providing skilled intervention and information.
Identifying resources and making referrals as
needed also fall under the auspices of this
role. Nurses must consider the client strengths
and access to resources, including physical,
intellectual, economic, social, and
environmental.
 Role as a Leader

• 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.
• Effective leadership is a learned process requiring an
understanding of the needs and goals that motivate
people, the knowledge to apply the leadership skills,
and the interpersonal skills to influence others.
 Role as a Reasercher

• Nurse researchers are scientists who study

various aspects of health, illness and health
care.
• By designing and implementing scientific
studies, they look for ways to improve health,
health care services and health care
outcomes.
 Role as a Communicator

• As a communicator, the nurse understands that

effective communication techniques can help
improve the healthcare environment.
• Barriers to effective communication can inhibit the
healing process.
• The nurse has to communicate effectively with the
patient and family members as well as other
members of the healthcare team.
• In addition, the nurse is responsible for written
communication, or patient charting, which is a key
component to continuity of care.
 Role as a decision maker

• As a decision maker, is to use critical thinking skills

to make decisions, set goals, and promote outcomes
for a patient.
• These critical thinking skills include assessing the
patient, identifying the problem, planning and
implementing interventions, and evaluating the
outcomes.
• A nurse uses clinical judgment - his or her ability to
discern what is best for the patient to determine the
best course of action for the patient.
 References

kozier & Erb’s Fundamental of Nursing ,8th edition

( Audrey Berman ,Shirlee J. Synder).

Fundamentals of Nursing: Standards & Practice, 2nd Edition

( Sue C. DeLaune Patricia K. Ladner.)

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