Introduction
Nursing is a critical aspect in health care delivery. When patients are admitted into a health care institution, the doctors treat the patient, and he or she is left under the care of the nurse. At least it is expected that the nurse should be able to assist the patient in the recovery process and make them comfortable. This paper provides an analysis of two articles regarding the nursing experience. One article gives a personal experience of the author who is also a professional nurse. The other article provides an analysis of the tool used in measuring the interaction between the nurse and the patient.
The Patient’s view on Caring
Cox, C.L. (2012). Caring: a patient’s perspective. Gastrointestinal Nursing, 10(2), 5.
Carol L. Cox is a professor of nursing at the City University in London. She gives an account of herself in the nursing profession, as well as what she experienced from other nurses when she was hospitalised. Carol observes that while she was in a nursing college, she remembers the emphasis that was put on the nursing theory modules as taught by her trainers. Indeed she alludes to the fact that she was convinced that once she graduates, she would make a very caring nurse. Nonetheless, after graduating, she was employed and she forgot about what she was taught about caring theories. She notes that her mind only focussed on carrying out her duties as instructed by the doctor without engaging the patient at a personal level. To her, this was the definition of being a caring nurse.
Carol’s perspective on the definition of a caring nurse changed when she was hospitalised. She argues that she felt like she was neglected and the nurses were taking too long to attend to her. She also noted that she preferred to have a nurse near her as she had a feeling of helplessness. Carol L. Cox realised the importance of having a nurse next to the patient to reduce the anxiety among patients. Caring does not entail the performance of tasks assigned to the nurse alone. However, it involves the nurse being present and engaging the patient.
Measuring the nurse-patient caring
Cossette, S., Cote, J.K., Pepin, J., Ricard, N. and D’Aoust, L-X. (2006). A dimensional structure of nurse–patient interactions from a caring perspective: refinement of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Scale (CNPI-Short Scale). Journal of Advanced Nursing, 55(2), 198–214.
Caring is very critical to the nursing profession. Therefore, it is important to have tools that can measure the aspect of caring in the nursing profession. Sylvie Cossette, Jose K. Cote, Jacinthe Pepin, Nicole Ricard, and Louis-Xavier D’Aoust are academicians at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Montreal, Canada. Apart from D’Aoust, who is a BSc nursing student and research assistant at the faculty, the rest of the authors are professors at the faculty. The authors aimed at presenting a report on “the development of a short version of the Caring Nurse-Patient Interaction (CNPI) Scale” to be used in measuring the caring aspect within the nursing profession (Cossette, Cote, Pepin, Ricard and D’Aoust, 2006, p. 198). They came up with the CNPI-Short Scale which is made up of twenty three items that touches on 4 caring categories. These categories include humanistic, relational, clinical, and comforting care. The CNPI-Short Scale is an essential tool in validating the importance of caring in nursing.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that caring is a very critical in the nursing profession. Indeed patient care does not just end with task accomplishment by the nurse. This goes on to include being present and engaging the patient to make life in the hospital or health institution significantly comfortable. There are tools used in measuring the caring aspect in nursing. Such tools include the CNPI-Short Scale.
Reference List
Cossette, S., Cote, J.K., Pepin, J., Ricard, N. and D’Aoust, L-X. (2006). A dimensional structure of nurse–patient interactions from a caring perspective: refinement of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Scale (CNPI-Short Scale). Journal of Advanced Nursing, 55(2), 198–214.
Cox, C.L. (2012). Caring: a patient’s perspective. Gastrointestinal Nursing, 10(2), 5.