Introduction
According to Entry-level competencies for the practice of registered nurses, a nurse has many competencies, including leadership, coordination, clinician, education, and many others. Since stereotypes can be carried over the years, the purpose of this work is to collect and present information regarding nursing in the modern world. Stereotypes and their refutation will be included if their irrationality of bias is confirmed in addition to the suggestions for improvement. The role of nurses, their responsibilities, their commitment to medicine, the scope of work, and the required qualifications must be identified and understood by both staff and clients to support the work quality and willingness.
Image of Nurses
According to my impression, often, the role of nurses in patient care is not considered necessary enough when compared to the presumably more important physicians. At the same time, the doctor or paramedic examines the patient and prescribes treatment, but someone must fulfill these appointments including making injections, giving medicine, measuring the temperature, and performing many other important duties. All this is often done by a specialist from among the nursing staff. There are also various stereotypes confirmed by me and my peers, such as that the profession of nurse is often associated with women only.
Research and communication show that to ensure proper coordination, the nurse must have a variety of knowledge and skills. Thus, training and practice should include soft and hard skills that, in combination, will provide quality service (Rizany et al., 2018). Nurses should be able to build communication and a chain of treatment processes, conduct quality consultations, be able to work in a team and be partly psychologists to calm and maintain the mood of patients.
Competencies
In modern conditions, healthcare evolution continuously happens all around the world. Due to this, public understanding of the role of nurses in health care is beginning to develop and myths and stereotypes are dispelled. Inappropriate stereotypes can influence how patients feel about their caregivers. In this regard, the motivation to provide high-quality service, obtain a similar profession, study at universities, improve qualifications, work with people, and much more, is reduced.
It is important to correctly perceive the profession among employees of any organization and patients since it is their relationship that largely influences the quality of the work of nurses and their attitude towards it. Nevertheless, over time, the profession of a nurse becomes more and more respected, and prejudices about its components, and those who should represent this profession, pass (Barchielli, 2020). This allows the profession to develop further and become more multifaceted in its components.
Communicator Competency
In some cases, a nurse communicates with the patients more than any other medical specialist within the institution. The nurse should be able to present her or himself and colleagues, write documents, and actively listen. Additionally, the nurse must know the name and purpose of drugs, the rules, and methods of disinfection, the rules for performing injections, vaccinations, patient care, the basic concepts of professional ethics and deontology, sections of medical and educational psychology, and must be familiar with the technique of performing medical procedures. Not only this knowledge separately is important, but also the ability to present it to patients, to convey the idea to all medical personnel. Therefore, the success of the treatment can largely depend on the communication skills and knowledge of a nurse.
Coordinator Competency
Coordination is more of an organizational function, while communication is a social one. Nurses act as coordinators of many business processes inside and outside the hospital or rehabilitation facility. It is they who make sure that the patient receives everything he needs. They not only protect the interests of patients but also work to secure the resources to meet all the patient’s needs for treatment and care. Nurses serve as a liaison between patients and various other departments and individual representatives of the healthcare facility (Entry-level competencies for the practice of registered nurses, 2019). This allows for building a chain of communication that will be effective and convenient for patients. However, it is important to note that in this case, the nurse performs an irreplaceable role of a coordinator, who performs an organizational, communication, and control function for many processes.
Reflection
The aforementioned competencies of coordination and communication are not possible without others, such as leadership and advocacy, because it is complex that are necessary for the work of a nurse (Entry-level competencies for the practice of registered nurses, 2019). Nurses do not perform any one role but are multi-functional employees. They can act as masterminds or co-authors of treatment plans, coordinators of their implementation, or even partial or full implementers. Their importance for the development of medicine is wide and unlimited, and it is important to treat them correctly as medical personnel. Their participation should be respected, their opinions and levels of satisfaction taken into account, and the importance of their roles should be communicated to colleagues and patients.
From the research, it can be noted that none of the characteristics of competencies for a nurse is exclusively male or female, while for many years there has been a prejudice that only women should perform the role of nurses. Currently, medical and preventive institutions organize the work of nursing personnel following the new complex problems being solved in reformed healthcare institutions (Ferava et al., 2021). Therefore, the role of nurses is increasing immeasurably.
Improving the quality and efficiency of the management activities of the nurses is possible only through the use of modern management. Nursing personnel management should be a purposeful activity of the heads of nursing services of medical, preventive institutions, and their units, using various management mechanisms and communication channels to ensure the coordinated, qualified work of nursing personnel to provide patients with nursing care of an appropriate quantity and quality.
Recommendations
In the opinion of many, the work of a nurse is reduced to caring for the sick. However, in reality, the nurse is the doctor’s right hand but is partially devoid of autonomy. The acute problems of the shortage of paramedical personnel and the quality of their work may become urgent. In this regard, the established image of the profession is essential, which can lead to the unpopularity of nursing, and through the self-perception of nurses, influence the effectiveness of the treatment process. Learning about the image of nursing on social media is of particular importance.
To improve the image of a nurse, increase the prestige of the profession, and reduce the shortage of nursing specialists in the labor market, I, as a nursing advocate, would suggest several activities. First, to demonstrate the attractive aspects of the nursing profession: the need for high qualifications for high-quality nursing work, the creative side of the profession, its relevance in the labor market, and the unique place of nurses in people’s lives.
Nursing needs active, creative, and qualified professionals who choose to nurse, and not choose it on a leftover basis. Second, I would suggest identifying clear career prospects for nurses. Nursing should not be seen as an intermediate activity but as a full-fledged career. For example, provide the opportunity for experienced nurses to take on part of the doctor’s functions with a corresponding increase in remuneration.
Third, I would suggest considering the possibility of emphasizing the gender neutrality of the profession (for example, portraying not only women nurses on posters, and videos, but also men) to improve the image of medical brothers and thus increase the attractiveness of the profession for men. Formation of the image of the profession, including the profession of a nurse, is a complex and time-consuming process. But it depends on the image to what extent the health care need for these specialists will be realized, the nurses with what training and with what attitude will fill the vacant positions, as well as how the relationship between the participants in the treatment process will be built (Godsey et al., 2020). Ultimately, all this becomes decisive for the quality of the medical care provided.
Conclusion
In conclusion, society and clinical decision-makers should strive to ensure that there is no prejudice towards nurses and any other staff members. Other negative aspects such as bias and discrimination can develop from prejudice. In this regard, in the future, there should immediately be clear boundaries, policies, and manuals regarding who nurses are and what functions they should perform. This will help build a correct model of attitudes towards medical personnel in institutions and society.
References
Barchielli, C., Salutini, E., Da Ros, A., Maggiali, A., & Zoppi, P. (2020). Meaningful words: Why the importance of nurses and midwives has never been greater. Nursing Economics, 38(5), 254-251. Web.
Entry-level competencies for the practice of registered nurses. (2019). College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA).
Ferava, F., Anindita, R., & Hilmy, M. R. (2021). The motivation as a mediation relationship of work load performance in medical record staff at X hospital. Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic, 5(2), 137-142. Web.
Godsey, J. A., Houghton, D. M., & Hayes, T. (2020). Registered nurse perceptions of factors contributing to the inconsistent brand image of the nursing profession. Nursing Outlook, 68(6), 808-821. Web.
Rizany, I., Hariyati, R. T. S., & Handayani, H. (2018). Factors that affect the development of nurses’ competencies: A systematic review. Enfermeria Clinica, 28, 154-157. Web.