Nursing Foundations: Roles, Qualities, and Historical Context

Qualities and Professionalism of a Good Nurse

  • Therapeutic Communication Techniques

    • Silence: An important technique in therapeutic communication. Sometimes patients (or even family members) are talking, and the nurse should remain attentive and listen without interrupting the flow.
    • Attentive Listening: Essential for understanding and responding to patients effectively.

  • Qualities of a Good Nurse/Caregiver

    • Compassionate
    • Empathetic: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
    • Good Caregiving Skills
    • Teamwork/Good Team Player
    • Accountability: Owning up to errors, such as a medication error, and hoping the patient is not harmed.
    • Responsibility
    • Advocacy: Standing up for patients' best interests (e.g., requesting a therapist to return later if a patient is exhausted post-chemotherapy).
    • Knowledgeable: About the patient's condition, current guidelines, and institutional policies.
    • Ethical: Practicing according to a code of ethics.
    • Good Documentation Skills: Crucial for patient care and legal purposes.
    • Professionalism: Encompasses appearance, speech, actions, and overall demeanor.
    • Patient Educator: Explaining medications, disease processes, and self-care is a Joint Commission requirement.

  • The Joint Commission

    • A national accrediting organization comprising doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and lab professionals.
    • Inspects hospitals and assesses whether they meet national accreditation guidelines.
    • Uses uniform guidelines across all states (e.g., Washington, California, Texas, Florida, New York) to ensure standardized practice.
    • Accreditation signifies that a facility practices according to national guidelines, ensuring quality and safety.

Professional Nursing Roles and Behaviors

  • Core Responsibilities
    • Advocate
    • Clinician
    • Educator
    • Critical Thinker: Nurses must analyze patient symptoms, understand their meaning, and sometimes anticipate and prevent potential issues.
    • Patient-Centered Care: Treating each patient as an individual, respecting diverse ethnic groups, and avoiding a