The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving, and the nursing industry is evolving right alongside it. The nurses of today are much more important in the overall scenario and are playing a much bigger role in the communities as compared to before. They have more responsibilities on their shoulders, and they are rising to the challenge. Caring for the sick is also more complicated now. People come in with various symptoms, sometimes unique, and they all must be handled individually. Hospitals are severely understaffed, and the budget is continuously decreasing.
On top of that, we have an ever-increasing number of patients that report with problems like obesity, diabetes, and other similar conditions that are very complex to diagnose and treat. Sometimes people report to a hospital with multiple ailments.
This is where nurses come into play. They are really rising to the challenge and shouldering responsibilities that were not in their scope before. Nurses are doing advanced education programs so that they can handle the patients better and lead other nurses along the way.
A Nurse’s JD
Caring for the sick is only one of the jobs that nurses have to do today. They are fast changing all the aspects of healthcare delivery as well as modern medicine and treatment. They are doing research and publishing them, they are working on mobile apps that will help them save their time and cater to their patients better, they are addressing the healthcare policies. For this purpose, there are various high-level educational programs like online DNP programs and Ph.D. programs that are giving nurses the opportunity to become more than what they are.
We have compiled a list of reasons why nurses have become so much more important in today’s healthcare industry than before.
1. Patient Care
This is the first and foremost reason why nurses are so important in healthcare facilities around the world. They provide the topmost care to all their patients and help them with their needs, whether they are physical, mental, or injury related. For this purpose, they monitor the condition of the patient, record all the relevant data so that they can make informed decisions about the patients later on. They are tasked with following the patient’s condition throughout the time the patient is in their care and they do it without a second thought for their own condition or wellbeing.
2. Patient Advocacy
Not only do the nurses take care of their patients, but they are also fierce advocates for them as well. They have taken the mantle of caring for the patient as well as keeping their best interests at heart. Not only do they treat the patient, but they make sure that the patient’s dignity is intact throughout the treatment. For this purpose, they make suggestions and give advice for the treatment plans and work with other professionals. They do this because they know that all patients may not understand the situation they are in and may need guidance and support.
3. Planning of Care
Nurses are so important because they know the patients’ history better than anyone else. Therefore, they are always a big part of making decisions about the treatment for the patients. With all the responsibilities that they have to shoulder, they still take out the time to critically analyze the patient’s situation and identify the underlying problems so that they can come up with a better care plan.
4. Patient Education and Support
Another reason why nurses are so important and why healthcare facilities cannot do without them is that they are responsible for the patients’ physical condition as well as making sure that the patients understand their ailments, treatment options, medications, as well as alternatives. They practically educate the patients when it comes to their diseases and guides them through this tough time until the patient is discharged.
Not only do they educate and support the patients, but they also educate and support the families and caregivers so that they can understand how to take care of the patients after they are discharged and how to provide or apply medication.
5. Communicator
Nurses don’t work on the patients alone. They collaborate with various other professionals and healthcare teams to provide effective treatments and for complex procedures. They make sure that all the doctors and other healthcare professionals involved with the patients are up to date with the patients’ conditions and any changes that have been made.
6. Holistic Caregiver
One of the major roles that nurses play in today’s healthcare facilities is to take care of the patients in a holistic manner. This means that they consider the person’s spiritual, cultural and mental needs when they are coming up with a plan for them. The population of every place is quickly diversifying, especially the megacities in the world and for a nurse to do their jobs properly, they have to show cultural awareness and sensitivity towards patients and their beliefs.
7. Instructors
Technology has transformed the landscape of the healthcare industry and the same is the case with nursing. Various types of machines and apps have come up that are helping healthcare professionals do their work in less time, with more efficiency. Nurses are the ones tasked with adopting all these technologies and not just that, also explain them to the patients and their relatives and caregivers so that they can take advantage of them too. Patients can now monitor their own blood pressure or glucose.
Conclusion
These are only some of the various reasons why nurses are so important in today’s healthcare industry and why there is such a huge demand for them all around the world. The doctors are not the one curing the patients, it is because of the utmost care and hospitability of nurses patients feel better.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.