What is the role of the nurse in the community?

Answer 1

1.To promotes comfort.2.To show emphaty.3.To show respect

Answer 2

Nurses used to be known as the "handmaiden" to doctors. Their roles were limited, except to do what the doctor ordered, to look after patients, make beds, give patients food, help with bandages, help get them out of bed, etc.

However, much has changed since the mid-1800s and since the mid-1950s. Nurses are skilled professionals with a separate and distinct professional function from physicians.

Physicians still write orders. But, nurses are expected to know when an order, a medication, a dosage, etc., is wrong and to be able to effectively communicate to a physician the reasons the nurse cannot follow the order as given. For example, there are big differences in the amount of medication given by mouth, versus by injection, versus by intravenous. A nurse has the legal responsibility to know it's wrong if a doctor mistakenly orders a dose higher than medically advisable to give by a particular route of administration.

A nurse also has specific nursing duties that include assessment, development of a nursing plan, patient and family teaching, medication teaching, treatments, dressing changes, catheter management, and to re-assess every patient every day. Besides knowing medications, chemistry, Biology and body systems, normal and abnormal signs and symptoms, nurses must also know how to correctly use every piece of equipment used in patient care. As much as a nurse is required to know, he or she must also be able to "know what he/she does not know" and to seek instruction through a supervisor before attempting to do the task.

In specialties (surgery, recovery, OB/GYN, Med-ICU, Cardiac-ICU, Neonatal-ICU, renal, cardiac, orthopedic, etc.), nurses working in those areas have specialized knowledge and continuing education (all nurses are required to do CEUs but specialized nursing means nurses must continually upgrade their skills).

No longer do nurses only make beds, clean bedpans, wash laundry (1800s-early 1900s), ambulate with patients, etc. These tasks are typically done by nursing assistants and by departments within the hospital (for example, the laundry department). Nurses cando all of these tasks but the trend has been to hire Master's level nurses, or what's called Nurse Managers. Diploma R.N.s and B.S.N.'s still work on hospital floors/units, but Nurse Managers often have more bookwork education, do more paperwork on duty, and are viewed as more skilled than traditional RNs or BSNs (this view is not held among all in the profession).

Medicine and nursing has become highly technical, much more than 10, 20, or 30 years ago. In fact, technological advancements and ever-changing equipment means that nurses must be highly educated, willing to continue to learn, and must take on numerous roles throughout the work day.

A typical day for a nurse might go like this:

1. Arrive, clock in
2. Get shift report (verbal or by listening to a taped report)
3. First assessment of patients
4. Help bathe patients if needed and if there's time
5. Help deliver and/or remove breakfast trays if needed and if time
6. Medication Administration
7. hang and/or monitor IVs
8. Help with hands-on tasks (bathroom, bedding, bed pans, etc)
9. Rounds with doctors
10. Review charts for new orders (or whatever system is used for new orders)
11. Implement new orders
12. Morning charting (continues throughout the day)
13. Treatments, Medication Administration, Charting, Assisting
14. break - IF there is time for a break
15. Continuation of morning duties
16. Pre-lunch meds (ex. blood sugar tests and Insulin administration)
17. Help to "pass trays" - i.e. deliver lunch trays to patients
18. Reviewing Labs -- when reports come back
19. Communication with doctors -- as warranted
20. Communication with family as needed
21. Patient teaching (in between other duties usually, esp. at the time of giving a service/doing a task... for example, teach about wound care while doing the wound dressing)
22. Coordinating patient services
23. Afternoons are usually when patients go for tests, get OT, PT, etc.
24. Afternoon meds - if any
25. Continual checking of IVs throughout the shift
26. Hanging Piggy-back IVs as ordered
27. More Charting
28. Dealing with any crisis that develops with assigned patients
29. More Medications
30. More Charting
31. Wondering if you forgot anything (endless, throughout the day)
32. Deliver verbal or taped report to oncoming nurses

Nurses have many roles. Although very few wear their white caps now, nurses will always wear many "hats".

Answer 3

Patient care used to be relatively authoritarian. Now nurses are part of a health care team, and nurses have many responsibilities. Patient care and documentation, certainly, but also teaching both the patient and family, reinforcing care taught by other disciplines, such as respiratory or physical therapy, referral to social services or pastoral care as needed, providing emotional support, refrain from appearing judgmental, include and assist patient in his/her own health care decisions, write nursing care plan - include the patient - and update as appropriate. This is by no means all inclusive.

Answer 4

Nursing isn't just about kids. It's about people of all ages. Nursing is important to society because how else and who else could properly operate on or heal us? Without nurses all we have as a society is a bunch or think we know-it-alls.

Answer 5

Nurses are expected to deliver medicine to their patients, keep them clean and ensure that they are comfortable. Different nurses are responsible for different things.

Answer 6

the roles of a nurse depend on the setting, hospital, nursing home, mental ward, etc. it also depends on what type of nurse you are talking about CNA, LPN, or RN.

Answer 7

A nurse provides skilled care and comfort for ill persons.

Answer 8

they make people better in hospitals and become midwives when women are pregnant. :)