Role of Nurses in Delivering Optimal Care on Daily Basis

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Undoubtedly, nurses are one of the essential aspects of the healthcare field and if you can. As the world's aging population rises while diseases increase, the need for nurses is now more than ever. It's safe to say that nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system. They work day and night tirelessly to provide optimal care for patients.

Many people think the role of a nurse is no more than administering medication and handling similar tasks. However, there's much more to a nurse's job than providing medication, and their role in providing optimal care extends far beyond that. From patient counseling to acting as managers and administrators in a healthcare facility, nurses perform numerous tasks to provide optimal patient care. Physicians and other healthcare professionals depend on nurses for delivering proper care to patients. To define the true role in delivering optimal care, here are some essential tasks nurses perform daily.

1. Educating Patients

As mentioned earlier, the role of nurses is not limited to administering medication. One of the essential parts of a nurse's job is to educate patients about their conditions. Doing so helps in providing preventative healthcare to help a patient avoid preventable harm. For example, a nurse can advise patients to make lifestyle modifications for disease prevention. Heart disease and obesity are often prevented with the help of education. Patients are also educated about their treatments or surgeries to help them better understand the recovery process. Alongside disease prevention, nurses provide self-care education to help patients be more independent without care providers.

However, to provide the correct information to patients for optimal healthcare, one must have advanced education in nursing and become a doctor of nursing practice. Such an education will equip you with the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to deliver optimal healthcare efficiently. You can enroll in an online program for this degree to make the learning process easier for you. Therefore, you can opt for an online DNP program and become a successful nurse leader.

2. Providing Mental and Emotional Support

It's often challenging for patients to undergo different treatments, operations, and medications, while suffering illnesses. As a result, the mental health of patients is put at risk. In such a situation, nurses help patients go through tough times by providing mental and emotional support. Without their help, a patient might lack the willpower to go through the required treatment, ultimately leading to severe consequences such as fatality.

Nurses spend time with patients and listen to them while connecting personally to ensure optimal mental health. They are known to spend much more time with patients, as compared to the time physicians spend. They answer any questions regarding the patient's worries. As a result, patients feel more calm and comfortable through their treatments. Many healthcare facilities offer specialized counseling programs for patients in need with the help of nurses. Moreover, alongside supporting the patients, nurses often support the patient's family.

3. Monitoring Patient Health

Physicians and doctors are not the only ones in charge of monitoring patient care while performing various examinations. Nurses do most patient health monitoring. Physicians have other responsibilities and cannot connect with the patients as nurses do. Nurses are tasked with recording patients' vitals often on an hourly basis each day to report back to physicians. These vitals are essential to analyze the condition of patients and take immediate action against any harmful condition such as fever or infection.

Alongside recording vitals, nurses visually assess their patients frequently throughout the day. They are skilled in analyzing the patient's conditions without even interacting with the patient. Suppose a patient's condition starts to deteriorate. In that case, a nurse will take immediate action and report to doctors, saving the patient's life. Moreover, nurses also help perform different types of examinations on patients and provide detailed reports to doctors. It helps doctors develop the most suitable treatment plan, as they have the correct information about the patient.

4. Managing Medical Records

The availability of medical records is crucial for patient care. Doctors require these records to study the patient's history and make critical decisions about recovery and treatment. In the absence of these records, treatments can often become ineffective, which damages the patient significantly. However, nurses make sure medical records are available and filled with the required details at all times, ensuring optimal care.

Each time nurses are tasked with administering medication, and they make sure to record every medicine intake by the patient, alongside its effects observed on the patient. In addition to this, nurses also record vitals and other examinations to aid in treatment and recovery. Nurses also ask the patients questions about their conditions to record more information. These questions may include the patient's history and family illnesses, which are crucial for understanding the patient's current condition.

Conclusion

Considering the tasks handled by nurses, such as those mentioned above, it's evident that nurses play a crucial role in providing optimal care. The primary duty of a nurse is to deliver patient care in the best possible way and it shouldn't make a doctor's day exhausted. As managing employees such as nurses and other staff sometimes become a headache. However, a best rostering software could help you to do it efficiently, so always go for a software solution rather than hiring another manager just for rostering nursing staff.

A day in the life of a nurse is filled with tasks revolving around delivering optimal patient care. It's safe to say that they are the frontline healthcare workers, forming the backbone of this system.