Nursing practice faces a problem related to a technicality and reducing caring substance because of the rise in complicated patient care and time limits. Caring promotes nurses’ focus on their relationship with patients by understanding, seeing, and assuming responsibilities. To reduce the potential for nursing to elicit purely technical traits, nurses in contemporary high-tech and effective environments should discern the necessity for a caring ethos. This assertion enables them to ground themselves in theory and actively connect with patients, promoting caring characteristics. Nursing practice requires individuals to exhibit awareness of inner ethical values. They should also showcase a high level of understanding of nursing tenets involving the provision of care. In this manner, providing an accurate definition of caring is important for the propagation of high-quality nursing care. Nurses should be open, attentive, respectful, and empathetic towards patients, treating them as people to increase their own and individuals’ sense of personal understanding concerning the best care in these scenarios. Nurses employ self-reflection to develop an awareness of ethical values, caring, and nursing in the field.
Definition and Uses of the Concept
Caring is a unique relationship between care receivers and caregivers to protect and promote the patient’s humanity. These relationships have a major influence on the patient’s healing capacity. It is prudent to emphasize the importance of care processes and the outcomes of these issues. They encompass emotional, spiritual, and psychological care dimensions (Morse et al., 2021). Caring is the heart of nursing and includes aspects such as health teaching and showing concern. Actions involved in care provision could exhibit distinct characteristics: patient teaching, advocacy, attentive listening, actively participating in patient activities, and technical competence. Nonetheless, it is prudent to ascertain the overarching nature of caring as it includes every nursing action involving interventions and procedures that assist patients (Morse et al., 2021). Nurses should have adequate skills and knowledge to illustrate a firm foundation for caring actions and discern the congruence between their actions and their care receivers’ perception of need. Patients state they discern they are cared for if nurses treat them as individuals, anticipate their needs, communicate and help them deal with experiences based on their illness, are available, and exhibit confidence and relaxed postures.
Defining Attributes
Honesty is an important concept in nursing. It matters to patients because they are vulnerable, ill, and fraught with urgent questions concerning their health. They need truthful answers to these questions. Nurses are constantly dealing with sensitive materials. They attend to patients in dire situations and rely on close connections with their co-workers. Dishonesty results in perceptions of disbelief that harm a patient’s assertion concerning the nurse.
Nurses also need to connect with patients because of their time attending to them. These individuals spend the most time with patients compared with other medical personnel. Nurses understand that connection and communication are intricately tied to care provision as it is an essential component in understanding a patient’s emotional and physical well-being (University of New Mexico, 2016). Individuals that exhibit good communication with their patients can provide better care to each patient, tailored to their situation.
Nurses should also exhibit resilience and avoid feeling powerless to provide patients with high-quality nursing care. Resilience alleviates these feelings in their tough work environment and enables nurses to cope with variations in patient care related to uncertainties exhibited in their state of health (Yilmaz, 2017). Nurses with these traits are better equipped to maintain stable and healthy psychological functioning. Their psychological well-being translates to better patient care as they exude confidence, a helpful quality in the profession.
Antecedents
Caring takes place after individuals exhibit awareness concerning the need to provide help. Nurses possess an innate cognitive and moral motivation to help individuals in this instance. Individuals should illustrate caring behavior as it is an antecedent for nursing care (Stroehlein, 2016). Nonetheless, this issue is not difficult for many individuals as they are attracted to nursing due to their compassionate nature. As was the case in Florence Nightingale’s commitment to helping people in war, nurses have a desire to help others. They showcase a determination to give the best quality care and comfort to people in need. This desire is helpful as it allows a person to find meaning in their work, aiding the sick and offering them comfort when they need it most.
Consequences
Consequences are incidents or events that happen due to the occurrence concept’s results. The consequences of nursing care include growth, satisfaction, and healing. It is imperative to note that caring affects nurses and patients alike. Nursing care is likely to result in patient or nurse satisfaction (Stroehlein, 2016). Furthermore, it is important to note these individuals’ feelings are connected as a nurse cannot be happy about a patient’s lack of improvement. Nonetheless, healing is a patient’s consequence, while satisfaction may be greater for a nurse than for a patient based on their expected outcome. Additionally, nurses exhibit the need for care as much as other individuals. These feelings propagate effective performance at work and greater commitment to their patients.
Model Case
Intensive care management is a process that involves providing high-quality care in a short duration. The patient receives more attention from the nurse and is encouraged to communicate openly to promote their rehabilitation (AJ Case Management, 2019). They frequently meet to continuously track the patient’s progress, while nurses may accompany patients to appointments and sessions to confirm they are meeting expected goals. The client’s needs govern rehabilitation duration though the primary aim is to recover in the shortest possible time (AJ Case Management, 2019). Constant communication between the nurse and patient may be intense but aimed at providing the patient with an accurate record of their progress. The nurse also monitors their patient closely than in other instances, showing their determination and resilience to elicit a shorter healing time and promote patient care. These connections are deeper than in other situations as patients spend more time with the nurses when intensive care management is employed. This results in a strong relationship between the individuals, promoting faster recovery.
Borderline Case
While nursing care is aimed at the best care provision, it is prudent to note that nurses may be too busy to provide every component associated with caring. These individuals work in a stressful environment that is demanding, dynamic, and fast-paced (Stroehlein, 2016). In some instances, nurses may be overworked, resulting in fatigue and burnout. A patient is less likely to experience every aspect of caring that a nurse should provide if these problems affect their work. Though nurses may showcase resilience by providing the best quality care to patients, they may not exhibit a strong connection with these individuals due to time constraints (Stroehlein, 2016). They may check necessary functions and avoid others because of a time crunch. Patients would receive honest information concerning their ailment but a reduced connection with their nurse. These are often the cases with telemedicine, allowing a nurse to serve multiple patients but with a reduced connection to each because of time constraints. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the nurse does not care less about the patient in this scenario.
Contrary Case
A contrary case exhibits a different issue concerning caring. It is devoid of the caring concept. In this instance, an individual in the nursing practice may have learned the profession due to a need for a well-paying job (Stroehlein, 2016). Some nurses also choose the profession because of its flexible hours. However, these people do not care for patients, a problem associated with the practice. Patients receive subpar care and suffer due to these reasons for practicing nursing (Stroehlein, 2016). The individuals are not good role models and exemplify that curing is impossible without care, while caring can happen without curing.
Implications for Nursing Practice
Caring is a vital concept in nursing due to its importance in healing. Individuals recover better with caring nurses, showcasing its necessity in high-quality health provision. It is considered an effective way for nurses to portray compassion and empathy towards those charged to their care (Wilson, 2021). Caring can take many forms and includes physically supporting or talking to a person. Nurses with this trait are likely to offer betters services to their patients, promoting healthcare development. They increase patient confidence in medical institutions and their capacity to offer honest, close connections with patients, illustrating an empathetic way of treating those in need of medical assistance (Wilson, 2021). Nursing care is an important concept that cannot be separated from the profession’s nature, illustrating its significance to those in the field.
References
AJ Case Management. (2019). Different models of case management in Nursing, Care & Rehabilitation. AJ Case Management.
Morse, J. M., Solberg, S. M., Neander, W. L., Bottorff, J. L., & Johnson, J. L. (2021). Concepts of caring and caring as a concept. Springer Publishing.
Stroehlein, M. (2016). Caring concept. SOJ Nursing & Health Care.
Stroehlein, M. (2016). Caring concept. SOJ Nursing & Health Care.
University of New Mexico. (2016). Importance of Communication in Nursing: UNM online. University of New Mexico. Web.
Wilson, B. (2021). Why caring is important in nursing. The Nerdy Nurse.
Yılmaz, E. B. (2017). Resilience as a strategy for struggling against challenges related to the nursing profession. Chinese Nursing Research, 4(1), 9–13.
