Alternative treatment modalities: the need for a rational response by the nursing profession

During the last 2 decades, interest in and use of alternative modalities of health care has proliferated. As the public demand for such therapies increased, nursing has been among a few of the health professions to fill this need. Some of these therapies may prove to be valuable, others may be shown to be ineffective, and others may be harmful. Presently, many alternative methods have not been tested by using rigorous scientific methods. In addition, standardization in education and credentialing of practitioners of these modalities is lacking. As health care professionals, nurses have a responsibility to their patients and to their profession to validate the safety and efficacy of their practice. It is incumbent on the recognized bodies of the nursing profession to address these serious issues. The safety of patients and the reputation of the profession of nursing may depend on it.     

Blending the entrepreneurial and faculty roles

A changing health care system makes this an opportune time for nursing faculty to use their expertise to improve the public's health care. The author explores the benefits to the individual, the profession, the university, and the health care system of merging the entrepreneurial philosophy and role with the traditional nurse faculty role.     

Improving the health and wellness of persons with disabilities: a call to action too important for nursing to ignore

In 2005, the US Surgeon General issued a Call to Action to Improve the Health and Wellness of Persons with Disabilities, with the goal being the improvement of the health status of men, women, and children with disabilities. Despite federal legislation to address inequities in health care for the 54-60 million people in the US with disabilities, many have reported negative experiences in their interactions with health care providers from all health professions. Collectively, the nursing profession has been silent in its response to this call. This article describes the current status of health care of individuals with disabilities in the US, and suggests appropriate responses by the nursing profession to the Surgeon General's Call to Action. Specific suggestions are identified for nursing practice, education, research, nursing leaderships, and the profession of nursing as a whole.     

Clinician mental health,nursing shortages and the COVID‐19 pandemic: Crises within crises

Around the world, nurses are working under enormous pressure providing care to sick and dying patients during the pandemic. Many are faced with increased stress, and other negative effects on their mental health. They are also faced with the possibility of infection and death from COVID‐19. Before the pandemic there was a global shortage of nurses, but this is likely to be exacerbated by the increased demands of caring during COVID‐19 as well as the usual care of non‐COVID patients. One serious concern is that the pandemic and multitudinous effects on the nursing profession will exacerbate nursing attrition and their poor mental health into the future. Another serious concern is whether the profession will be able to attract sufficient numbers of nurses to care for populations into the future. Governments and health policymakers everywhere need to invest in nursing and health care and pay attention to the needs of health systems to ensure a healthy population. It is argued that without this, economies will not recover and prosper, and health systems will not be able to provide quality care.     

Pushing the limit: forensic nursing in Germany

violence remains a public health challenge and the nursing profession accepts this challenge by expanding its field. Although countries such as the United States, Great Britain, and Canada have employed forensic nurses for decades in different capacities, Germany has yet to follow their lead. This report discusses the German health care and legal systems and challenges Germany to develop an innovative, cost-efficient, and competent profession of forensic nursing.     

专科护士在护理专业中的角色和地位

对“专科护士”(CNS)的概念和执业标准 ,CNS的工作内容、角色作用和在实践中遇到的问题 ,以及CNS在护理专业发展中的意义作了简要的介绍和分析。CNS是在护理专业化进程中产生的 ,是高级临床护理工作者。在一些国家的卫生保健系统中 ,CNS活跃在各种护理服务场所 ,可有其专门的工作岗位和相应的岗位职责 ,为服务对象提供常规的医疗护理工作未能提供或未能系统地提供的专门化护理服务。多年来 ,CNS所做的工作体现了护理工作在卫生保健事业中的独特作用和价值 ,丰富了护理学知识体系 ,对护理学科的发展做出了贡献。我国CNS的培养和使用尚处于起步阶段 ,其发展是符合卫生保健事业的需求的 ,也给临床护士在专业上的发展展示了一个全新的领域     

A conceptual analysis of professional commitment

Professional Commitment is an attitude, and it is the core and spirit of professionalism. In addition to increasing personal stability in the profession, it also enables individuals to reach their professional goals in general. Because nurses usually have more opportunities than other health care professionals to be in contact with patients, patients receive most of their information about health care from nurses. If nurses accept professional commitment as early as possible, the quality of patient-care will be improved. That is the reason why professional commitment is regarded as the hallmark of quality in professional care. This paper will use the conceptual analysis framework developed by Walker and Avant (1995) to examine and analyze professional commitment and establish its relationship with nursing. The authors hope that it can provide nurses with the opportunity to understand this concept more fully, to support their own profession, to raise the position of the nursing profession and to guarantee the health of the general public.     

Chiropractic's current state: impacts for the future

The chiropractic profession is currently facing a shift in practice and health care environments. This editorial reflects on the current state of the profession and suggests that the profession should move from the thinking and practice styles of the past that primarily attempted to prove patient care and practice to a more productive approach that strives to improve patient care and practice. The following primary areas that require attention are discussed: (1) evidence-based and best practices-oriented research priorities; (2) constructive engagement of the greater health care system; and (3) successful ethical business models.     

美国卫生信息管理职业发展

健康信息管理人员致力于为诊疗、科研和收费提供高质量的数据.本文介绍健康相关行业之一健康信息管理业的相关信息,包括职业发展简史、健康信息管理者在医疗机构中的职业角色,以及为获得注册健康信息管理人(RHIA)职业资格所应接受的教育科目.举例介绍了健康服务管理业与其他健康相关学科的合作关系,并讨论了行业的就业前景.     

Leadership: a means of empowering the nursing profession.

For too long now, nurses have assumed an obsequious role in their working relationship with other health professionals. The nursing profession holds the majority membership in the field of health care professions yet nurses continue to be cast into subordinate roles within professional relationships, failing to be recognised as peers. This is despite many nurses possessing unique but analogous knowledge, credentials and professionalism. It is time nurses were agitated to reflect upon their position and be reminded nursing is also a profession. Some suggestions and motivation are offered.     

The impact of perceived medical dominance on the workplace satisfaction of Australian and British nurses

Current literature on the sociology of health views medical dominance as a structural feature of the health division of labour, and a body of literature has developed exploring the structural components contributing to the subordination of the allied health professions In this paper, nursing literature describing the nature and source of nurses' perceptions, complaints and dissatisfactions with their profession, and sociological analyses of the position of nurses within the structure of the health care delivery system, were employed to provide a framework for assessing the degree to which structural medical dominance of the nursing profession impinges on nurses' perceptions of dominance and how these perceptions affect nurses' workplace satisfaction A 69-item questionnaire covering aspects of doctor-nurse, doctor-patient, nurse-patient and nurse-hospital administration relationships was developed One-hundred and thirty-three Australian nurses and 108 British nurses completed the questionnaire, in which they ranked their own level of professional satisfaction and the level of satisfaction they perceived doctors to experience Results indicated that Australian and British nurses were not only dissatisfied with many aspects of then- work environment, such as their pay and working conditions, but also experienced dissatisfaction with their professional status while perceiving the medical profession to be highly satisfied British nurses were significantly more dissatisfied with their own profession and perceived the medical profession to be more authoritarian than did Australian nurses No difference between Australian and British nurses' perceptions of degree of medical autonomy was found The implications of nurses' perceived discrepancy in workplace satisfaction between nurses and doctors in the delivery of health care are discussed in terms of the structural barriers created by medical dominance Recommendations for the trainmg of nurses and the implications of the findings for nurse practitioners are made, together with suggestions for further research     

The professional doctorate: rationale and characteristics.

The position that it is time for the nursing profession to develop programs leading to the N.D. degree, or professional doctorate, (for the college graduates) derives from consideration of the nature of nursing, the contributions that nurses can make to development of an exemplary health care system, and from the recognized need for nursing to emerge as a full-fledged profession. It derives from pride in the accomplishments made by nurses of the past; from discontent with the meager influence that nurses now have; and from anticipation of a future that will be created when a critical mass of nurses are provided opportunities for completing pre-service doctoral study. It derives from confidence that those nurses can and will so influence the health care system that all persons will be properly served with care that promotes their health, restores their function,, and enhances their independence in knowledgeably exploiting their own health-seeking behaviors.     

Ethics and occupational therapy practice

Professional ethics are guiding principles which are intended to orient the individuals within the profession, ensure our clients best interests and to protect the profession itself and its position in the public mind. Professional ethics are the rules we use to make certain that each therapist is operating in a fashion which protects the integrity of our profession and hence the viability of all occupational therapists. Our professional ethics, in addition to our special training and acquired skills, explain our profession to the health care community and those patients whom we serve. Professional ethics are a method by which our membership defines itself and guides its members throughout their career. Professional ethics ensure a place of trust within the Canadian health care system for those who choose to practice occupational therapy.     

珠海市香洲区社区护理业务集中式管理模式效果研究

目的:针对珠海市香洲区社区护理的现状,探讨社区护理的管理模式。方法:对珠海市香洲区辖区内的集体及私有性质的社区卫生服务机构的护理业务进行集中式管理。结果:通过社区护理业务集中式管理后,社区护士的岗位培训率达80%以上,基础护理操作能力、专科技能、急救能力均有了明显的提高。结论:针对珠海市香洲区社区护理的现状,实行社区护理业务集中式管理是一种行之有效的管理模式。     

Transforming continuing education across the health professions

Transforming continuing education (CE) in the health professions requires a focus on competence and performance improvement by all health care professionals to ensure the public's trust. Measures of competence include individual, team, and systems-based performance meeting the growing expectations for quality care by consumers and the government. CE professionals have a critical role in meeting these new expectations for health care professionals as they pursue their continued professional development. This competence-based framework demands new knowledge, skills, and abilities for the CE health professional, including standardization and formalization of this field as an emerging profession.     

District continence nurses’ experiences of their continence service in primary health care

hägglund d . (2009) Journal of Nursing Management  18, 225–233
District continence nurses’ experiences of their continence service in primary health care Aim The aim of the present study was to describe district continence nurses’ experiences of providing continence services in primary care. Background It has been stated that there is too little research on the experiences of district care nurses who provide continence services. Method Twenty-two district continence nurses answered a written questionnaire containing three open-ended main questions. A qualitative content analysis method was used to analyse the texts. Results The district continence nurses’ feelings of maintaining their professionalism were promoted by scheduled patient encounters, patients who participate in assessment of urinary incontinence (UI) and functioning teamwork. The opposite situation, nurses’ feelings of having a lesser degree of professionalism, was associated with not having scheduled patient appointments, patients not participating in assessment of UI and lack of teamwork. Conclusions The district continence nurses lacked the authority to start nurse-led continence clinics because of the lack of collaborative teamwork, an organization that did not enable nurse-led scheduled appointments and nurses’ limited view of their own profession. Implications for nursing management Primary health care managers and policy-makers need to provide an environment that enables interprofessional collaboration so that nurses’ skills can be used to advance patient services; such initiatives could enable district continence nurses to reach their full potential.     

Being there: the essence of end-of-life nursing care

Competent and compassionate end-of-life care is the right of everyone. Nursing and the health care profession are obligated to meet this need for their patients and provide crucial information and support. Continued efforts must be made to increase our knowledge about the normal dying process, symptom management, and the role of the interdisciplinary team in supporting patients in their final wishes for a "good death".     

District nurses' perceptions of health education

? This paper presents a small qualitative study examining district nurses' perceptions of health education in one community trust. ? District nurses perceive health education to be an important part of the role. ? There are various factors that both facilitate and constrain the district nurses' health education role. ? District nurses feel that it is essential that their health education role is valued by other health care professionals; therefore evaluation of this function is seen as significant.     

The Nurse Practitioner and Autonomy: Contributions to the Professional Maturity of Nursing

In 1990 we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the nurse practitioner (NP) movement. We now have had considerable experience with the role, and it is appropriate to examine our contributions to the maturity of nursing as a profession. Nursing's future health care delivery role in an increasingly competitive health care arena may well depend on the autonomy, of the practice of professional nursing. This article focuses on NPs, their autonomy, and their contributions to the professionalization of nursing.     

Said another way. My definition of nursing

The definition of nursing has evolved since the introduction of the definition by the American Nurses Association in 1980. The society we nurses serve has changed significantly and members of the society demand quality health care and respect for their individual decisions regarding their health care. As a profession, we must keep our fingers on the pulse of society and be ready to respond to the changes of society's needs. Being diligent in defining our position in society is imperative for the preservation of the nursing profession. This paper supports the current definition of the ANA (2003) within the domains of the art, science, and practice of nursing.