Introduction
Caring is a moral ideal for all nurses as it protects, preserves, and enhances human dignity. Nursing involves providing supervision to individuals of all ages, groups, or families in all settings, whether they are sick or well. The paper’s purpose is to discuss the caring concept in nursing while integrating scholarly research and personal experiences. Integrating care in any treatment promotes the psychosocial, relational, and physical aspects, ensuring a good relationship between the nurse and the patient. Quality nursing care can be attained through empathy, building a nurse-patient relationship, meeting patient needs, and portraying the components of compassion. The consequences of care vary between the nurses and the patient. Nurses are tasked with providing high-quality care, which can only be attained if they practice with compassion and empathy. Caring is essential in practicing nursing as it promotes better healthcare giving and building a good relationship between the patient and the nurse.
Quality Nursing Care
Quality nursing care raises the chances of attaining desired health outcomes as services are provided satisfyingly. Quality nursing care includes caring, nurse-patient relationships, and patient needs (Juanamasta et al., 2021). They further have sub-attributes and indicators that show their attainment. A good nurse can be easily identified through the expression of some qualities. The main attributes include caring, empathy, good communication, problem-solving, and commitment (Mudd et al., 2020). When a nurse is committed, they will ensure they follow the hospital’s mission statement and be advocates for the patients. My encounter with some nurses while seeking medical intervention displayed the above attributes making my hospital visit worthwhile. Many patients seek medical attention in hospitals when they lack any other option. They are confused, disoriented, and unable to speak and express themselves. In such circumstances, a caring nurse is far more helpful and will offer the best services.
Caring
Caring is one of the essential nursing qualities that every healthcare giver needs to adopt. Nurses who naturally portray the tendency to care about the patients significantly impact their well-being. This characteristic is vital to their success in nursing as the performance rate will be on the rise. The sub-attributes of caring include the care function and the personal character of the nurse (Juanamasta et al., 2021). Nurses’ feelings can significantly impact the provision of quality service. Some factors, such as availability of time, nursing leadership, and the context of care delivery, affect nursing care. Other factors that deny the attainment of caring service provision include burnout, educational level, and secondary traumatic stress (Mudd et al., 2020). The indicators that can be used to identify the achievement of the caring attribute in a hospital setting include patient satisfaction and recommendations. In building a good nurse-patient relationship, three dimensions of loving ability are vital: courage, patience, and knowledge.
Nurse-Patient Relationship
The attainment of quality care involves the patients and the nurses, leading to the nurse-patient relationship. Interpersonal and communication skills facilitate the accomplishment and success of this relationship (Juanamasta et al., 2021). The two are vital in constructing a good connection between two individuals. Nurses must gain the patients’ trust before treatment commences, making the process successful. They monitor and inform patients of their conditions and advise on the necessary steps. Integrating the concept of care into the built relationship ensures proper treatment is offered. In my hospital visits, the nurses that treated me strived to create a connection that made me feel secure and loved. A good relationship leads to good corporation with relatives, thus developing interaction that is significant to patient well-being. A good nurse-patient relationship improves satisfaction as quality care is guaranteed. It contains the essential components: trust, empathy, respect, power, and professional intimacy (Juanamasta et al., 2021). The features of this relationship depict the presence of a caring attribute portrayed by the practitioner. It follows a procedure that starts with pre-interaction, orientation, and working and ends with the termination of the interaction.
Patient Needs
Patient needs in nursing include providing a complete assessment of the situation and providing adequate treatment based on the caring attribute. The requirements are slightly comprehensive and complex, unlike the ones required by normal human beings. Meeting the needs of physical care, spiritual, emotional care, and psychosocial support that patients require is challenging (Cook & Peden, 2017). A caring medical practitioner is the only one able to offer these needs as they are fully invested in attaining healthy living conditions for the patients. In a hospital setting, patients need to engage in activities considered fundamental. Apart from the four mentioned above, additional ones include essential, protective, elimination, rest and sleep, and communication needs (Sacco & Copel, 2017). Hospitals provide 24-hour personal and residential care, similar to the home setting. As a result, there is a need to have cleaning, snacks, meals, dressing, shaving, and laundry (Juanamasta et al., 2021). Nurses can further implement the following practices to attain better health outcomes and patient care: respect, expressing gratitude, enabling access to treatment, involving family members, and engaging with patients (Rusli et al., 2021). Nurses can identify the patient’s needs through interaction, thus facilitating quality care.
Integration of Care
The response by a nurse that addresses a patient’s psychosocial, physical, and relational needs is critical. It results in a trusting nurse-patient relationship and a supportive care context. Physical needs address all personal requirements, including food, medication, toileting, and comfort. Effective communication, education and information, emotional well-being, dignity, privacy, involvement, and informed decision-making concerning patient health are certified under the psychosocial aspect (Cook & Peden, 2017). Nurses must express the relational aspect to all the clients as it promotes a caring attitude. It involves active listening, being present, working with patients to set goals, helping them stay calm and compassionate, and involving families (Juanamasta et al., 2021). The three ensure a relationship is established based on trust. Care integration is highly supported by the attainment and provision of the three aspects. Health professionals adopt integrated health care enabling communication with other professionals (Turkel et al., 2018). Information related to a patient in concern is thus shared, thus promoting the attainment of a proper treatment plan. The concept of care is far dominant in these scenarios as health professionals show concern about the better well-being of their clients.
The Five C’s of Caring
Patient care is not limited to the medical aspect but needs to attend to the patient’s physical ailments and emotional needs. The five C’s that improve patient-nurse relations include commitment, confidence, conscience, compassion, and competence (Turkel et al., 2018). The best possible care to patients in a considerate and morally responsible way is assured by incorporating sympathy and conscience in treatment. Nurses must show empathy to foster a collaborative relationship with the patients. The excellent correlation helps root out explanations, symptoms, and causes, thus assuring proper diagnosis and treatment. Effective communication with patients results in decreased anxiety, an optimistic outlook about recovery, shorter hospital stays, and pain alleviation (Rusli et al., 2021). Nurses develop a compassionate approach to care when instilled with the values of healthcare organization and patient-centered care (Xu et al., 2020). Caring can be shown to patients by asking them what they need, answering questions, smiling, making eye contact, and greeting them by name. Nurses should offer services with no judgment that they would be much more comfortable if they were the ones receiving the treatment. They must develop a transpersonal caring relationship and connect well with the patients.
Components of Caring Behavior
Nursing is a profession in healthcare that involves the promotion, rehabilitation, prevention, and relief of distress that requires caring and committed professionals. Nurses need to care for the patient’s mind and body by incorporating skills acquired from the art of nursing. Caring behavior is vital for nursing professionals as it shows the worth of humans and transpersonal care. I recently sought medical assistance; the nurses were comforting and focused mainly on my recovery. Affectionate behavior is occasionally affected when nurses engage in environments such as caring for ill patients that sometimes end up dead (Xu et al., 2020). Understanding includes kindness, professional relationship, respect and sense of worth, professional competency, holistic care, and professional ethics (Sacco & Copel, 2017). A nurse’s behavior shown during caring help determine if any of the components is attained or not. Some positive behaviors likely to portray the presence of the elements include comfort, gentle nursing care, listening to patients’ opinions, using straightforward language, helping patients to do an activity, being responsible, and giving time for family visits (Sacco & Copel, 2017). The above actions are directly concerned with the patient’s well-being; if not respected, the type of services offered are disrespectful.
Caring as Unending Expression of Nursing (CUEN)
The CUEN theory asserts that caring is the intentional expression of nursing care to the patient within a caring environment. All human beings are believed to be caring in nature. The ones portraying unending care is the one identified as a nurse. The theory describes the clinical nursing practice as the basis for knowledge development regarding the clinical field (Acob, 2018). The premise practice becomes distinct when nurses identify themselves as tools for caring, communicate effectively with the patients and offer options to patients helping them make sound decisions (Acob, 2018). The main goal for a nurse is to know the patient as a holistic being and support and maintain them. Nursing only occurs when there is an interaction between the nurse and the patient (Acob, 2018). Caring being identified as an unending expression for nursing indicates that the relationship is long-lasting and only ends when the patient is considered free from health complications. Nurses must understand themselves before providing care to those in need (Acob, 2018). A nurse-patient relationship is attained, which is vital in delivering quality care.
Consequences of Quality Nursing Care
The consequences faced and attained by nurses during the provision of care affect the outcomes of the patients. Factors affecting patient satisfaction include expectations, communication, control, appearance, and time spent by patients seeking medical services (Xu et al., 2020). The consequences of quality care nursing are further categorized into two groups, nurse outcomes and patient outcomes. Each covers the potential effects of providing quality care, with patients benefiting and nurses experiencing some drawbacks. In providing quality care, nurses play a significant role in improving patient satisfaction and impacting their safety. Patient empathy and adequate communication play the trick as it facilitates good relationships, resulting in better health outcomes (Xu et al., 2020). Nurses determine the quality of care in several health settings like hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and community care settings. They tend to experience a lot which can impact their service provision.
Nurse Outcomes
Nurses use social, technical, and emotional skills each day to facilitate the provision of quality care. The nursing staff provides holistic care to the patients and their families 24 hours a day. Caring includes having a personal relationship with the patient, which may be a concern as the ratio is overwhelming. Staffing issues such as high turnover, burnout, and lower workforce levels affect quality care (Xu et al., 2020). Burnout is experienced when they tend to overwork as the number of patients is higher and they are short-staffed. Nurses can not be selfless if they are affected health-wise and are not cared for enough by the facilities hiring them (Rusli et al., 2021). Dissatisfied nurses are likely to stop worrying, thus affecting the supervision provided to the sick (Xu et al., 2020). Lower nurse staffing directly associates with job dissatisfaction and nurse burnout. Self-care is key to nurses who spend much time caring for others. Most practitioners put their patients’ health, wellness, and safety before their own (Xu et al., 2020). Better care for nurses will enable them to maintain competence and offer quality care to patients.
Patient Outcomes
The attributes of patient outcomes include patient safety, satisfaction, and functional status. Patients experience high-quality care in an environment where nurses are satisfied. The features can influence the antecedents of the healthcare organization, health interventions, and individual patient characteristics (Xu et al., 2020). Nursing has a central goal of providing good treatment to all patients. The patient outcomes are likely to vary depending on the service offered. The patient satisfaction rate is high when caring is integrated with the treatment, and the health outcomes are always positive. When nurses are not fully committed to their work due to the underlying issues identified above, the health outcomes are likely negative and patient satisfaction negative. Like any other workforce, a satisfied nurse will likely offer services with utmost commitment (Rusli et al., 2021). Patient outcomes significantly affect the formulation of healthcare policy, care cost, and nursing care quality (Turkel et al., 2018). They indicate the results of the service provided by the nurses helping understand where changes need to be adopted. The outcomes play a crucial role in making clinical decisions and measuring the effects of care on the patients.
Conclusion
Caring is an essential factor in the provision of quality services to patients. Nurses must have a caring attribute that enhances their commitment to providing diagnoses and treatments. The caring feature is an important quality that every medical practitioner needs to have. Nurse-patient relationships develop as a result of caring and play a vital role in attaining quality treatment. The patient’s needs are to be prioritized, and in every treatment procedure, nurses need to encompass care for and support the emotional and physical needs of the victims. Service provided in hospitals and other healthcare settings must be built on trust. The five C’s are important in strengthening the patient and nurse’s relationship, thus promoting care and trust. Unselfish behavior is demonstrated when respect, kindness, and holistic care are provided. The CUEN was developed to determine the importance of the caring attribute in the success of treatment. The nurses and patients need to experience care for the fulfillment of quality service provision to be realized.
References
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