Contemporary Roles and Responsibilities of a Registered Nurse

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Mahlia Lavery 8610673 NSB117                               Page |

Contemporary Roles and Responsibilities of a Registered Nurse

Nurses together shape the largest of health professions within the health care industry, providing health care to the people of Australia throughout their lifespan. Today, nurses commit themselves to lifelong learning and career development in order to provide patients with the highest standard of health care. Hence why, innovative nursing roles have evolved significantly to meet the emerging needs of a dynamic and ever changing health care system. In Australia, there are two types of qualified nurses, an Enrolled Nurse (EN) and a Registered Nurse (RN) (Cubit & Lopez, 2012). This essay will specifically focus on the roles and responsibilities of a registered nurse as well as the knowledge, skills, regulatory bodies and legislation a registered nurse must acquire and abide by in order to be effective.

A nurse has only one profession but many roles, as contemporary nursing calls for the roles and responsibilities of a registered nurse to be multifaceted. The definitions of the concept of role in relation to role theory include description of the behaviours, characteristics, norms and values of a person or position (Major 2003; Thomas & Biddle, 1966). An individual role describe attributes of the nurse that are socially accepted and expected by individual nurses, their peers, other health professionals and the wider community in which the role is embedded (Major, 2003). Literature states that the general role of a Registered nurse can be broken down into six sub-roles that have been commonly identified.  First and foremost a nurse is a care-giver, but there are many other important roles a nurse must provide while delivering care (Kocisko, 2010), these are: a clinician, manager, teacher, researcher, counselor and advocate (Reference). The care-giver role essentially is to help the patient regain health through the healing process. The nurse meets the holistic healthcare needs of the person, including measures to restore emotional, spiritual and social well being. The clinical nurse provides direct care, using the nursing process and critical thinking skills. As a manager, the nurse coordinates the activities of other members of the healthcare team, such as; dietician, physiotherapist or occupational therapist, when managing patient’s care. As a teacher, the nurse explains to the patient concepts and facts about health, demonstrates procedures, determines that the patients fully understands, reinforces learning or behaviour and evaluates the patients progress in learning. The nurse researcher investigates problems to improve nursing care and to further define and expand the scope of nursing practice. The nurse advocate aims not to receive gratification from other health care professionals but rather to help the patient obtain the best care even if it means going against hospital administration and other health care professionals (Ellis, 1992). Lastly, the role of the nurse counsellor is to rehabilitate the patient physically, spiritually, and psychologically and to assist him to regain his previous personal and social roles in the best possible way (Kotrotsiou, Lavdaniti, Psychogiou, Paralikas, Papathanasiou & Lahana, 2008).

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Contemporary nursing requires the Registered nurse to have extensive knowledge and skills for the number of professional roles and responsibilities stated previously. In the past, the main role of nurses was to provide care and comfort as they carried out specific functions. However, today changes in nursing have expanded the role to include increased emphasis on health promotion and illness prevention as well as concern for the person as a whole particularly where there is a chronic or complex decision. Autonomy is found to be an essential element in professional nursing and is the independence of a nurse and ...

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