Continuity Of A Nurse

A nurse has many tasks to perform throughout the day and some of them include providing care for the patient, educating the patient, and emotionally providing feedback for the patient. Nursing has many complexities and scenarios that have multiple outcomes depending on the situation. Nurses have to adapt to the situation especially since everyone is different regarding their health, habits, lifestyle, et cetera. An impact that a nurse has left on me that I took away from her was that she explained everything to me about the medication I was going to take and why the medication was specifically chosen; also she talked with me about when the symptoms would start to diminish and if I had any questions that I could call the office anytime.

A nurse has to know how a patient copes, how their culture impacts their lives, how they interpret information, et cetera before they can make a diagnosis. This is why nursing as a profession uses continuity when they make decisions and when they act on these decisions. Continuity is important for nurses to utilize so that every patient is treated the same no matter the circumstances. The nursing profession needs consistency so that patients do not miss out on treatment that someone else may have had that helped them. Also nurses should be treating all patients the same when it comes to behaviors and actions (Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing, n.d.). A standard of professional performance that is important for a nurse to put to use is collaboration, since this will provide the best care for each patient when the nurse consults with different member of the health care team and with family members so that everyone is on the same page regarding the patient’s care. Along with collaboration, nurses should utilize education not only to the patient, but also to family members so that the patient knows what they need to do while they are in the health care setting and what they need to do when they are discharged. It is beneficial to involve the family members as well, so that they can help the patient with their own health when it is needed. Lastly, an important standard of professional performance is leadership. Sometimes a nurse needs to make an emergency call if the patient is experiencing a life threatening situation and leadership would be important in this type of a scenario so that the patient gets the maximal amount of care (Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing,