High-quality care is defined as the protection of the safety of patients, treating them with respect, dignity, and compassion, offering a safe and healthy environment, giving them choices as well as eliminating medically acquired diseases and infections (New credential for advanced level nurses, 2017). According to the United Kingdom Department of Health, nurses are required in practice to perform their professional duties firmly rooted on the best available healthcare evidence that ensures mutual, healthy and safe practice for the nurses, and another healthcare provider, and the patient. Health interventions should not be harmful and counterproductive to the patient. Instead, they should be therapeutic. Nurses should also offer their professional duties and in the process recognize the need to fully respect religious beliefs, dignity, disability, sexual orientation and race of the patient in a multiracial and multiethnic context such as the United Kingdom. It is also interesting to note that registered nurses are supposed to show a high degree of compassion and empathy to the patients. This critically analyze the role of registered nurses in ensuring the delivery of safe, effective quality care which reflects and mirrors the recognized principles and benchmarks.
According to the Royal College of Nursing (2003), trained nurses, as well as the registered nurses, have different responsibilities and roles that can be described as professional boundaries within the medical care context. The roles entail promoting health, caring for individuals especially in times when their health status is negotiated, facilitate and promote independence, offer assistance, meet the needs of the patients as well as to maintain or enhance the quality of life or wellbeing. Registered nurses are required and mandated to exercise a high degree of professional accountability and proficiency in practice and at all times within the professional realms as stated by the code of ethics of Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. It should be noted that the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland is the professional body that controls and regulates the midwives and nurses professional principles and standards. Therefore, registered nurses, staff nurses and even nursing students are bound by the nursing and midwifery council codes of conduct to ensure standard practice especially in the delivery of quality healthcare to the clients. It is vital and prudent that registered nurses become aware of the professional liabilities in their boundaries as failure to abide by their laid down codes may result in poor delivery of healthcare and loss of individual registration.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland has stipulated nursing principles which must be adhered to by all the registered nurses in Ireland. Nursing practice principles are the guidelines that define the roles of registered nurses in the delivery of effective and safe healthcare to the patients. One of the principles states that registered nurses and other staff members are must treat their patients with humanity and dignity (Jackson & Irwin, 2011). They must fully understand the individual needs of all their patients, show sensitivity as well as compassion and offer healthcare in a manner which respects all the patients equally. According to the World Health Organization (Card, 2017), health is an individual’s state of complete physical social and mental wellbeing and not necessarily the absence of an illness or infirmity. Some researchers have argued that the definition of world health organization of health is too broad as well as difficult to achieve. The definition does not take into consideration the various description of a disease or illness.
It should be noted that health is one of the vital factors of the nursing model. Thus, one of the important roles of registered nurses is not only to offer care to ill patients but also healthy individuals particularly when undertaking health promotion. Moreover, patients and individuals must be treated with respect and dignity irrespective of their ethnic or cultural background, mental or physical abilities, sexual orientation, age, gender or disabilities. Therapeutic communication is key in the provision of safe and quality healthcare as it enables registered nurses to establish a partnership with their clients.
Another important principle of practice which ensures quality delivery of healthcare to the clients is that registered nurses and other staff members must take responsibility for the care offered and be accountable for their actions and judgments (McKenzie & Manley, 2011). That is, their actions and judgements should be carried in a manner that is reflecting the needs and decisions of the patients, families as well as the patient’s carers. The actions should also be done according to the requirements of the law and the professional bodies. According to the Royal College of Nursing (2003) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (Bostock-Cox, 2015), registered nurses are responsible for any omissions and actions especially if they do not respect the decisions, choices, and dignity of the patients.
The registered nurse must respect the right of the patient to confidentiality, and it is a vital factor which is stated and enshrined in the Data Protection Act of 1988 (Manley, Watts, Cunningham & Davies, 2011). Moreover, the right to confidentiality is in the Irish human right and equality which stipulates the rights of individuals. For registered to ensure quality delivery of healthcare as required by the law, they must ensure that they respect the patients right to confidentiality. Registered nurses are also required to promote and offer healthcare which puts individuals at the center of the treatment process, involve the patients, their families and carers in making prudent decisions concerning the patient as well as to aid them in making informed and judicious choices concerning their care and treatment (Kessler & Heron, 2001).
Moral dilemma and ethics in ensuring that the registered nurses provide quality of healthcare
Ethics are defined as behavior standards that registered nurses are expected and supposed to practice when proving care to their clients (Byrd & Winkelstein, 2014). On the other hand, the moral is an individual’s behavioral standards of the variation between wrong and right in their conduct, attitude, and character. Nursing and Midwifery Board of ireland states that nurses are responsible for their ethical conduct. It should be noted that moral and ethics are sometimes used interchangeably in many kinds of literature. There are four established moral ethics in which a registered nurse must adhere to promote and enhance quality delivery of healthcare to the patients. The four moral principles include beneficence, justice, nonmaleficence, and autonomy.
Autonomy can be described as the state in which a patient wishes as an individual are respected although such wishes go contrary to that of a registered nurse. Nonmaleficence requires that patients should be placed in any threat or harm, intentionally. Beneficence requires registered only to undertake activities that are beneficial to their clients and those who support them and justice requires registered nurses to be fair in their actions and justify their actions against another action.
During my holidays, I used to work as an intern in my local healthcare center. What I learned from observation and through the guidance of other registered nurses is that health of all clients takes precedence of any action of a registered. The management required every staff at the center to practice person-centered healthcare model in which all the stakeholders involved in the treatment and care process are involved in the treatment and care process. The process ensured that all the inputs of the stakeholders are taken during the decision making as opposed to the conventional model in which the healthcare provider was the sole decision maker. I also learned the principles which are stipulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland are very prudent in guiding the practice of all the registered nurses and other staff members.
Conclusion
To provide and deliver quality and safe healthcare to the clients, registered nurses and other nursing staff members must adhere to the principles nursing as well as the regulations put by the global bodies like the World Health Organization (Buttigieg, Rathert & Eiff, 2015). It is important for the registered nurses to ensure that rights of the clients and other people are respected during the delivery of healthcare. Other actions that undermine the dignity and respect of the patients will result in poor service delivery.
References
‘New credential for advanced level nurses’ 2017, Practice Nurse, vol. 47, no. 6, p. 8,
‘The Royal College of Nursing Research Society: Nurses and Research Ethics’ 2003, Nurse Researcher, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 7–21,
Bostock-Cox, B 2015, ‘The Nursing and Midwifery Code: Making it work for you and your patients,’ Practice Nurse, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 34–37,
Buttigieg, SC, Rathert, C & Eiff, W von 2015, International Best Practices in Health Care Management, Advances in Health Care Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, U.K.,
Byrd, GD & Winkelstein, P 2014, ‘A comparative analysis of moral principles and behavioral norms in eight ethical codes relevant to health sciences librarianship, medical informatics, and the health professions,’ Journal of the Medical Library Association, vol. 102, no. 4, pp. 247–256,
Card, AJ 2017, ‘Moving Beyond the WHO Definition of Health: A New Perspective for an Aging World and the Emerging Era of Value-Based Care,’ World Medical & Health Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 127–137,
Jackson, A & Irwin, W 2011, ‘Dignity, humanity, and equality: Principle of Nursing Practice A,’ Nursing Standard, vol. 25, no. 28, pp. 35–37,
Kessler, I & Heron, P 2001, ‘Steward Organization in a Professional Union: The Case of The Royal College of Nursing,’ British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 367,
Manley, K, Watts, C, Cunningham, G & Davies, J 2011, ‘Principles of Nursing Practice: development and implementation,’ Nursing Standard, vol. 25, no. 27, pp. 35–37,
McKenzie, C & Manley, K 2011, ‘Leadership and responsive care: Principle of Nursing Practice H’, Nursing Standard, vol. 25, no. 35, pp. 35–37,
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