The Role of Nurses in the Healthcare Facilities Essay

Competing Issues of Competencies

The changing role of nurses has forced the scholars and practitioners to engage in extensive researches in order to help explain the new position that nurses currently hold in hospitals and how their competencies can be enhanced to ensure that they can deliver quality service to the clients. Kako and Migani (2010) say that nurses at the emergency department always find themselves under pressure to deliver quality services within the shortest time possible. Their ability to make the right decisions at the right time may mean life or death to their patients. They always find themselves under pressure to deliver quality service to their patients as fast as possible and in the most precise manner. That is why scholars have engaged in massive research to help explain some of the core competencies of nurses within this department.

Jose (2010) says that nurses are ethically required to respond to any emergency medical need that may occur from time to time. When defining the core competencies for disaster management, nurses are expected to explore almost all the critical issues in the emergency department because it is never known which form of disaster may strike (Loke & Fung, 2014).

In the recent past, some parts in Australia experienced flashfloods due to excessive rainfall. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States was another serious disaster that needed emergency attention of the nurses. In 2012, Sierra Leone had a major cholera outbreak, which was a major disaster in the country. After a couple of years, Ebola hit the country and other neighboring states such as Nigeria (Baack & Alfred, 2013).

A major outbreak of any disease, including lifestyle diseases, should always be considered a disaster that calls for efficient response from the medical practitioners. This means that the term disaster management in the field of nursing cannot be narrowed to a specific issue such as accidents. It has to be viewed from a broad perspective where the medical teams within a given healthcare facility are forced to address a sudden surge of patients who need emergency care to save their lives. In this section, the researcher will look at the core competencies that modern nurses are expected to have in order to work in the emergency departments.

Managing Patients’ Health in Cases of Emergency

According to Wynia (2007), nurses at the emergency department are expected to manage the illness status of their patients before they can be taken for specialized treatment. The nurse will collect the primary information about the patient such as determining the health needs by taking account of the disease history and conducting basic screening. Some of the patients may need basic physiological and psychological care as soon as they are brought at the emergency department.

Desimone (2009) says that in many cases, the critically injured patients may need some form of psychotherapy before they can start specialized treatments. They may need the assurance that they will actually make it through all the stages. This is one of the most important roles of nurses at the emergency care. As they offer basic care while preparing the patients for specialized treatment, they should identify the fears of the patients and address them so that they can have psychological strength to undergo various specialized processes. Sometimes the nurse may need to address all the concerns of the family members, especially those that have accompanied the patient to the hospital. They may be worried about the condition of their patient and this may affect the psychological stability of the patient. Ensuring that they are comfortable will enable them to cheer their patient as he or she is prepared to undergo various corrective medications.

Nursing Education and Competencies

Disaster preparedness needs sufficient training for the nurses to equip them with the necessary skills and core competencies. According to Adams and Berry (2012), disaster management is different from other normal tasks done at a healthcare clinic. Nurses working at the emergency department during cases of disaster will need special skills to ensure that their speed and precision is very high. Speed is necessary to ensure that maximum number of patients can be attended to within the shortest time possible.

Precision is needed to ensure that tasks done by these nurses when handling patients are within the set standards. It also avoids cases where their tasks have to be redone by other experts because this will not only cause more pain to the patient, but also waste resources that should be used on another patient. According to Jakeway, Larosa, Cary and Schoen¢sch (2008), ICN framework is one of the major steps needed towards improving the core competencies of the nurses to wor