NURSE AS A PROFESSION

Nurse as a Profession

Nurse as a Profession

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to critically analyze an area of concern where nurses can create a change to improve patient care. The aim of this report is to recommend changes that need to be implemented in order to ensure better nursing practices in the area of Alzheimer's.

Analysis of issue

A sufficient amount of contact is required between Alzheimer's patients and nurses in the mental health ward related to Alzheimer's patients. People who are suffering from this disease and are in a critical condition are often kept in the ward. This is done following the Mental Health Act 1983 (Mental Health Act Commission, 2008, p.n.d) which states that necessary measures should be taken to ensure that people suffering from mental disorders get the deserved care and treatment. Taking certain actions might be necessary in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the patients and of the people around them. This Act outlines the criteria that must be met before the required actions can be taken, besides protecting the patients. Nurses play a vital role when it comes to betterment of the patients and providing them with treatment and care.

Some issues were highlighted when nurses working in this ward were observed. It was noticed that other unimportant activities such as answering queries of visitors, answering phone calls and formulating reports took up a lot of the precious time of nurses. Performing these duties confined the nurses to administrative tasks and reduced the amount of time they spent with the patients. This meant that now nurses visited the ward only when they had to administer doses of medication, when their regular ward review was scheduled or in case of an emergency. Due to this, the time the nurses should have spent in the ward got compromised to a great extent. Whereas in an area of concern such as mental health, it is extremely important for the nurse to give time to patients and build a therapeutic relationship with them.

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHSI) developed the programme called 'The Productive Ward: Releasing Time to Care” which outlines viable ways for all staff performing duties at ward to improvise their performance (NHSI, 2011, pp. 36). The ward based staff is supposed to take lead for releasing enough time to care by improving organization within the ward and streamlining ward functions. This will, in turn, allow them to save enough time for spending on care of patients (NHSI, 2011, pp. 37).

According to a research carried out by the NHS, it was found that in the acute setting, ward nurses spend about 40% of their time on direct patient care (NHSI, 2011, pp. 37). This is a relatively low percentage considering the amount of care that is required by Alzheimer's patients. In order to improvise this percentage and allow nurses to make the most efficient use of their time, certain steps will be outlined by the change ...