Many opinions exist as to which values would be considered the most important in the field of nursing. Answers to this question are bound to be greatly varied due to the fact that, although nursing training is somewhat standardized, personalities, characters, and experiences will bring about different beliefs in all areas of life, including the profession of nursing.
This paper will discuss and examine three separate values. The values to be covered here shall include compassion, confidentiality, and teamwork/sharing of ideas. A supporting article will be referred to for each value respectively.
Compassion is a quality which should be possessed by every health care professional. It is an essential attribute if one is to be able to support and comfort families which are in the midst of tragedy. A multitude of different situations arise in this profession which can not be appropriately managed without employing one’s own compassion as a fellow human being as a reference point. In order to provide an appropriate balance of emotional and physical care one must be able to ‘put themselves in the patient’s/family’s/loved one’s shoes’.
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In a recent “NurseWeek” article (see bibliography), Deepa Arora discussed the issue of instilling hope in patients with ALS or ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. This disease, although it is fatal and causes ongoing deterioration of the body’s ability to move, leaves the mind completely alert and does not affect intellectual function.
This article includes a quote from lleane Mindel, RN, home liaison for the Les Turner ALS Foundation in Skokie, III. “It’s not enough just to help ALS patients with their symptoms. The pain that patients experience, from being unable to do such things as putting their arms around their loved ones or kissing them, is devastating and much harder to treat.”
If only physical aspects of health were attended to, patients would be forced to cope with unbearable emotional strain, especially when the patient has little or no family support. To neglect this aspect of nursing would, therefore, be detrimental to the patient and would have to be considered negligent. Confidentiality is the next important issue that needs to be addressed. This value speaks for itself, to a degree. Privacy is an issue that pertains to everyone in some way. Patients have the right to expect as much privacy as healthcare professionals can reasonably give them. Maintaining confidentiality preserves patient dignity and protects patients (and nurses) against the possible negative outcomes that breaches can cause. This is also a legally, ethically, and morally, essential obligation.
There are circumstances in which sharing patient records is beneficial and necessary in order to provide the appropriate treatments and overall care. The value of confidentiality becomes an issue of more significance when access to private information is abused or treated too casually.
Further complications which could arise from a lack of clear cut confidentiality regulations, or from breaches of confidentiality, are brought up in an article in NurseWeek, March 1998 (see bibliography). The article states that “Patients who are worried about information getting out and destroying a personal relationship, undermining insurance coverage, or threatening their employment may talk openly to a nurse.”
Patients whose records are accessible to hospital staff are unable to adequately protect themselves from these eventualities, should information be released inappropriately. Confidentiality is an understated priority in nursing. Every nurse needs to make it a priority.
A third value, not to be diminished by it’s lack of a clear definition, is teamwork and/or sharing. It is a logical conclusion that a collaborative approach, in many matters, will bring about the most ideas. ‘Brainstorming’ is one such example and it is a proven method of cultivating ideas for solving dilemmas. Health care, as a whole, is one very large dilemma. There are an infinite number of questions to be answered and problems to be solved in the designing of a system that is mutually satisfying to everyone who uses it. If one is not able to work effectively as part of a team, that individual is not equipped for the challenges of nursing.
In order to provide patients with mutually satisfactory care, what they and their loved ones consider satisfactory care, must be take into account. In Beverly H. Johnson’s article, “Family Focus”, in the March 1999 issue of “Trustee”(see bibliography), many family-focussed programs are described at length. In all of the facilities she refers to, amazing results were achieved when professionals and families worked together to develop a program that fulfilled both health and family needs.
Teamwork and sharing are also very important in a completely different way. Differential diagnosis’ are a good example of ‘idea sharing between doctors, and nurses, similarly, need to be willing to “bounce ideas off of each other’. Because no one person has all the answers, it is advantageous to patients, and staff, to have the knowledge of others available to them.
Finally, compassion, confidentiality and teamwork are all necessary components of good nursing. Obviously, many other values are comparably relevant, in addition to these three, if one hopes to become an exceptional nurse. The goal of becoming an exceptional nurse is a lofty one for anybody, but without these three values, it would be utterly impossible. With these values, on the other hand, a good foundation is already in place.
References
- Ethical Values for Nursing
- Compassion in Health Care
- Teamwork and Collaboration in Nursing
- Creating and Sustaining Team Culture in Nursing
- The Essence of Confidentiality in Nursing Care
- The Core Value of Compassion in Professional Practice
- ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses
- The Impact of Compassionate Caring on Patient Outcomes
