Fundamental of Nursing (Theory)

• Profession is a paid occupation that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification
• Professionalism is a set of standards that an individual is expected to adhere to in the workplace
• Professionalization is the process of acquiring characteristics considered to be professional
• Professional is being engaged in one of the learned professions
• Nursing care is cyclical and dynamic, client-centered, focused on problem-solving, and involves decision-making in every phase of the nursing process
• Nursing care is interpersonal and collaborative, as well as universally applicable
• Recipients of nursing care can be consumers, patients, or clients
• Autonomy is the right of self-determination, independence, and freedom
• Justice is the obligation to be fair to all people
• Fidelity is the obligation to be faithful to commitments
• Beneficence is one of the oldest requirements for health care, it is doing good to others
• Nonmaleficence is doing no harm to others
• Consumer is an individual, a group of people, or a community that uses a service or commodity
• Patient is a person who is waiting for or undergoing medical treatment and care
• Client is a person who engages the advice or services of another who is qualified to provide this service
• Latin word meaning "to suffer" or "to bear"
• Cyclical (regularly repeated events) and dynamic (continuously changing)
• Client-centered organizes the plan of care according to the client’s problems rather than nursing goal
• Focused on Problem Solving - nursing process is directed towards a client’s responses to disease and illness
• Interpersonal and Collaborative communicates with the client and family and collaborates with other members of the health care team
• Universally applicable is used in all types of health care settings with clients of all age groups
• Empathy is understanding what someone else is feeling or can put yourself in their shoes
• Sympathy is where you acknowledge a person's emotional hardships and provide comfort and assurance
• Attention to details - nurses are undoubtedly under immense pressure as they balance orders from physicians
• Problem-solving skills - nurses generally have the most one-on-one time with patients and are often responsible for much of the decision-making related to their care
• Stamina - physical demand on nurses is perhaps one of the most underestimated aspects of their career
• Sense of Humor - derive satisfaction from such a mentally and physically exhausting career
• Commitment to Patient Advocacy - foundational core tenet of healthcare from the Hippocratic Oath
• Willingness to Learn - nurses spend more bedside time with patients
• Critical Thinking - putting that knowledge into successful practice requires an ability to think critically
• Time Management - balancing multiple patients, stressful care settings, and competing priorities
• Leadership - quality of a good nurse that will become more and more valuable in the growing nursing field
• Experience - engaging with new nurses to instill an expectation (without fear of judgment)
• Women's Role:

  • Traditional female roles of wife, mother, daughter, and sisters have always included caring and nurturing family members
  • Traditional nursing role includes humanistic caring, nursing, comforting, and supporting
• Religion:

  • Christian value of "love thy neighbor as thyself" and Christ's parable of the Good Samaritan influenced Western nursing
  • Fabiola in the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and provided care and healing for the poor, sick, and homeless
  • Knights of Saint Lazarus cared for people with leprosy, syphilis, and chronic skin conditions
  • Hospital and Training school in Kaiserswerth was re-instituted by Theodore Fliedner in 1836, where Florence Nightingale received her nursing training
• War:

  • Crimean War (1854-1856) led to public outcry in Great Britain due to inadequate care for soldiers
  • Florence Nightingale and her nurses transformed military hospitals during the Crimean War
  • American Civil War (1861-1865) saw figures like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Mother Biekerdyke, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, and Louisa May Alcott providing care to soldiers
  • World War 1 and World War 2 brought advancements in health care and nursing practices
• • Lavinia Dock: Feminist, writer, suffragette, campaigned for nurses' rights
  • Margaret Higgins Sanger: Public Health Nurse, Founder of Planned Parenthood
  • Mary Breckinridge: Established the Frontier Nursing Service and midwifery training schools in the United States
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  • Florence Nightingale: First Nurse to exert political pressure on government, received training in nursing in Kaiserswerth and Paris, focused on nursing care
  • Clara Barton: Established the American Red Cross and ratified the Treaty of Geneva
  • Linda Richards: America's first trained nurse, introduced Nurse's notes and uniforms
  • Mary Mahoney: First African-American professional nurse, worked for equal opportunities in nursing
  • Lilian Wald: Founder of public health nursing, offered nursing services to the poor in New York Slums
• Definition of Nursing:

  • Various definitions including caring, art, science, client-centered, holistic, adaptive, health promotion, and health restoration
• Recipients of Nursing:

  • Consumers, patients, clients