The caring concept is a central idea in the nursing profession. Nurses face problems when carrying out their duties, and for this reason, teaching, learning, and evaluation of the caring process is needed. The employers need to set policies which will ensure that the nurses maintain their professional boundaries. Sometimes the breach of the professional boundary may also be helpful as a way of showing care to the patients and giving them hope.
The intellectual concept of nurses entails the analytical thought, specialized body of knowledge which help them in meeting the human health needs. Nurses have a lot to offer in the way they care patients (Dinç, 2013). Health problems are always recurring, and the nurses need to have a liberal education to enable them to handle these problems. Additionally, nurses should always seek for upd
...ated information so as to gain experience on how to address these problems. The nurse gave Angie the chance of expressing her opinion about any issue that came up between them. Whenever the nurse deferred from Angie’s opinion, she would not tell her but would always appreciate her point of view. This showed a lot of professionalism in the way she carried out her duties. The nurse used her conceptual understanding to help her get information from Angie.
The psychological aspect of the nurse includes the emotions memories and feelings that always affect every human being. The nurses need to understand the human conditions so as to be able to meet the psychological needs. They need to understand how their experiences have shaped who they have become and who they will be in future (O'Malley, 2015). The understanding helps the nurses
show empathy and be able to communicate with different individuals. The nurse in Angie’s case wants to know why the other nurses had a negative attitude toward Angie. The nurse asked her colleague what the problem was and they said that Angie did not recognize nurses as professionals. The fact that the nurses treated her with cool detachment added to her bitterness. Angie vented her fury at the staff, and according to her, the nurses would do nothing right. The nurse became determined to help Angie become comfortable with the idea of hospitalization. She organized to have Angie moved to a private room which had little traffic so as to help the nurse be able to understand why Angie behaved rudely towards the nurses. These acts showed that the nurse was compassionate about helping Angie and understanding why she viewed the nurses as not being professionals. This is a show of care just like any other human being would act.
The spiritual aspect is concerned with answering the question "why" and "what is the meaning of this?" Responding to these questions is important since nurses will always meet patients those kinds of questions (O'Malley, 2015). Nurses may find it difficult to answer these questions because there are many answers but should accept the answers are the same. When Angie asked the nurse why she had changed her name, the nurse replied by saying, "you know what it means on giving up a lot for your children." This could have triggered many religious questions, and it resulted in Angie changing her attitude towards the nurse and the other hospital staff.
The physical aspect is crucial in that they
take their physical bodies to the bedside, home and the field where they go providing care to patients. Nurses should take care of their physical bodies to ensure that they improve their strength, abilities, and skills to be able to carry out their duties effectively. Dedication to fitness is thus required to ensure one is skillful in her job. The fact that the nurse had not worn her ring and she were an Italian caught Angie's attention. This was because Angie had noted that the nurse was an Italian through her physical appearance despite having changed her name. The physical appearance of her body helped create a conversation between the nurse and Angie which later led to a strong bridge between them.
There was a positive outcome of the nurse relationship with Angie. Angie was able to change her perspective of viewing nurses as not professionals. Angie always expressed fury towards the nurses but when her family visited she was a different person and she would be kind with a sweet temper and would always bear the burden of her hospitalization. The nurse tried all means to change Angie's views, but Angie saw through all her tactics. This soon gradually changed and Angie began to soften to all the staff in the hospital. Angie came out of the hospital fully healed and as a result of her family even brought a big box of chocolate to the staff as a way of appreciating.
The nurse efforts to change Angie's view on the nurse profession bore fruits. After Angie had been discharged from the hospital, she sent a Christmas card to the nurse saying that her great-granddaughter had
stated that she wanted to be a nurse and that she had supported the idea saying it was a good one. Angie could also refer to the nurse as "her paesan." This shows that there was a positive outcome for all the nurse's efforts in their relationship. A strong bridge was formed between them.
Compare the power differentials in the following relationships: the therapeutic relationship is essential for the patient and the nurse. Nurse's power comes from the profession position and the accessibility to patient's private information. Differentially exists between nurse's influence and the patient's vulnerability (Haugan, 2014). The discrepancy is either positive or negative. The difference gives the nurses an opportunity to connect with the patient and also creates a potential abuse, misuse or taking advantage of the patient.
The relationship between friends does not depend on the power that they each have. There is no power differential between friends. This is because there is no code of ethics that exists between two friends and they can share any type of information.State four boundaries that the nurse should maintain in a professional therapeutic relationship.
There exist different boundaries that nurses should observe to ensure that they maintain a professional relationship with the patients. They include; zone of helpfulness which ensures that the patients which involves carrying out any activity regardless of whether they are a profession or not to help the patient (Haugan, 2014). Continuum is another boundary which requires that variables such as care, patient needs, community influences are key to the nature of the profession boundary that occurs. There is also the over involvement and under involvement boundaries. Over involvement is where the nurse can
be able to handle patients without much consideration of the codes of work while under involvement one has to follow the principles of the workplace.
Are there any circumstances when a nurse may cross the professional boundary relationship? There are situations when nurses can breach the professional edge relationship to meet a therapeutic need. For example, a nurse may reveal her successful health battle so as to encourage the patient and give them the hope of recovery. This may be from the nurse's personal health experience or a patient who had the same ailment and recovered. Additionally, the nurse may give the patient gifts that encourage them (Falk, 2015). For instance, the nurse can give the sick person an inspiration book which has been signed by all the unit nurses. This will help give faith to the patient that all will be well. In some instances, the nurse may also handmade gifts like a necklace from a patient who would be hurt if the gift is not accepted. The acceptance of the gift makes the patient pleased and feel that their items are valued. Rejection of the gift would kill the patient's morale and may also have adverse effects on their health.
State three ways nurses can be assisted in setting and maintaining boundaries by employers and professional organizations.
Professional boundaries help in outlining the safest area of the limit for the nurses as they work with the patients. The boundaries allow for secure connection with the patients and provide space between the nurse's power and the patient's susceptibility. Employers may assist in setting the professional limits in the following ways; the employers may need to improve their
hiring procedures during the job application, registration, and reference checks (Falk, 2015). They need to ask about the past employment of the job applicants; their ethics, the reason for termination and licensure complaints. Employers should have a direct conversation with the potential employee's previous supervisor and inquire about the applicant's strength and weaknesses for working in the same setting as theirs. Also, the employers need conduct staff review and support. Staff performance reviews help address the issues of professional accountability like dealing with the professional boundary. Employers can also carry out staff education (Dinç, 2013). Sessions to educate the employees on the professional boundary issues should be conducted at least once per year. New employees are also notified about the procedures and policies. An orientation of the new employees is also done by the employers where the issue of the professional boundary is addressed. These acts by employees help set and maintain the professional boundary.
Discuss one negative outcome for the patient when professional boundaries are breached. Breaching of a profession boundary may lead to sexual misconduct. Those who violate the professional limit use influence, power, and expert knowledge to obtain sexual gratification. (O'Malley, 2015). The sexual misconduct violators take advantage of an opportunity, initiating misconduct without warning, manipulate and seduce the other person and eventually may lead to sexual intercourse or even rape. The patient or the nurse can either start the misconduct.
Discuss how you will protect yourself from being manipulated by clients.
A professional employee should at all times maintain proper professional boundaries in the relationship that one has with their patients. The aspects of the relationship should be exclusively upon the needs of the
patient. An employee should not give the client unnecessary favors which will result to them breaching their professional boundary. Furthermore, a worker should respect and recognize the role that is played by the clients as their partners in their care and their contribution to it (Dinç, 2013). This may entail identifying their preferences regarding care and respecting these within the limits of the professional practice, resources and the objective of the therapeutic relationship. The employee should also know that they are personally responsible for ensuring that they promote and respect dignity and interests of the patient irrespective of the client's sexuality, race, culture, religion or other aspects.
It’s evident that professional boundary plays a key role in the way the employees and clients interact. Violation of the professional boundaries may result in adverse effects like sexual misconduct. It's thus important for the employees to know how they can protect themselves to avoid being manipulated by the clients.
