Fundamentals of Nursing Overview

Nursing Fundamentals

Nurses have many roles. A nurse may be an assistant to a medical specialist or part of the surgical team of doctors on their way to an operation. But nurses have specific duties to perform, not just mere assistants. You could at least point out five of those roles a nurse has to perform on a daily basis. The fundamentals of nursing could be as complicated as its demanding work at times, but the results are always rewarding.

Assessing a Patient
As soon as the patient is housed inside the hospital, a nurse almost immediately has to perform an assessment to the patient. This initial assessment might prove valuable later on, particularly with performing a diagnosis.

Diagnosis
Nurses, after conducting an initial assessment, could perform a simple diagnosis to their patients. A nurse might want to interview the patient further and diagnose the patient properly.

Nursing Care
Immediately after giving a simple diagnosis, a nurse has to devise a plan on how to take care of the patient. That plan though is in keeping with the assessment and its corresponding diagnosis.

Medical Intervention
If a patient is in need of further diagnosis, a nurse might be able use the services of a doctor. This will assure the patient that the initial medical attention has its confirmation with another medical staffer.

To Recap
After doing the necessary assessment and diagnosis, and providing initial medication to the patient, a nurse has the responsibility to evaluate the said patient. This evaluation would either give further medical attention or would recommend a release for the patient.

These are basically the fundamentals of nursing, the basic things that a nurse has to do in the course of his/her duty. Indeed, they have many roles, and it’s more than just assisting.

Importance of Fundamentals of Nursing

Fundamentals of nursing are the courses that teach the basic principles and procedures of nursing. In the fundamentals of nursing, the student attends classes and provides care to chosen patients. The course highlights the significance of the fundamental needs of humans and competence in fundamental skills as prerequisites to providing extensive nursing care.

The nursing practice has to be dependent and based on nursing theories. These theories are proven and tested for so many years. These theories are the basis of the nursing discipline and what makes it a profession. The nursing concepts supply direction and assistance for structuring professional nursing practice, advancement, and research. It also differentiates the focus of nursing from other professions. It is designed to guide assessment, involvement, and evaluation of nursing care.

The theories also supply a rationale for collecting reliable and valid data about the health status of patients. These are essential for effective decision making and implementation. They assist in creating criteria to measure the quality of nursing care. They develop a common nursing terminology to use in communicating with other health care professionals. Lastly, nursing theories improve the autonomy of nursing by understanding its very own independent functions.

In nursing research, nursing theories offer a structure for producing knowledge and new ideas. They guide in discovering knowledge gaps in the specific field of study. Eventually, they give a systematic method of identification questions for study, select variables, translate findings, and authenticate nursing interventions. To comprehend nursing theories, a theory, conceptual frameworks, theory and conceptual model must first be defined. A theory is a system of ideas that is proposed to describe a given phenomena.

Concepts are the foundations of theory, are abstract ideas or mental images of phenomena. A conceptual framework is a collection of related concepts and processes. It provides an overall view or orientation to concentrate thoughts. A conceptual model is an illustration or diagram of a conceptual framework.

What are the fundamentals of Nursing?

The need for quality healthcare and its increasing demand puts pressure on any country to produce competitive and highly skilled nurses. To be able to do this, nursing programs must be able to extend to their nursing students how important is the profession, its roles and responsibilities, its effect on the industry etc. As the nursing students start their journey, they must first learn the basic foundations of the course and the profession in general. By learning this, the students will be able to grow and develop, following the essential foundation of their course.

In general, the fundamental subjects are one of the most exciting subjects of the nursing students. They will be thought of the basic principles, procedures, techniques, calculations etc. However, these are also important phase since they will be carrying the learning they have all throughout the course and their career as a nurse. The students will also be able to learn the fundamentals of nursing care in different health settings. Learning the proper way of treating and dealing with patients is essential to be effective and competitive. As early as the start of the course, they already learn the nursing science as well as the practices that are backed with evidences and researches gathered throughout the ages.

The fundamentals of nursing subjects are a mixture of tutorials, lectures, workshops and exposures. This will help them identify situations that affect the daily setting of a nursing practice. Nursing students, through these fundamentals, are being welcome in the field of health care. They must be able to reflect on how important is the course and what are the skills and the things they need to learn to become a professional nurse.

Once you choose to become a healthcare professional and serve humankind, there is no power in the universe that can stop you from offering this Godly assistance. There is a very popular requirement of nurses these days. The courses are extensive and easy to use with all the practical ideas in nursing. It has been determined that nurses get a higher pay in the nursing industry all through the U.S. The subject is as easy as what we study in business economics. And, more demand for nurses with fewer qualified will increase pay scale.

You have choices in selecting the course of nursing you want to study. If you just want to study the fundamentals of nursing course, you will just have to invest an average of one year in learning. The course is offered by Accrediting Institution of Health Information Educational institutions (ABHES), or Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). Once the course is finished, you have the choice to apply as a Nursing Assistant.

If you wish to proceed further, you can graduate and continue your profession as Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). LPN needs 2-3 years of professional course work by an approved higher education institute within the U.S. Further, if you become a Registered Nurse (RN), you get the best possibilities available. To become a fully licensed RN in the U.S., you are required to finish your course and get a Bachelor’s degree from an approved college. For nurses, it is usually a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN). You must continue learning until and unless you get your next permit. The nationally required certificate for all nurses in the U.S. is NCLEX-RN. Fundamentals of nursing test will show your capabilities and understanding of all factors of a patient health and care. There are different kinds of nursing publications available in the market to get ready for the RWAR. One of the guides to study is Fundamentals of Nursing, by Patricia Potter and Angel Griffin Perry, 7th and 8th Editions.