Quality healthcare is every human being’s right, and nurses are those key professionals. They contribute to sustainable progress in care quality. By partnering with other sectors, working in innovative ways, and taking on expanded roles, nurses ensure that the organization gives quality care to every patient. Nurses must grow with their position and play an active role in improving the efficiency of hospital care. They should deliver high-quality treatment since care quality improvement is a continuous process. Nurses are the central supporting pillar for patients during their healthcare journeys. That is why they should participate at every level of quality improvement to communicate and coordinate patient needs and experiences. Nurses are critical to patient satisfaction, care, and health because of their direct contact with patients. This article will tell you about The Role Of A Nurse In Helping Improve Care Quality.
Why is patient care necessary?
The role of nurses and patient care are interlinked because nurses are primary caregivers not only in hospital settings but also for patients undergoing healthcare at home. Patient care is their utmost priority because enhancing patient experience in any way possible is critical for nurses. High-quality patient care harbors positive patient recovery that improves both the physical and mental states of patients. However, providing patient-centered care requires highly skilled healthcare professionals with the right technical, educational, and clinical skills. A big part of improving patient care involves nurses practicing critical thinking and receiving higher education. During COVID, where education is readily available online, nurses should consider pursuing higher education to contribute to quality care. From online NP programs to advanced degrees like masters or doctorates, ambitious professional nurses should understand the importance of their education in improving patient outcomes and experience.
Understandably, patient care is the core responsibility of every healthcare professional because it is about improving the patient’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being. An organization must provide quality care through patient feedback and listening to other medical practitioners like nurses who are practically first responders to almost all patients in the hospital. A patient experiences plenty of anxious moments and fears in a hospital setting. That is why providing the highest quality of patient care is compulsory for all healthcare professionals, especially nurses.
How does nursing impact patient experiences?
Why would nurses impact patient care or satisfaction at all? Even though nurses don’t directly involve what treatment a patient receives, they are still the first partner of every patient’s medical journey. The care provided by nurses and their role extends beyond the administration of medications. They cater to patients’ medical needs and their individual, emotional, spiritual, and cultural needs. It is the role of a nurse to support their patient and collaborate with other professionals to carry out the patient’s will. Highly competent nurses practice patient advocacy because it impacts the care their patients receive. To offer the best care possible to all patients, nurses perform the following roles:
- Providing patient-centered care:
The patient has utmost importance for a nurse. They are their primary advocate and caregivers next to the patient’s family. A nurse follows the progress of the patient from day one and has their best interest in mind. In contrast to the task-centered approach, patient-centered care views the patient as an equal partner in developing, monitoring, and planning patient care. It leads to better health outcomes, and the person who is the most prominent advocate of patient-centered care is a nurse. Since patient-centered care revolves around understanding the patient and focusing on patient empathy, who better to understand that than a nurse? Each patient has unique wants and needs along with anxieties related to their illness and the hospital setting. Such patients find great comfort in the empathy, care, and support shown by nurses. A nurse acts as a catalyst in creating a sense of collaboration and respect between the patient and the facility, leading to better patient outcomes and improved quality care.
- Ensuring patient safety:
Compared to doctors, nurses spend more time consistently monitoring and updating the physician about the patient’s condition. Their regular interaction with the hospitalized patient’s family, pharmacist, and doctor reduces miscommunication regarding their condition. When it comes to patient safety, a nurse performs the following critical roles:
- Detect near misses and errors in the patient’s condition
- Identifying the changes in the patient and accurately communicating them to respective professionals
- Understand the case processes in some systems
- Ensure patients receive high-quality care from all departments
- Educate patients about their medication
Every day, near-misses events occur in hospitals due to overworked personnel and tired doctors. On the other hand, nurses play a critical role in keeping patients safe by being aware of detailed information, tracking patient states, and identifying hospital areas lacking quality treatment. Nurses are viewed as the physician’s partner in high-quality hospitals to avoid error, especially in medication management and signs of clinical deterioration.
- Through communication and patient empathy:
Empathy figures prominently in the quality of care and is a strong predictor of patient satisfaction. Why is patient empathy important? That’s because it involves understanding the patient’s feelings, and at some point, that’s what a patient mostly wants. Nurses practice three branches of patient empathy, which include cognitive, affective, and behavioral empathy. For behavioral empathy, nurses actively help improve a patient’s health and advocate for their rights by using a high degree of sensitivity. In cognitive empathy, a nurse uses strong communication skills to allow verbal and non-verbal to create a safe space for the patient.
Lastly, affective empathy may come naturally to most nurses, treating a patient as an individual rather than a customer at the hospital. Nurses feel comfortable about their treatment by empathizing with patients, leading to a positive patient experience and outcome. For instance, studies suggest that patients with cancer or expectant mothers in labor experience less fear, depression, stress, and anxiety when dealing with empathy.
Conclusion:
Positive patient experience and high quality of care are the responsibility of every healthcare facility. The healthcare professionals help regulate the quality of care and ensure that it remains consistent. Nurses play a crucial role in ensuring that patients receive the highest quality of care by advocating for their needs, communicating their conditions, and actively working towards patient satisfaction. They can help the facility and other members improve the quality of care by assisting them to understand patient empathy, the importance of patient-centered care, and the benefits of considering every patient as an individual.