Nursing Role as Caregiver

Nursing Roles
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Nursing Role as Caregiver
As a professional nurse, one has a number of roles that they play as part of their mandate to fulfill what pertains to the profession. Care giving is one of the most crucial roles that nurses play as they offer health care services to their patients. Care giving is always centered on the needs of the patient rather than the aspects of the various fields of medicine. In this case, the nurses act as advocates of the patients’ needs at all times. However it also calls on the nurses to use evidence based practices that are within the standards of nursing and basic care. This element is pegged to the fact that, care giving is more than an occupation and takes the pure form of a profession ('Professional Standards for Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners', 2012). Anyone can offer patients care in the best of their interests, however, for nurses there are clear guidelines and standards that establish the protocols of care relative to the field of nursing and congruent to that of medicine (Burggraf, 2012).
As a nurse, care is based on evidence practices and therefore requires both the knowledge and the skills to handle the duties that come with care giving. Different patient will have different needs and these needs are also dynamic depending on the health status and progress (Burggraf, 2012). For the professional nurses it is crucial to understand the needs of the patient at different times and implement the best practices that improve the wellbeing of the patients. Basic practices such cleaning and medication among others, require relevant skills and knowledge to implement as they can easily cause more harm than good. As such, nurses require solid educational backgrounds to be in apposition to make appropriate decision relative to the role of a care giver and the diverse needs of various patients at the different stages of their health progress (Burggraf, 2012). Part of the nursing certificate and degree programs include the roles of a professional nurse, one of them being that of a caregiver. This is important as it defines the basic standards that every nurse ought to follow in order to offer their patient standard care that is crucial to the patients’ wellbeing. Having standards in health care helps with controlled measures of outcomes and gives the element of quality assurance. It would be confusing and mostly lead to poor quality outcome, to have one nurse offering care in one way and another offering a completely different standard.
In the case of a nurse giving care to an Alzheimer’s patient, there are certain aspects that they need to observe to make sure that they offer the best level of care. One of the first and most basic aspect of caring for a patient who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease that need to be observed are the treatment management goals (Burggraf, 2012). This means that care has to be given based on the management goals of the patient, relative to the disease. Aspects of the manage goals such as safety in the environment, quality of life for the patient, social engagement, daily activities for the patient and helping the patient with their mood, cognitive and behavioral c...