Roles of the Professional Nurse

Roles of the Professional Nurse

Nurse H and Nurse J were interviewed for this assignment. Nurse H is a clinical nurse educator for an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Progressive Care unit (PCU) of a rural hospital. She has been a nurse for 15 years and obtained her Master’s Degree in Nursing last year. Nurse J has been a nurse for 33 years and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing 3 years ago. Nurse J works in a large urban hospital specializing in cardiovascular care as a staff nurse.

Nurse H describes her role as clinical nurse educator as one where she prepares staff nurses to care for patients using evidence based practice. Nurse H stated that her only educational preparation for this role was her past experience and her BSN degree. She did admit to reading more research studies, but that was only after she started working as nurse educator. As most nursing jobs seem to be, it was a learn as you go situation.

Nurse J says that her current position is to care for patients before and after cardiovascular procedures. She said she spends a lot of her time with her patients educating them about the procedure, what to expect after the procedure, disease processes as they pertain to the individual and reviewing discharge instructions. When I asked about her educational preparation for her role she stated it was on the job training, adding that this is what she has done for the majority of her thirty plus years of nursing. To expand her knowledge she attends numerous continuing education classes and seminars along with mandatory classes as required by the facility.

My preparation for my current role as an ICU staff nurse was only my 19 years of previous experience and orientation to the ICU. Part of my orientation included classes to help me gain base knowledge that is required to be a competent ICU nurse.

Nurse H and Nurse J both have ironically similar explanation on their unique contributions to the interdisciplinary team. They both feel they are the overseers of the whole interdisciplinary team and it is their job to coordinate care, communicate all pertinent information to the team, and act as a patient advocate. Nurse H added that she feels the family is part of the team and keeping them informed and educated is imperative. I agree with their assessment.

Nurse H’s role in quality outcomes is to ensure the staff knows the latest and most up to date practices along with the rationale behind the practice. She is in charge of chart audits and educating nurses when she finds a delinquency. She also establishes best practice guidelines and creates protocols. Nurse H sited the “vent bundle” stating that it is a nurse order set containing orders such as elevating the patients head of bed at least thirty degrees and oral care every 2 hours for ventilated patients. These practices decrease ventilator acquired pneumonia and thus improves patient outcomes. Nurse