Life for a nurse is filled with new challenges that they have to face every day while maintaining their composure. From taking care of patients to monitoring their condition, they have to handle a variety of tasks.
As a nurse, you need to have the nerves of steel to deal with complex situations every day. The COVID-19 outbreak made clear just how important nurses are in the healthcare industry. By putting their lives at risk, they helped patients infected by the coronavirus. Even though the situation is stable now, nurses continue to assist doctors and medical experts in combating this deadly virus.
Nurses are not only responsible for monitoring a patient’s health, but they also provide moral and emotional support to their families. They closely work with families to keep them and patients on the same page to ensure a smooth treatment. Because family members are closest to patients, nurses form quality relationships with them to help improve their mental health. Ultimately, it also aids in the patient’s recovery.
Without further ado, let’s see what a nurse can do to help your family’s health.
Forming Partnerships with Families
According to research, the family-centered approach helps nurses make a significant impact on healthcare quality. It ensures greater patient satisfaction, so nurses need to opt for relevant degrees to serve families efficiently like the FNP master’s program. The program enables them to develop deep relationships with families with a sense of true collaboration.
The dynamics of healthcare have changed in the recent past. That is why today’s nursing is more focused on promoting health in families. To build a good connection with families, nurses need awareness of different health determinants, including social, political, and economic factors.
As a nurse, you should understand that the preferences of every family will be different. So, you have to be flexible enough to adjust yourself according to families’ diverse cultural and traditional needs.
You have to employ different types of communication to ensure that families are comfortable with you. Nurses with years of experience use their intervention and observational skills to create long-lasting relationships with families. It allows nurses to become a part of the family and help them overcome physical or mental health issues by suggesting the right solution. So, the strong bond between nurses and families leads to better health outcomes.
Developing Mutual Respect
One of the key factors through which nurses engage families successfully is by building mutual respect for families. It comes with the understanding that both parties have for each other that they can resolve any issue by collaborating.
For example, if a drug addict is admitted to the healthcare center, then through mutual respect, both nurse and patient’s family can help in recovery. In this scenario, the nurse knows that the patient’s family is already going through emotional trauma, so they treat them with respect. While a patient’s family also knows that nurse has a significant role to play in the recovery. So, that is how a bond of mutual respect is formed between both parties.
Nurses focus on developing good communication practices that encourage mutual knowledge exchange. It helps families improve the knowledge that can help them take care of themselves better or of anyone in the family.
Some nurses implement solution-focused approaches to help families determine what motivates them to make healthy decisions. It is one of the finest methods that allow nurses to add value to the lives of many families. Nurses know that rather than stamping their authority, they have to build a great support system for families that will help them earn credibility and respect. So, they try to deepen interactions to attain positive results.
Working as Family Advocate
One of the duties of nurses is to create health awareness among underprivileged families who lack resources. They are expected to utilize different data sources to pass on the clinical knowledge that can positively impact the lifestyle of other families.
For example, in the recent pandemic of COVID-19, nurses played a pivotal role in spreading awareness regarding the precautions families have to take. They guided the families that if one of their members has tested positive for coronavirus, they have to isolate themselves and maintain distance. It is essential to understand that doctors cannot get close and personal with patients and their families. So, that is where the role of nurses kicks in to promote healthy practices.
To work with families, nurses have to adopt the proactive approach to advocate. Some families have complex dynamics and find it challenging to make the right decisions and express themselves. So, to address the issues of such families, nurses have to recognize their need to provide extra support. You may help them by giving them advice or providing additional training. Sometimes nurses have to come out of their comfort zone and take things under control to ensure the family’s safety.
Removing the Communication Barrier
You should understand that family members cannot share their personal details with doctors or physicians. On the other hand, they are more comfortable sharing their issues with nurses. Whether it is a birth complication or drug addiction, when families get comfortable with nurses, they start sharing valuable information that leads to the patient’s recovery. So, that is how it removes the communication barrier between families and medical experts.
In medical treatments, minor details can play a decisive role in ensuring a patient’s stability. So, the relationship between nurses and families holds special significance to ensure that everything keeps moving forward in the right direction. It also gives trust to the family members that a patient is in safe hands, so it eases off their stress.
Conclusion
In the current healthcare landscape, the role of nurses has become crucial to spread awareness regarding health practices among families. It is not possible for doctors or medical experts to provide that kind of emotional support which nurses can because of the nature of their job. They interact with patients and stay in touch with their families. It allows them to figure out the issues of families so that they can have thoughtful discussions with doctors and other medical staff for the best possible solutions. So, that is how nurses contribute positively to improving the lives of patients and their families.
