NR500 Week 2: Caring Concepts in Nursing
In today’s healthcare industry, caring may be defined as formulaic or authentic. Formulaic caring is often
... [Show More] driven by scripted programs where success is measured by patient satisfaction scores where as authentic caring is promoted by the nurse patient relationship both emotionally and physically (McClendon, 2017) . With formulaic
caring, nurses are expected to have their friendly faces on at all times while responding to the patients’ needs quickly. These steps are believed to increase satisfaction scores which further increase the hospitals’ overall scores leading to profitability. Most nurses enter the profession wanting to impact lives, change outcomes and a desire to go beyond themselves for others which is the essence of authentic caring.
The track I have chosen for my degree is Education. I have been in the educator role for most of my nursing career both in the hospital environment as well as in the community including owning a birthing class company. Patient education is vital to caring. Through education, patients recognize competence and begin to form a trusting relationship. I am often the nurse who is assigned the patient who has a fetal demise. I often hear my charge nurses say, “Michele, you have a special way of connecting with those patients and families. You know how to educate them with what to expect and how to move forward after delivery”. I can only empathize with my demise patients but feel education, genuine support and active listening shows my true authentic
caring. Caring may often seem to be a physical demonstration performed by the nurse but the emotional component of caring is equally as strong. I personally feel the change to formulaic caring has taken away from the essence of caring as a nurse.
The division of authentic and formulaic caring may be at the core of increasing levels of frustration, nurse burnout, and nurses seeking other professional work environments.
Nurses’ are measured by wait times, throughput times all the while trying to provide that authentic care. The dilemma facing nursing leaders is how to incorporate both types of caring into healthcare today (Brewer & Watson, 2015) .
References
Brewer, B., & Watson, J. (2015, December). Evaluation of authentic human caring professional practices. Journal of Nursing Administration, 45, 622-627. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000275
McClendon, P. (2017). Authentic caring: rediscover the essence of nursing. Retrieved from www.nursingmanagement.com [Show Less]