People who become nurses sometimes have no idea of what type of nurse they will be – only that they want to be a nurse and help people. A nurse is someone who will assist patients who need them at a very vulnerable time of their life because a nurse is usually the person who spends the most time with a patient.
Nurses are considered advocates for a patient meaning that because a patient is not usually knowledgeable about health care the nurse helps to protect their interests – particularly when a patient is in unfamiliar territory like a hospital that is foreign to them. Many can be intimated and not speak up to make their needs and wants known. A nurse can be an effective communicator between the doctor, the hospital and the patient.
Nurses are also educators – not in the sense that they are teaching in a school although some of them do that – but they explain what is happening to a patient and why. They provide information about procedures that need to be performed and why they need to be done in terms that the patient will understand. They also show families and/or the patient how to change a dressing on a wound or how to monitor blood pressure and how and when medications should be taken. They also can be advocates for a healthier lifestyle such as a better diet that will help them to heal and prevent complications from diabetes for example.
Nurses all have different responsibilities depending on where their work is – a hospital, a doctor’s office or a clinic or any number of other positions – but each nurse always is there to assist the patient and guide them through difficult periods in their lives and to focus them on a road to recovery that will offer them more productive and healthy futures.
