The pandemic pointed out the flaws in our national healthcare, and it also identified opportunities for improvement in this institution. Hospitals with more accountability, better leadership, and the concept of quality as everyone’s responsibility succeed in offering better health services. But medical institutions also faced certain challenges when it came to highlighting the role of nurses as primary caregivers in our healthcare industry. The scarcity of RNs combined with the poor engagement of the medical staff has led to the quality of healthcare services declining in this sector. 

There’s a growing demand for nurses to participate more often in activities related to the health sector. Increasing their engagement will influence patient outcomes and reduce the shortcomings in the field of nursing. As we can observe, since the beginning of this pandemic, nursing has become an evolving role in our traditional hospital setting. The quality of healthcare in the hospitals depends on the medical understanding of our nursing sector. Let’s explain how today’s nurses can improve healthcare facilities:

1. Continued Education

Nurses must enhance their academic expertise to keep up with the rapidly evolving medical science. Technology has penetrated almost all institutions. It’ll gradually become impossible for people to continue their jobs without continued education since better education enables you to learn about the latest developments in your profession. Nurses who pursue an online MSN expect better careers with high salaries and more chances of promotions. In the United States, it was proposed to make BSN mandatory for 80% of the nursing staff. But the fast-paced medical field will soon demand MSN to become obligatory for nurse practitioners since it’ll open new pathways for the RN staff.

2. Patient Satisfaction

Nurses leverage their communication and public-dealing skills to improve a patient’s experience. It starts with rapport-building since nurses understand the patients’ requirements. Statistics show that over 60% of patients confess they’re satisfied with nursing practitioners. It shows significant progress in RNs’ performance. When nurses have less workload, they get more time to dedicate to each patient individually. Therefore, it contributes to high-quality care and leads to more patients being satisfied with care delivery.

3. Health Advocacy

Nurses are quick to make an emotional connection with the patients they treat. So, they’re expected to advocate for patient rights and better healthcare facilities for the diseased. They also speak for their colleagues since many nurses had to work in dangerous conditions when COVID first attacked. Nurse managers advocate amending the healthcare protocols and regulations to ensure better care delivery to their patients. This advocacy also enables nurses to counsel and educate the diseased as they better understand when the patients are frustrated about something. Nurse advocacy has become a separate field that allows RNs to make nursing an efficient and productive institution.

4. Family Support

Families struggling with a patient know that a nurse’s care and compassion go beyond that patient. Instead, a nurse also supports the patient’s friends and family. Nurses ensure that the families of their patients have their complaints heard by the proper authorities. Experts believe that the country will need more family medicine doctors in the future. Thus, more patients will turn to family nurse practitioners for the required medical assistance. Nurses that have pursued an MSN FNP will have the right credentials to serve these patients. It’ll help them enhance their role as primary caregivers since nurses’ services are imperative to improving health services.

5. Patient Education

Research shows that a nurse spends two hours and forty-five minutes at the patient’s bedside. Since they’re the primary caregivers in healthcare facilities, this connection also leads to educating their patients. Such an education enables patients to become self-aware about their medical condition. They’re empowered to take control of their health. Nurses also ensure that the patients possess enough know-how about the required healthcare protocols. Moreover, a nurse can contribute to better healthcare by educating a patient’s family members as well. Education helps them cope with their loved one’s disease with a better understanding of his/her ailment and the cure involved.

6. Individualized Care

Nursing constitutes one of the most trusted professions in the United States. It’s because RNs show empathy and offer compassion to troubled minds. They empower self-care among their patients for improving care delivery. But, most importantly, they provide individualized patient care since every patient is different. The connection they make with the diseased enables them to offer the human touch to a hospital’s residents. This human touch contributes to the patients’ quick recovery. Sadly, COVID has led to more burnout among nurses, occurring because of a heavier workload over nurses. Burnout doesn’t allow nurses to attend to each patient or offer personalized care.

7. Patient Safety

A critical component affecting the patient outcome is patient safety. Nurses are instrumental when it comes to ensuring the safety of patients. They monitor for clinical mistakes and watch out for errors to ensure quality healthcare. Studies have shown that nurses ascertain patient safety by conducting regular rounding protocols. It helps improve pain management among patients by 11%. These rounding sessions allow patients to ask for help and seek medical assistance. For instance, patients have reported fewer fall rates thanks to attentive nurses. RNs come for a patient’s help when he/she must go to the bathroom or salvage an object placed far across the room.

Conclusion

We can see how the nation’s nurses play an essential role in “patient care.” They’re an integral component of our healthcare industry. Nurses provide the required emotional/spiritual assistance to patients, support their families, and advocate on their clients’ behalf. They don’t just focus on offering the best care you can receive today. But they’re also committed to the availability of quality care in the future. With their hands-on dealing with the patients, nurses spend more time with the diseased than other medical professionals. Thus, nurses can have a huge impact on the quality of healthcare facilities patients receive. With proper education, RNs can expect better patient outcomes mid-pandemic.