How Nurses Are Taking Care Of Their Communities
Save a life; you’re a hero, save a hundred, and you’re a nurse. There’s no denying that nurses are the heart of healthcare. In a hospital setting, they’re always the first to work and the last to leave.
Most people don’t know that nurses go above and beyond their call of duty, even outside the hospital. Nurses have continued to serve communities through history and play a vital role in today’s medical world.
Nurses encourage healthier lives, support people, and educate the public on medical complications. As impactful contributors to the healthcare world, they offer our people the education they need to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Nurses’ specific duties have evolved throughout time. Nevertheless, their value in healthcare has remained unchanged and continues to expand.
There are countless reasons why the healthcare system and the community rely on nurses during a difficult time. They’re smart, calm, versatile, collaborative, well-organized, full of energy, and have exceptional people skills. Most importantly, they save lives and make people feel safe.
Nursing is a developing field. Across many parts of the world, there is a rising demand for skilled nurses.
Today, their contribution to the medical world is becoming increasingly important, considering introducing new diseases and health complications.
So, how does one jump into public health nursing for a career? Thankfully, the education for nurses is advancing, and they are becoming more skilled and competent at their jobs.
They’re also finally gaining some chunk of recognition for their role in the healthcare industry.
Nurses Are Taking Care Of Everything
Here’s how nurses are caring for their communities at large:
1. Educate The Community About Making Healthier Life Choices
One of the most critical responsibilities of a nurse is their role as an educator. They inform the public about a wide range of medical issues, advise anybody in need, hold official seminars, and have informal information exchanges with their patients.
This education may include disease prevention approaches, mental health awareness, self-care ideas, substance abuse awareness, etc.
Some very qualified nurses also get employed as lecturers for various courses in medical institutes.
They are rarely ever applauded for their role as educators and seen as mere assistants to doctors in a hospital only.
2. Helping The Elderly With Chronic Health Conditions
Nurses serve the elderly community not just by providing medical support but emotional too.
Getting older people to remain active and healthy for as long as possible, knowing that it’s difficult for them and rarely willing, is a severely challenging job.
Luckily, nurses are experts in this area. They are well-recognized for their ability to emotionally support and empathize with patients rather than their other duties.
Community nurses serve the elderly in their homes. Being surrounded by loved ones and familiar environments help the aged ones to cope with treatment better.
Nurses go above and beyond their comfort zones to reach these people whenever and wherever needed.
3. Provide Emotional Support
Compassion is what leads an individual to become a nurse. This compassion is also the most necessary skill listed in a nurse’s job description, and it goes a long way with them.
In a crisis or any other event, nurses give emotional support to their communities. It is something they do for both groups and individuals.
Nurses aren’t simply there to help with medical issues. They’re a patient’s free-of-cost grief counselor, cheerleaders, and someone willing to hold your hand even if you have a transmissible disease.
In the COVID-19 crisis, nurses stood by dying patients providing emotional support in a time where families couldn’t be with them.
For doing a job like this, nurses aren’t just underpaid; they’re highly underappreciated too.
4. Conduct Research To Improve Healthcare
The word ‘research’ makes us think of labs and specimens and highly professional technicians in overalls.
What comes to our mind when we think of nurses? Brave individuals, who change adult patients’ diapers? Or a doctor’s assistant whose only responsibility is to look after IVs?
Little did we know nurses also extend their hands towards contributing to research that helps the healthcare world immensely.
They help conduct surveys, collect data, examine suggested theories for ethical compliance, debate the significance of research results, perform feasibility fact-checks. And critically evaluate the consequences of research findings.
Over the years, the extensive experience gathered by nurses entitles them to hold an opinion in such a crucial line of work.
They also do much other complicated research work to benefit the community and are rarely ever credited.
5. Advocate Preventative Healthcare
Nurses are the stars of the show when it comes to disease and infection prevention. They promote healthier lives by encouraging patients and regular people to follow a lifestyle that’ll help them and the community.
Healthier individuals make one big healthy community. Nurses encourage 30 minutes of exercise every day to deal with chronic health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, etc.
They also recommend exercises to keep body mass in control. A balanced BMI is a road to a longer and fuller life.
Normal weight can’t just be achieved by exercise. Nurses also endorse healthy eating habits for that.
Moreover, they encourage people to quit smoking and other harmful recreational activities involving dangerous substances.
Nurses also convince people to go for screening to conduct an earlier diagnosis for earlier treatment. Most people aren’t willing to do that. Nurses support them mentally and obtain a go-ahead.
6. Assist In Labor And Conduct Well-Baby Assessments
Most people would only associate well-baby checkups with pediatricians. Fascinatingly, community nurses are well-equipped to perform them too. They’re taught this in nursing school and have enough experience by working with doctors.
Vulnerable populations who don’t have health insurance or ready access to healthcare rely on nurses to do this job for them.
In some cases, nurses have also experienced midwives and can deliver babies independently. They aren’t legally permitted to do this in a hospital setting. However, they are obliged to assist in labor to someone in need outside a hospital (if the situation demands).
The Bottom Line
In history, nurses were seen as mere caregivers. Their value was never appreciated enough, considering the hours they put in. A nurse’s job requires a great deal of physical and mental labor.
How often do we thank the nurse before leaving the hospital? Most of the time, the doctors overshadow the nurses’ work. What nurses do is equally important as the doctor’s job.
Today, people are finally beginning to realize the significance of nurses in the healthcare industry and the community.
