Concept of Care and Links to Nursing Practice

Concept of care and links to nursing practice 1
Concepts of caring and links with nursing practice.
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Concept of care and links to nursing practice 2
My personal experience.
In my life, I have had an opportunity to appreciate the concept of care demonstrated to
me by a nurse. It has become my motivation to join nursing school. In my final year in college, I
was involved in a car accident while we were heading home from a friend’s party. I was seated
on the passenger’s side while my friend Jenny drove us home. A drunk driver hit our car head on
and unfortunately my friend passed away instantly. I was just lucky to have survived the
accident. I was admitted in hospital for about six months, with among others, a fractured femur. I
was badly bruised and had bled profusely. All the healthcare providers did their best to save my
life. In my stay at the hospital, there was a nurse that caught my attention while I was recovering.
In as much as I was doing well, my mind was disturbed by the scenes of the accident. I
could not take away the picture of the body of mind lying dead beside me eyes completely open.
I really struggled with it trying to forget until one of the nurses took keen interest on my
behaviour. I refused to respond to her all day when she asked. She worked during the day shift.
She never gave up on her quest to find out that the problem was. She even went out of her way to
watch me sleep during the night shift and discovered I was having nightmares. She identified that
I was experiencing post traumatic disorders. She invited a counsellor to help me out. This act
made me understand that she was committed to taking care of me even if I did not want to open
up to her. In as much as my physical health as improving, she noticed my mental health was not.
She took an action that helped me recover
Concept of caring.
In Watsons theory of nursing (Smith & Parker, 2015), Watson describes care as the most
crucial aspect of nursing. She defined caring as the moral ideal whereby the end goal is

Concept of care and links to nursing practice 3
protection, enhancement, and a preservation of human dignity. It involves a commitment to care,
knowledge, caring actions and consequences. She also emphasizes on the need for actions. Care
just perceived in theory is considered futile if there are no actions that can be seen from it. The
actions of a nurse are considered ethically and legally binding (Wolf & France, 2017). The law
and the ideals of the nursing profession must be upheld at all times. Caring requires a sense of
dedication and commitment to the achievement of the highest level of health. It requires the
nurse to have the interest of the patient prioritised. Nursing has been founded on the virtue of
caring, which has been passed down generations.
Standards of care refers to what is considered prudent and reasonable to do to a similar
patient under the same circumstances. Care takes into account all the factors that influence the
interpersonal relationships between the nurses and the patients. The standards promote patient
safety and ensure clinical competency in practice (Fisher, 2017). One standard of care is
maintaining patient autonomy. This refers to the act of allowing the patient to make their own
decision concerning the quality of care (Clement, 2018). After the patient has been informed
about all the facts surrounding their illness and the viable treatment options, they are allowed to
make decisions free of coercion. The nurses are mandated by both the law and professional
standards to honor the patient’s decision. In some cases, the best course of treatment may not be
the patient’s choice. This standard provides a solution in case there is such a dilemma on the
decision to take. This standard is essential especially since empathy may drive the patient to
providing the best treatment which may contravene the patient wishes.