Sociology Essay: Challenges to the Common Good in Nursing

This sociology essay examines the concept of the "common good" and its application within the nursing profession, particularly in the context of increasing mental health challenges. The essay highlights how the common good encompasses social mechanisms that allow individuals to fulfill their roles effectively, with a focus on community and distributive justice. It discusses the rising rates of mental health issues like depression and anxiety, especially among the younger generation, and how these issues hinder the common good of societal wellness. The essay explores the challenges faced by nurses in realizing the common good, including evidentiary practice issues, the difficulty of dealing with mentally ill patients, and the impact of social stigmas. It references studies and reports from WHO and other sources, emphasizing the importance of nursing in promoting societal wellbeing while acknowledging the increasing pressures and challenges faced by nurses in providing care. The essay concludes by underscoring the noble role of nurses and the need for addressing the challenges to achieve the common good globally.

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University Name
Name of course
Author Note

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The word "common good" applies to both the total sum of social mechanisms that allow
persons to fulfil their roles more completely and more easily, whether as communities or as
individual people (Atterbury & Rowe, 2017). Although religious viewpoints are not being put
into play by nurses to deal with the common good, they always deal, in community justice and
distributive justice, with associated ideas and result relevant to the common good, as like the
common goal towards people's concerns. The nurse care staff often look at the quest for a
harmony among concern for social responsibility including respect for personal dignity
according to Romans Catholicism's perception towards the common good.
According to the reports gathered from WHO, there has been report on the increasing rate
of population suffering from several mental health challenges ("Mental Health", 2020). Data
gathered from several country revealed how the number of professional and students needing
treatment and health care advices for depression and anxiety is on a rise at an alarming rate.
According to Edmonson et al. (2017), the entire world is merged in the epidemic of anxiety.
Self-harm, depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, eating and sleeping challenges are
some of the major challenges that individuals in the current generation are facing. These health
challenges of psychological issues, depression and anxiety among the majority of the young
generation are hindering the common good of wellness of the society.
Towards understanding the challenges faced by the nursing profession in realisation of
the aspirations related to the common good in the global scenario, it is to note that determination
of ways in which the context of the common good impacts the professional advancement and the
practices of nursing is itself challenging. The Nursing Profession is presented with the
evidentiary practice issue. Nursing, as in many fields, needs a foundation or proof to support
such care practices including treatments (Marginson, 2016). Most common concerns in clinical

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nursing include condition where mentally ill people reject the idea that they are mentally ill and
the difficulty of exposure to the erratic actions of patients. Increased rates of abuse and brutality
are often reported to nurses. Psychiatric nurses indicated feelings of indignation and
dissatisfaction and high burnout rates. Although psychiatric nurses have been professionally
qualified to work with psychiatric service patients, they often advocate additional training. Social
stigmas also play a very important role towards the challenges in the treatment of young
individuals with depression and anxiety. According to the research studies, most of the young
professionals reported to lead a stressful life with workloads and bad drinking habits which
contribute them towards depression as well as denial of effective treatment such as attending
weekly counselling sessions, taken by the registered mental health nurses (Himmelfarb,
Commodore-Mensah & Hill, 2016).
Nursing is a noble profession and the role of the nurses towards the wellbeing of the
society is inevitable. However with the increasing rate of the mentally ill people specifically
among the young generation, there also has been a rising challenge in the role of the nurses to
provide them proper care. This disruption is impacting the achievement of the common good of
wellbeing of the population of the entire globe.

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Reference
Atterbury, K., & Rowe, M. (2017). Citizenship, community mental health, and the common
good. Behavioral sciences & the law, 35(4), 273-287.
Edmonson, C., McCarthy, C., Trent-Adams, S., McCain, C., & Marshall, J. (2017). Emerging
global health issues: A nurse’s role. Online journal of issues in nursing, 22(1).
Himmelfarb, C. R. D., Commodore-Mensah, Y., & Hill, M. N. (2016). Expanding the role of
nurses to improve hypertension care and control globally. Annals of Global health, 82(2),
243-253.
Marginson, S. (2016). Higher education and the common good. Melbourne Univ. Publishing.
Mental Health. World Health Organization. (2020). Retrieved 14 April 2020, from
https://www.who.int/mental_health/en/.