Critique: Professional Aspects of Registered Nurses in Healthcare

This report offers a critical analysis of professional aspects relevant to registered nurses. It begins by examining clinical governance, exploring consumer participation and the Mindmap for Education Learning and Training Model. The report then delves into the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, specifically focusing on infection prevention and control. It further investigates leadership traits among nurses, highlighting their roles in healthcare management and patient care. The report also explores learning culture and professional development, emphasizing workplace learning and its impact on nurses' skills. Finally, it touches upon role ambiguity and stress experienced by registered nurses. The student integrates their personal experiences throughout the analysis, providing practical examples of how they apply these concepts in their nursing practice.

Running head: A CRITIQUE ON PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS OF REGISTERED NURSES
A CRITIQUE ON PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS OF REGISTERED NURSES
Name of the student:
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1A CRITIQUE ON PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS OF REGISTERED NURSES
Table of Contents
Q1. Clinical Governance............................................................................................................2
Q2. National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard........................................................3
Q3. Inventory on Leadership traits among Nurses:...................................................................5
Q4. Learning Culture and Professional Development:..............................................................6
Q5.Role ambiguity and stress on registered nurses:..................................................................8
Reference:................................................................................................................................10

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Q1. Clinical Governance:
There are various approaches made to increase consumers’ participation in the health
care systems. The consumers are defined as the people who do avail the services provided
within the scope of the installed infrastructure and policies of a health sector enterprise with
investment of their valued resources. The most effective method to increase the participation
extent on the part of the consumers is through educating them via training and learning
sessions (Goldsmith & Piscopo, 2014). Training, education and learning are three
intermingling areas that overlap each other in delivering complete effectiveness. The term
teaching incites different perceptions among different people. The term teachers poses a
picture of an authoritative individual beaming in the glory of knowledge to some while some
do recall an elegant experience of having company of an enigmatic individual. The term
training is more goals oriented and emphasizes on learning of particular set of skills which
have direct implementation in applications. Education is the achievement of these combined
processes which enables an individual to upgrade his or her perspective to perceive a
particular topic and deal with it accordingly (Wilson, 2014).
Effective education and training can help in increasing the participation by the
consumers. This endeavor generates the prospect of adults to be a learner and use some key
aspects of this learning in decision making regarding their own health care ventures. This
education model is scientific and authentic which therefore has obtained it a model name
called Mindmap for Education Learning and Training Model (Pudelko et al., 2012). It reveals
various facets of effective training and education programs in ascertaining increased
participation by consumers in health sector. The model gives a consent that collaborative
learning environment among adult patients and families is challenging and comparatively
new in health care domain and can be encouraged upon seeing the fruitful result of such

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educating process. This model also gives an insight in the balancing of power and freedom on
the part of the parties taking part in health care services. Consumer participation can be
increased through proper grievance and riddles addressal. This increases the willingness and
trust factor of the consumers to be involved with the concerned organization to serve their
individualistic interests. Organizations need to implement surveys; acceptance mechanism of
feedbacks; meeting consumer complaints with priority and addressing freedom of
information requests (Savage & Hyde, 2014). Consumer feedbacks can also be introduced in
developing the information resources and strategies to communicate with patient parties,
families and assistance seekers (Oliver et al., 2014).
My Experience:
I can increase the participation of the consumer in making the treatment plan upon
informing the patient with relevant information relating to his or her condition and thereby
asking his or her opinion and suitability in accordance with the proposed treatment plan. The
implementation process may require educating and making patient aware about merits and
demerits of each step in the treatment regime and thereby encourage in participating
following the course of the treatment accurately. The evaluation process may include
inclusion of more specific information about the sickness in diagnosis from patient’s end and
empowering patient with the information of available diagnostic and curative or preventive
methods.
Q2. National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard
There are ten standards all total present within the scope of National Safety and
Quality Health Service. These standards include governing of quality and safety in
organizations working in health sector; making partnership with patients, prevention and
regulation of infections among patients; safety in terms of medication; identification of

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patients and ordaining treatment procedure; clinical handover; guidelines pertaining to blood
transfusion; management of pressure wounds; addressing acute health conditions and
prevention of additional injuries like falling down among elderly patients
(Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2017). The pertinent guideline that is to be delved in within the
scope of this text is the norm dealing with the prevention and regulation of infections among
patients. There are several outcomes related to it if the best practice is not met. The possible
outcomes include aggravation of the present condition of the patient; further onset of
secondary opportunistic infection by opportunistic pathogens; complication of symptoms;
generation of need of different diagnostic procedure and associated treatment plan and in
extreme cases the patient might die due to lack in meeting this standard. Infection causing
organisms do evolve with passing time span and this poses a great challenge to infection
prevention and treatment (Hossain et al., 2013).
The gram negative organisms change their o-side chains in order to be viable as
infectious agents. The organisms get resistant to most prevalent antibiotics due to over
exposure to them. These organisms may include Methicillin resistant Staphyllococcus aureus
and Vancomycin resistant enterococci (Gruenheid & Moual, 2012). There will be patients in
close proximity in Australian settings of health care and these patients might undergo
operative procedures. Some patients might get administered medicine with attached set up of
infrastructure and some might get immunosuppressive medicine or broad spectrum of
antibiotics. These situations describe the significance in maintaining awareness regarding
infections and their pervasive prevalence in Australian health care system. Each year many
patients get diagnosed with nosocomial infections and other hospital ward infections in
Australia and some of these infections require more powerful medication along with
complication of pre-existing conditions. The asserted steps in regulating infections include
infection assessment and prevention strategies, managing patients with infection,

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antimicrobial stewardship, disinfection and sterilization procedure and communication with
patient (Runciman et al., 2012).
My Experience:
I as a nurse can be more cautious during sterilization procedure of hospital instrument
via processes like autoclaving, ethylene oxide administration or ethanol washing to avert
infections of patients. I can therefore plan a suitable antimicrobial care procedure in
collaboration with physician to alleviate the burden of infection on the patient after analyzing
the vital signs of the patient.
Q3. Inventory on Leadership traits among Nurses:
Leadership qualities among nurses can be a helpful tool to empower health care
services. Their leadership role examples can be found in government organizations
distributed among array of levels including participation in steering committees (Doody &
Doody, 2012). These roles can impart tremendous experience and understanding of changing
demands of health care system. Nurses have a clear view of how political, social and
economical factors shape the health care world and the respective needs of the consumers
coming from varying background in terms of cultural aspect and ethnic backdrop of
individuals in Australia. Their professional role also enables them to have an insight in the
effectiveness of various services being provided by several health care service providers
groups. Registered nurses do develop a strong aptitude to identify the possible challenges and
enablers in making a particular care giving system effective and efficient in Australian health
community (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2013).
Hence, nurse leaders are approached not only to ponder on the nursing activities
within the organizations but they are usually asked to give their consideration on achieving

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suitable patient care that would be the ultimate goal of any patient care facility. Nurse leaders
play crucial roles in many areas of leadership and whistle blowing initiatives that include
patient centered value driven care system and clinical perspective to add to the national
database about the strategic direction and progress of indigenous health sector (Brunetto et
al., 2013). Leaders after achieving this level are expected to understand the necessary changes
that will be required to put a reform into work. Nurses do play an important role at this level
of leadership in shaping the overall strategies of the entire organization as well as they
provide their professional clinical support on the daily basis. The instances of registered nurse
leadership are most prevalent in organizations where formal structuring is well maintained
and in these organizations nurses are rendered executive roles as well. They are usually
offered designations like chief nursing officers or directors of nursing facilities. The critical
analysis suggests that nurse leaders being equipped with relevant clinical knowledge and
management skills play one of the major roles in structuring the quality service to be
rendered and the business opportunity as well as humanitarian aspect of the health care
organizations (Dignam et al., 2012).
My Experience:
I do highlight on the strategies of management of patients’ grievances and proper
resolution of the riddle in order to make the treatment experience better for the patient. The
strategy to achieve this goal includes taking proper feedback from the patient using a
preordained indent of query statements in survey forms. The authenticities of these feedbacks
are to be checked and the necessary actions are to be taken up wherever felt necessary.
Suitable assessment and evaluation processes should be present there to ascertain the impact
of these corrective steps on the overall growth of the organization.

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Q4. Learning Culture and Professional Development:
There have been various researches in past decades about incorporating learning
prospects in working field while working in firsthand experience in health care sector. This
enables the worker to gather different social and professional experiences pertaining to the
ordained task in the respective designation (Taylor & Cranton, 2012). The learning and
participation in the work are to be viewed as reciprocal and complementary processes to each
other in order to generate quality work force within the organization. The notion of relational
dependence in between the decision calls made in the professional work and the conventional
practice in the sector is of prime importance in this regard as room for improvisation is left
here which can be best possibly devised upon possessing good professional learning
outcomes. A good practice can be therefore further included in conventional approaches.
Work place learning is usually termed as informal process as it comes as a byproduct of the
imparting service process. This individualistic learning approach requires confidence and
belief and depends on the willingness and earnestness of concerned individual regarding his
or her workplace responsibilities. This is especially applicable in regard of the challenging
professional fields like that of registered nurses in Australia. The agenda of work place
activities and associated learning can be well addressed via well structured curriculum in this
scenario as per some schools of thoughts (Adamson & Dewar, 2015).
This curriculum will provide direct and indirect support to nurses in learning activities
while working in health care sectors concising their approach making it more goals oriented.
The work place administration should encourage in activities which increase both the
theoretical and practical knowledge of the registered nurses. There are three aspects
associated with the work culture that encourages work place learning. These angles include
participation in community work; engagement in interpersonal relationship and access to
important knowledge resources. Discrepancies in abilities among the nurses show that nurses

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acquire more learning objectives and favorable outcomes upon being assigned to particular
critical job assignments which have scopes to learn. This in turn imposes an effect on the
development and growth of nurse individuals as a professional and in humanitarian values
(Zuber-Skerritt & Teare, 2013).
My Experience:
I would preferably design strategies to understand how lack of clinical knowledge and
cultural disposition affect treatment care and the ways to overcome these barriers. I would
emphasize on workplace learning of various cultural considerations of the patients and their
predispositions to certain beliefs. How these beliefs can be assimilated with the perspectives
of the ordained treatment plan would be my major goal in dealing with the patient. I would
like to educate patient more on the clinical condition and possible resolving process. This
prime knowledge not only makes the experience of the patient in availing a health care
system better but also enables the patient to actively take part in the treatment procedure upon
highlighting on critical steps in the treatment plan as per his or her considerations.
Q5.Role ambiguity and stress on registered nurses:
Nurses do undergo various instances of role ambiguities during their service period in
medical support giving centers and these scenarios produce potential stress factors to them.
This particular phenomenon is more perceived in situations where nurses get promoted to
case manager designation from normal nursing phase. Four major areas associated with it
come in to focus in this regard. These areas include professional image, interpersonal
relationship, time bound service and business perspective of the organization. The
interpersonal relationships in this regard with respect to patients and as well as intra and inter
department relationships among professionals play a major role in the service. The conflict
arises while working in this domain is the coercion in between the business policy of the

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concerned organization and the basic need of the patient being prominent after a detailed
conversation. This in turn can pose stress factors reducing professional satisfaction and self
confidence (Lu et al., 2012).
The conflict becomes more severe in cases when a nurse has been promoted as a case
manager without proper prior training. The concerned individual in this situation does not
become aware of the plausible job responsibilities and hence the inner dilemmas get
increased. This ethical issue in choosing between interests of the employer and consumer
becomes more cumbersome in situations where euthanasia is in question or has been
approached. They need to be given appropriate inputs on balancing in case management,
chalking out viable options, identifying vulnerable individuals and sense of responsibility
without sense of authority. There can be various approaches that might deal with workplace
stresses of registered nurses. Stress is usually considered as a physical response which begets
from psychological strain of some manner. Small amount of stress is useful and beneficial in
some contexts while major sources of stress can do havoc in one’s life. It also plays an
important role in elevating and decreasing the motivational level among individuals (Happell
et al., 2013).
My Experience:
I would personally prefer to implement two stress buster processes as a solution to the
work place stress due to some operational dilemma among registered nurses. One method is
keeping a personal notebook and noting down all occupational conflicts or controversial
points and concerned development along with personal perspective regarding that. This is a
methodical approach and by doing this the consistent revolving pattern of stressful thoughts
gets blocked. Another approach to reduce workplace stress is to keep the moral conscience at
the balanced level. One registered nurse has to keep in mind always that the service being

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provided is always from a professional point of views and not personal. Thus some critical
aspects of moral inclination and decision making dangling between patient interest and
institutional policies subject to analysis can be exempted in regard of a registered nurses’ job
role when the balancing factor and organizational regulations come into picture.

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Brunetto, Y., Xerri, M., Shriberg, A., Farr‐Wharton, R., Shacklock, K., Newman, S., &
Dienger, J. (2013). The impact of workplace relationships on engagement, well‐being,
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