Analyzing Nursing Issues: Authority, Status, and Healthcare Access

This assignment delves into critical issues and trends in nursing, addressing whether equating status with authority causes confusion, emphasizing that the evolutionary process of medicine is geared towards patient care. It further explores how professional nurses can reach out to community members lacking access to healthcare reform by using community-based approaches, creating health awareness, and engaging in patient-focused health promotion activities. The importance of continuous improvement of nursing skills and the adoption of evidence-based research is highlighted, increasing nurses' ability to provide better care and improve patient safety. The assignment concludes by stressing the need for nurses to promote health reform as a means of increasing healthcare access across communities.

Issues and Trends in Nursing
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Does equating status to authority cause confusion? Why or why not?
Power presents a complex and extensive concept in nursing which has a significant
impact on the accomplishment of satisfaction and achievement in meeting nursing goals.
Power concept in nursing is a resourceful tool which flourishes the moral and caring nature of
the nursing profession.
Professional authority signifies power, intellectual and political influence through the
provision of distinctive service delivery. More at times nursing has often been considered as
an independent body largely established from medicine, whereas medicine often receives
professional status simply due to its status preceding nursing and hence claim full ownership
of medical professionalism. The equation of status and authority do not cause confusion as
the evolutionary process of medicine due to health objective goal is service of care delivered
to the patient.
Studies have shown that professionalism is an important feature and offers a dynamic
interpretation leading to multiple definitions. The nursing profession has often led to
challenges among various health care staff (Kim-Godwin, Baek & Wynd, 2010). The gradual
development of education and professional certificates has to lead to nursing professional
status.
Despite the rapid changes in the value systems, encountered by nurses and medical
professionals, there is the creation of new nursing environments which require professional
nursing. Nursing profession thus isa associated with greater responsibility on care accorded to
clients. This necessitates for continuous improvement of nursing skills which offer nurses
skills to be equipped in their profession through the adoption of evidence-based research, thus
generating and improve the body of nursing knowledge consequentially increasing their
ability and power to offer more care geared towards patient safety and improved health status
(Ghadirian, Salsali & Cheraghi, 2014).
As a professional nurse, what are some ways in which you are able to reach out to
members of the community who do not have access to healthcare reform?
As a competent professionalism nurse reaching and enabling access to health and its
eventual delivery is vital. Key avenues which are critical for professional nursing for enabling

each of the segregated members of the community is to offer community-based approaches
aimed at assessing communities awareness and eventual promotion of health reforms which
are geared towards curbing public health deterioration (Kemppainen, Tossavainen & Turunen
2012).
Secondly, creating awareness on health issues in the community remains pivotal.
There is a need for making the community be aware of their health needs and status so as to
be proactive when health care services are offered within their reach. Mass awareness often
creates sensitization community and raises the conscious level of the community in ensuring
that knowledge on health care reform is understood in an explicit manner as much as
possible.
Finally, the engagement of the community through patient-focused health promotion
activities is essential. This will entail a synergistic focus on various groups within the
community set up such as the elderly or families having various health challenges, which
assess eventual health care reform process (Goodman et al., 2011). Promotion of health
reform as a means of access to health care is beneficial through increasing awareness across
the community set up.

References
Ghadirian, F., Salsali, M., & Cheraghi, M. A. (2014). Nursing professionalism: An
evolutionary concept analysis. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research,
19(1), 1.
Goodman, C., Davies, S. L., Dinan, S., Tai, S. S., & Iliffe, S. (2011). Activity promotion for
community-dwelling older people: a survey of the contribution of primary care nurses.
British journal of community nursing, 16(1), 12-17.
Kemppainen, V., Tossavainen, K., & Turunen, H. (2013). Nurses' roles in health promotion
practice: an integrative review. Health Promotion International, 28(4), 490-501.
Kim-Godwin, Y. S., Baek, H. C., & Wynd, C. A. (2010). Factors influencing professionalism
in nursing among Korean American registered nurses. Journal of Professional Nursing,
26(4), 242-249.