Adult Nursing Assignment: Registered Nurse Roles and Teamwork Dynamics

This report, focused on adult nursing, comprehensively addresses the roles and responsibilities of registered nurses and the significance of teamwork within healthcare environments. The report begins by detailing the diverse duties of registered nurses, emphasizing their crucial role in patient care, education, and infection prevention, as well as their responsibilities in patient assessment, care planning, and maintaining medical records. It also highlights the importance of daily inventory checks, medication management, and patient education. The second part of the report explores teamwork in healthcare, defining it as collaborative efforts among healthcare professionals aimed at achieving common goals. The report emphasizes how teamwork improves patient safety, communication, and overall healthcare quality, while also highlighting the roles of individual team members in ensuring effective collaboration and strategic decision-making. The report references several studies to support the benefits of teamwork in reducing medical errors and enhancing patient satisfaction.

Running Head: ADULT NURSING
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ADULT NURSING 2
Question One
Role and Responsibilities of a Registered Nurse
Duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse vary according to the area of their
expertise. All registered nurses play a very vital role in ensuring that they promote wellbeing by
providing high-quality healthcare services to patients and other members of society. Registered
nurses mainly focus on taking care of patients and educating them and their family members
about the early recovery and ways which they can apply to prevent infections (Birks et al., 2016).
They work with various kinds of patients from those suffering from different types of diseases to
those with injuries. Most registered nurses specialize in particular kinds of patients, such as
injured patients, newborn babies, cancer, and patients with various types of medical conditions.
Registered nurses (RN) carry out several responsibilities. RN is supposed to observe the behavior
of patients. This includes monitoring how patients are responding to treatment and recording the
changes observed. Registered nurses are also supposed to coordinate with other healthcare
professionals to create and customize healthcare plans, which care effective in taking care of
patients’ needs (Omer, Suliman & Moola, 2016). RN needs to establish a strong therapeutic
relationship with their patients and their family members to be able to provide emotional and
psychological support to them. It is the role of nurses to diagnose the infection are patient is
suffering from by analyzing the patients which are displayed by the patient. After diagnosis, they
are supposed to come up with the appropriate care plan, which is needed for the recovery of the
patient.
Patients' medical histories and reports need to be monitored, which is the role of
registered nurses. This is significant because it helps in controlling the health condition of a

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patient. Registered nurses use these records to thoroughly understand how the patient behaves
while having the same illness and the kind of medical attention needed to improve their health
condition (Manning & Pogorzelska-Maziarz, 2018). It also the role of the RN to check the stock
daily. They should maintain the inventory level and place orders if required. This is significant to
ensure that the healthcare facility does not run out of drugs and other healthcare items that are
necessary for taking care of the patients. If a patient is not responding to the type of medications
is given, it is the role of registered nurses to change the kind of drugs rendered regarding the
patient's condition and responses. To maintain a complete medical record, RN should adhere to
the rules, norms, and regulations which are required in the medical field. In cases where the
patient is in critical condition, registered nurses should discuss the treatment plan with physicians
and pharmacists. Nurses should also educate the public on maintaining hygiene and having a
balanced diet as a means of preventing infections (Rebeiro et al., 2017). RN should interpret the
patient information and involve them in decision making regarding the necessary actions which
need to be taken to improve their health situation. For them to be able to achieve an excellent
communication with the patient to make decisions, they must first create a therapeutic
relationship with them, which makes them feel free to share information with them.
Question Two
Teamwork is a vital component in healthcare as it ensures the delivery of healthcare
services to patients. In the healthcare sector, teamwork is defined as a team of two or more
healthcare professionals working together interdependently to achieve a common goal while
maintaining stability and encouraging problem-solving, honesty, and communication (Rydenfält,
Odenrick & Larsson, 2017). Various studies that have been carried out indicate that teamwork in
healthcare leads to the integration of services, which is a vital component in taking care of the

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patient by offering quality healthcare services to them. Teamwork is defined as a critical
intervention in healthcare for several reasons. First, healthcare professionals need each other to
solve health complications. This is because clinical care is becoming complex; by working
together, they can learn new methods quickly, and they are also able to learn more skills on how
to handle various conditions. According to multiple studies that have been carried out, it is clear
that working together reduces the number of medical errors that are experienced in healthcare
while taking care of patients (Rosen et al., 2018). Teamwork also increases patients’ safety. In
today’s world, the security of a patient is no longer the responsibility of single healthcare
professional. This is because a team of health professionals is charged with the role of taking
care of a patient. Therefore, health teams break down the hierarchy of centralized powers to
ensure patients receive quality healthcare services. Teamwork is termed as the center of
communication. Consequently, it enhances communication in hospitals, which makes it easy to
establish strong therapeutic relationships with the patients and family members. Patients feel
more satisfied when communication is excellent, and they feel free to share their opinions with
healthcare professionals.
Each individual in a team has his/her role to play to ensure positive team-working. Team
members should ensure that there is a smooth flow of information from one department to
another (Mijakoski et al., 2018). This is essential in the healthcare sector and can be done
through video chat, emails, and texting. In case a healthcare professional is handling a
complicated situation, and he/she needs some help, they must communicate with the other
members of the team. This ensures that they don’t cause medical errors. Any concern raised by
any member of the team should be communicated to all other members to avoid
misunderstandings. All members should play a part in strategic decision making. Members

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should be able to handle various decisions that are made daily. They should be able to solve any
problems arising among them without having to consult external individuals (Scaria, 2016). They
should be strategic decision-makers, which requires a lot of capability to be able to weigh the
outcomes that are associated with a particular decision made. To be able to achieve quality
healthcare services to patients, all the members of the group should be aware of all the
happenings in the hospitals. They should also be open to learning new skills and expertise from
other members so that they don’t have to always call for help while handling certain conditions.

ADULT NURSING 6
References
Birks, M., Davis, J., Smithson, J., & Cant, R. (2016). Registered nurse scope of practice in
Australia: an integrative review of the literature. Contemporary nurse, 52(5), 522-543.
Manning, M. L., & Pogorzelska-Maziarz, M. (2018). Health care system leaders' perspectives on
infection preventionist and registered nurse engagement in antibiotic
stewardship. American journal of infection control, 46(5), 498-502.
Mijakoski, D., Karadzhinska-Bislimovska, J., Stoleski, S., Minov, J., Atanasovska, A., &
Bihorac, E. (2018). Job Demands, Burnout, and Teamwork in Healthcare Professionals
Working in a General Hospital that Was Analysed At Two Points in Time. Open access
Macedonian journal of medical sciences, 6(4), 723.
Omer, T. A., Suliman, W. A., & Moola, S. (2016). Roles and responsibilities of nurse preceptors:
Perception of preceptors and preceptees. Nurse education in practice, 16(1), 54-59.
Rebeiro, G., Evans, A., Edward, K. L., & Chapman, R. (2017). Registered nurse buddies:
Educators by proxy?. Nurse education today, 55, 1-4.
Rosen, M. A., DiazGranados, D., Dietz, A. S., Benishek, L. E., Thompson, D., Pronovost, P. J.,
& Weaver, S. J. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-
quality care. American Psychologist, 73(4), 433.
Rydenfält, C., Odenrick, P., & Larsson, P. A. (2017). Organizing for teamwork in healthcare: an
alternative to team training?. Journal of health organization and management.
Scaria, M. K. (2016). Role of care pathways in interprofessional teamwork. Nursing
Standard, 30(52).