Several Roles Played In Senior Nursing Care Columbia MD

| Friday, September 14, 2012
By Kerri Turner


When it comes to senior nursing care Columbia MD has a relatively large number of trained caregivers. However, like many cities in the United States, there is a shortage of these professionals. The demand for qualified caregivers has risen sharply due an increase in the number of people who need their services, particularly senior citizens.

The shortage looks set to stay because a large number of interested applicants are rejected, and qualified ones are leaving the profession in droves. The main cause of this exodus is a poor working environment; low pay, long working hours, unrealistic expectations, and stress are some of the major complaints. Various steps have been taken to solve some of these problems, but they have not been enough to stem the tide.

Nurses play a number of roles. The one most people are familiar with is as a caregiver, a source of comfort. Florence Nightingale was particularly famous for this, and she remains the role model as far as care giving is concerned. In this role, they provide direct, one to one care to patients. They also show sensitivity to a client's concerns, and make them feel like a person rather than a statistic. A person's emotional state has been proven to have an impact on the healing process.

They also play a role as teachers, opening people's minds to new forms of knowledge, which is particularly important in a field that constantly requires change. Change is based on a foundation of understanding, and this in turn is based on knowledge. Such understanding is what helps people adhere to doctors orders. These caregivers also break down information into easy to understand bits.

They also have to play the role of counselors, giving comfort and support to clients. They empower them emotionally by helping them understand some of the issues they are going through, and give them the knowledge to face these issues head on. They also build their client's capacity to relate with others, especially loved ones. These emotional connections can hasten healing.

They are definitely change agents. They bring change to their clients; adding knowledge, encouraging a change in habits, building their capacity to relate to others, building their confidence among other things. They also bring change in their environments. For instance, by educating communities, something that is extremely common such as when epidemics break out they encourage change on a larger scale.

As managers, they make decisions, coordinate activities, allocate resources and evaluate both personnel and the quality of service being given. Therefore, they plan, give directions, develop staff capacity, monitor operations, reward or punish staff, and represent staff and administrators whenever required.

A common adage says that knowledge is power. These professionals also participate in any endeavors to broaden human knowledge, sometimes coming up with research problems themselves. They also read up on such research as a way of staying current and broadening their knowledge base. This is critical if they are to serve patients and undertake their roles effectively. For those who need senior nursing care Columbia MD has a number of professionals. These may not be as many as should be, but they are better than nothing.




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