Nursing remains one of the most popular healthcare roles for people to carve out a career in. This is easy to understand when you consider the competitive salaries these roles offer in addition to the job satisfaction they provide and the bright job outlook for nursing overall. The range of settings nurses can work in is also a draw for many and provides true variety to professionals in the sector.
Regardless of the setting you work in as a nurse, it is crucial to fully understand and practice duty of care to patients. This is especially true in acute care scenarios, which are some of the most popular for nurses to operate in. But what is acute care nursing and how does duty of care apply to it?
What is acute care nursing?
Before we consider duty of care in relation to acute care nursing, it is first worth discussing what acute care nursing is itself. This will help us to not only understand more about this type of patient care but is also useful to know if you are planning to move into this type of nursing yourself.
In simple terms, acute care nursing is for patients who are vulnerable to complications in terms of their condition. These patients are often physically unstable and require frequent monitoring. Acute care nursing can also refer to the kind of care patients need if they are technologically dependent on healthcare equipment to survive and may need urgent intervention from medical professionals.
It is essential to have the right qualifications behind you to be a successful nurse and programs such as the Rockhurst University online MSN AGACNP give nurses the key skills and evidence-based practices to excel within nursing. This flexible online course is ideal for those looking to move into acute care for older patients and includes a complimentary service to help you find the best clinical placements.
What is duty of care in acute care nursing?
Duty of care is a term that you may hear a lot in healthcare and is a key concept for nursing professionals to understand. When it comes to acute care nursing specifically, this term simply means that nurses in acute care settings have a duty to offer the very best care to patients, meet set healthcare standards and regulations for acute care and act in ways that protect patient safety. It involves putting the patient’s needs first, ensuring you cause no harm to them and act in a way that delivers the highest levels of care and best outcome.
Although fulfilling their duty of care is something all nurses must do, it can be especially crucial in acute care settings. This is because patients who require this type of treatment are usually very ill and failing to provide proper duty of care could be deadly.
In addition, these kinds of patients may not be able to speak for themselves due to their condition and be unable to let medical staff know what they would like to happen in terms of their care. For this reason, duty of care becomes crucial for acute care nurses, who must ensure their actions and decisions are appropriate and are in line with what they believe the patient would want.
What specific environments might acute care nurses use duty of care in?
If you like to keep up with the latest health news and tips, then you will soon come across the topic of acute care in health. But what specific environments might nurses in this niche work in?
In general terms, acute care nurse practitioners and other nursing professionals in this niche operate in the most complex care environments. This can include everything from end-of-life care to caring for someone with a terminal illness or helping those with serious mental health problems.
Although this is a brief overview of the various environments acute care nurses may operate in, it illustrates not only the type of people who need acute care but also why duty of care is such a key concept for these patients.
Why is duty of care so important in acute care settings?
Duty of care practices in acute care settings are incredibly important because they ensure patients receive the highest levels of care. When it comes to acute care nursing specifically, it means all nurses will perform to their very best when looking after patients and adhere to the latest nursing standards in terms of patient care. This helps to prevent corners from being cut in terms of the treatment patients receive and means any decisions made around care are based on what is best for the patient rather than what is easiest for staff or least costly for the healthcare facility.
Duty of care is also a key concept in acute care nursing because it ensures nurses in these settings behave ethically, morally and with the patients’ best interests at heart. This is essential for ensuring excellent patient outcomes and means patients are always treated with dignity.
Focusing on duty of care helps to ensure that acute care nurses can step in when they feel a decision made around a patient’s treatment is not in the patient’s best interests. This can help to avoid any mistakes being made, which can be very serious in acute settings.
Duty of care is key for best outcomes
The above sets out not only what duty of care is in acute care nursing but also why it is so important for people who work in this type of role specifically. By ensuring acute care nurses operate in the most ethical way while adhering to the latest standards and striving to deliver the best care possible, this concept enables acute care patients to experience better outcomes overall.
