Running head: ROLE OF NURSES IN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM 1

Role of Nurses in Healthcare System

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Nurses play vital roles in the healthcare system as their work involves handling the lives of

many people. The works of nurses greatly affect the hospital’s overall performance quality

and patient safety. Nurses are not only the largest component of the hospital labor; they are

also among the front-liners whose main duties involve assessing patients’ needs and

diagnosing illnesses. Nurses are therefore an integral part of the comprehensive standards of

care and health promotion. (“What is the Nurse’s Role”, 2017).

Needleman and Hassmiller (2009) found that a recurring dilemma that nurses encounter is the

efforts of hospitals to control labor costs. This causes major impact on nurses in such a way

that it yields lower rates of entry into nurses’ workforce. In the long run, Needleman and

Hassmiller also stated that this could lead to a shortage of nurses. Another problem of nurses

is the fact that their work is often downplayed or belittled. Nurses are not given the same

esteem and importance in the same way as doctors. Needleman and Hassmiller attribute this

to the lack of understanding by the public and even policymakers as to what nurses really do.

People often forget that how well they are cared for by nurses affects their health, and

sometimes can be a matter of life or death. The effect of this is that although nurses have

substantial knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of hospital systems and how they fail,

their views and opinions are not given much attention.

In order to counter this predicament, nursing courses and programs should be proactive in

order to prepare nurses by incorporating courses and practical experiences related to health

promotion and education, theories to enhance health outcomes, and most importantly, the

development of leadership skills (“What is the Nurse’s Role”, 2017). Needleman and

Hassimer found that nurses need to be recruited to hospital and system boards and leadership

positions in national quality improvement organizations to increase the visibility and

participation of nursing leadership within hospitals. This is a critical factor in making and

sustaining change and for engaging nurses and other front-line staff.
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References

Needleman, J., & Hassmiller, S. (2009). The Role Of Nurses In Improving Hospital Quality

And Efficiency: Real-World Results. Health Affairs, 28(4), w625-w633. doi:

10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.w625Articles in Scholarly Journals

What Is the Nurse's Role in Health Promotion? | PNW Online. (2018). Retrieved from

https://nursingonline.pnw.edu/articles/nurses-role-in-health-promotion.aspx