Roles of a Nurse
Content
ROLES OF A NURSE
Qualifications: To carry on different roles of nurses, one must first have with them the basic
qualifications as to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
finish a bachelor’s degree in nursing;
pass the nursing licensure exam;
take the nurse’s oath;
acquire a professional nurse license; and
have with her moral integrity
Functions and Responsibilities
Only after such may a nurse be able to exercise her entitlements on various roles and to
function accordingly to uphold not only the patients’ well-being but the health care team’s betterment
as well. However, such require commitment and are naturally coupled with certain responsibilities.
Among these roles are:
1. Caregiver
Function: This role is basic to the nursing profession. As a caregiver, the nurse ensures the
provision of care whilst combining both art and science of nursing in meeting the
physical, emotional, intellectual, sociocultural, and spiritual needs of patients and
their families.
Responsibilities:
a) Works with the patients and families to promote health, prevent illness, restore health,
alleviate suffering and facilitate a dignified death.
b) Assesses the patients’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to be able to
mobilize all resources possible and maximize desired patient outcome.
c) Plans therapeutic interventions with the patients and evaluate such for any needed
revisions to attain optimum level of functioning.
d) Carries out doctors’ orders and question if any discrepancies arise.
2. Educator
Function: This role is vital for the prevention and promotion of health in both clinical and
community settings. The nurse extends her knowledge to patients and their significant
others to ensures continuity of care in their homes and to members of the community
to promote well-being in the most core units of the society. It may also involve
teaching in schools.
Responsibilities:
a) Imparts individualized health teaching plans to patients and their significant other to
meet specific learnings needs.
b) Informs the public of the basics in promoting health and preventing illness as well as the
utilization of appropriate technology and available resources in the community to uphold
widespread well-being in every home.
c) Educates student aspirants to become effective nurses of the society.
d) Employs continuing education to conceive on newer ideas feasible for research to
advance the standards of nursing practice and the quality of life along with that.
3.Leader
Function: This role unlike being a manager is not acquired through formal appointments nor
equated with one’s position in the institution’s organizational structure, rather, of the
nurse’s noble influence over the health care team, colleagues and others.
Responsibilities:
a) Practices the nursing profession with self-confidence, accuracy and assertiveness with or
without supervision.
b) Earn others’ respect and inspire them to do what is expected or even better through
conscientiously upholding ethical values and moral virtues.
c) Able to employ the element of change and innovativeness to warrant improved
efficiency and effectiveness within the team.
Reasons for Choosing
Besides the aforementioned, other roles such as advocate, counselor, manager and others are
also roles that nurse take on. However, I have chosen those three as I believe they encompass the
other roles and because of these following reasons:
1. Caregiver
It is the primary role of nurse and as such, this role must be most fundamental. In here,
one may be able to be in other roles so as to provide the needs of the patients. It is also
where the word tantamount to nursing is mostly effected, and that is to care.
2. Educator
Educating the public is very vital as it warrants continuity of care in the homes after the
patient is discharged from the hospital. It also puts emphasis on health promotion and disease
prevention to immobilize health problems from their root causes. Educating student aspirant on
the other hand, equips more and more people to eventually become great nurses and educating
oneself, ensures advancement and expands awareness for future developments in nursing.
3. Leader
Being a leader shows that anyone dedicated to nursing and to be of service to others,
regardless of position and formal appointments can very much inspire and influence people to
be better and to deal with things positively to mark significant changes in the field.
ADVANCE AREAS OF A NURSE
Qualifications: An advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) is a nurse with postgraduate education in nursing. APRNs are prepared with advanced didactic and clinical
education, knowledge, skills, and scope of practice in nursing.
1. Nurse Anesthetist
Function: This program is for registered nurses (RNs) who want to specialize in giving
anesthesia and caring for patients before, during, and after anesthesia. They study biochemistry,
physics, anatomy, and physiology. They also learn about medications, pain management, emergency
procedures, legal issues, and more
Responsibilities:
a) A certified registered nurse anesthetist cares for a patient before, during and after a
medical procedure or surgery .
b) by performing a patient assessment, preparing the patient for anesthesia, administering
and maintaining the anesthesia to ensure proper sedation and pain management,
overseeing patient recovery from anesthesia and caring for the patient's immediate postoperative needs.
c) who works in collaboration with anesthesiologists, surgeons and other physicians and
medical professionals to deliver anesthesia for medical and surgical procedures with
moral integrity .
d) self-competence, which involves the interrelationship between self-perception of
personal worth and efficacy
2. Nurse Practitioner
Functions: This program of a registered nurse who has acquired the knowledge base, decisionmaking skills, and clinical competencies for expanded practice beyond that of an RN, the
characteristics of which would be determined by the context in which he or she is credentialed
to practice.
Responsibilities:
a) Promote health, counseling and educating patients on health behaviors, self-care skills, and
treatment options in coordination with occupational therapists and other healthcare
providers
b) Providing care for patients in acute and critical care settings and long care facilities.
c) Requesting physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation treatments
d) Prescribing drugs for acute and chronic illness (extent of prescriptive authority varies by state
regulations)
e) Providing prenatal care and family planning services.
3. Nurse Midwife
Functions: As a primary healthcare provider for women and most often provide medical
care for relatively healthy women, whose birth is considered uncomplicated and not "high risk," as well
as their neonate.
Responsibilities:
a) provide medical care to women from puberty through menopause, including care for
their newborn (neonatology), antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum and nonsurgical gynecological care.
b) may also provide care to the male partner, in areas of sexually transmitted diseases and
reproductive health, of their female patients
c) work closely or in collaboration, with an Obstetrician & Gynecologist, who provides
consultation and/or assistance to patients who develop complications or have complex medical histories
or diseases.
Reasons for Choosing
Advanced practice registered nurses are filling unmet needs for primary care, especially in rural and
underserved areas. A large body of research shows they are as adept as physicians at providing primary
care.
1. Nurse Anesthetist
Qualifications: To carry on different roles of nurses, one must first have with them the basic
qualifications as to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
finish a bachelor’s degree in nursing;
pass the nursing licensure exam;
take the nurse’s oath;
acquire a professional nurse license; and
have with her moral integrity
Functions and Responsibilities
Only after such may a nurse be able to exercise her entitlements on various roles and to
function accordingly to uphold not only the patients’ well-being but the health care team’s betterment
as well. However, such require commitment and are naturally coupled with certain responsibilities.
Among these roles are:
1. Caregiver
Function: This role is basic to the nursing profession. As a caregiver, the nurse ensures the
provision of care whilst combining both art and science of nursing in meeting the
physical, emotional, intellectual, sociocultural, and spiritual needs of patients and
their families.
Responsibilities:
a) Works with the patients and families to promote health, prevent illness, restore health,
alleviate suffering and facilitate a dignified death.
b) Assesses the patients’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to be able to
mobilize all resources possible and maximize desired patient outcome.
c) Plans therapeutic interventions with the patients and evaluate such for any needed
revisions to attain optimum level of functioning.
d) Carries out doctors’ orders and question if any discrepancies arise.
2. Educator
Function: This role is vital for the prevention and promotion of health in both clinical and
community settings. The nurse extends her knowledge to patients and their significant
others to ensures continuity of care in their homes and to members of the community
to promote well-being in the most core units of the society. It may also involve
teaching in schools.
Responsibilities:
a) Imparts individualized health teaching plans to patients and their significant other to
meet specific learnings needs.
b) Informs the public of the basics in promoting health and preventing illness as well as the
utilization of appropriate technology and available resources in the community to uphold
widespread well-being in every home.
c) Educates student aspirants to become effective nurses of the society.
d) Employs continuing education to conceive on newer ideas feasible for research to
advance the standards of nursing practice and the quality of life along with that.
3.Leader
Function: This role unlike being a manager is not acquired through formal appointments nor
equated with one’s position in the institution’s organizational structure, rather, of the
nurse’s noble influence over the health care team, colleagues and others.
Responsibilities:
a) Practices the nursing profession with self-confidence, accuracy and assertiveness with or
without supervision.
b) Earn others’ respect and inspire them to do what is expected or even better through
conscientiously upholding ethical values and moral virtues.
c) Able to employ the element of change and innovativeness to warrant improved
efficiency and effectiveness within the team.
Reasons for Choosing
Besides the aforementioned, other roles such as advocate, counselor, manager and others are
also roles that nurse take on. However, I have chosen those three as I believe they encompass the
other roles and because of these following reasons:
1. Caregiver
It is the primary role of nurse and as such, this role must be most fundamental. In here,
one may be able to be in other roles so as to provide the needs of the patients. It is also
where the word tantamount to nursing is mostly effected, and that is to care.
2. Educator
Educating the public is very vital as it warrants continuity of care in the homes after the
patient is discharged from the hospital. It also puts emphasis on health promotion and disease
prevention to immobilize health problems from their root causes. Educating student aspirant on
the other hand, equips more and more people to eventually become great nurses and educating
oneself, ensures advancement and expands awareness for future developments in nursing.
3. Leader
Being a leader shows that anyone dedicated to nursing and to be of service to others,
regardless of position and formal appointments can very much inspire and influence people to
be better and to deal with things positively to mark significant changes in the field.
ADVANCE AREAS OF A NURSE
Qualifications: An advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) is a nurse with postgraduate education in nursing. APRNs are prepared with advanced didactic and clinical
education, knowledge, skills, and scope of practice in nursing.
1. Nurse Anesthetist
Function: This program is for registered nurses (RNs) who want to specialize in giving
anesthesia and caring for patients before, during, and after anesthesia. They study biochemistry,
physics, anatomy, and physiology. They also learn about medications, pain management, emergency
procedures, legal issues, and more
Responsibilities:
a) A certified registered nurse anesthetist cares for a patient before, during and after a
medical procedure or surgery .
b) by performing a patient assessment, preparing the patient for anesthesia, administering
and maintaining the anesthesia to ensure proper sedation and pain management,
overseeing patient recovery from anesthesia and caring for the patient's immediate postoperative needs.
c) who works in collaboration with anesthesiologists, surgeons and other physicians and
medical professionals to deliver anesthesia for medical and surgical procedures with
moral integrity .
d) self-competence, which involves the interrelationship between self-perception of
personal worth and efficacy
2. Nurse Practitioner
Functions: This program of a registered nurse who has acquired the knowledge base, decisionmaking skills, and clinical competencies for expanded practice beyond that of an RN, the
characteristics of which would be determined by the context in which he or she is credentialed
to practice.
Responsibilities:
a) Promote health, counseling and educating patients on health behaviors, self-care skills, and
treatment options in coordination with occupational therapists and other healthcare
providers
b) Providing care for patients in acute and critical care settings and long care facilities.
c) Requesting physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation treatments
d) Prescribing drugs for acute and chronic illness (extent of prescriptive authority varies by state
regulations)
e) Providing prenatal care and family planning services.
3. Nurse Midwife
Functions: As a primary healthcare provider for women and most often provide medical
care for relatively healthy women, whose birth is considered uncomplicated and not "high risk," as well
as their neonate.
Responsibilities:
a) provide medical care to women from puberty through menopause, including care for
their newborn (neonatology), antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum and nonsurgical gynecological care.
b) may also provide care to the male partner, in areas of sexually transmitted diseases and
reproductive health, of their female patients
c) work closely or in collaboration, with an Obstetrician & Gynecologist, who provides
consultation and/or assistance to patients who develop complications or have complex medical histories
or diseases.
Reasons for Choosing
Advanced practice registered nurses are filling unmet needs for primary care, especially in rural and
underserved areas. A large body of research shows they are as adept as physicians at providing primary
care.
1. Nurse Anesthetist
